Mitch Keller has been front and center for one of the worst stretches in franchise history.
The Pirates have finished at least tied for last in the National League Central Division in each of his four years in the majors. The team will be picking first overall in the amateur draft for the second time in three years. They have lost at least 100 games the last two years.
Despite that recent history, between himself and the other players, there is an unquestioned sense of optimism for the 2023 season.
"It's awesome," Keller said about the Pirates' offseason at PNC Park Friday. "With Cutch [Andrew McCutchen] and the other signings that we made, it's just brought a buzz to the guys that are on the team. I know we're all texting each other. The word that's going around is 'win.' That's what we want to do. Winning is on the forefront of everyone's mind. That's all we're talking about. Whatever we're doing, it gets back to how does this help us win, and nothing else matters."
It has been a buzz-worthy offseason. McCutchen's return is not only a feel-good story, but one that helps the team now (and according to him, isn't just a one-year farewell tour). Austin Hedges was brought in to add some stability at catcher to go along with potentially elite defense. After getting historically bad production out of first base last year, they added veterans Ji-Man Choi and Carlos Santana, the latter of whom kicked off his introduction to the Pirates by dancing on the Zoom video.
"I'm just as excited as when Santana was dancing on the video," JT Brubaker told me last month. "It's his first day and he was bringing that type of energy? I'm more excited to see what he brings heading into the season."
On the pitching side, Jarlín García gives the Pirates a veteran left-hander out of the bullpen, something they have been without the past couple years. Rich Hill and Vince Velasquez were brought in to at depth to the rotation, which again, has been a rarity of late.
"It's something to really think about, and internally, gives you more competition," Oscar Marin told me earlier this month. "You have those guys, and now you have guys coming and you're getting more depth. It's a good feeling. Let's just say that."
Add those veterans to a young core that should graduate many of their top prospects to the majors, and the Pirates are in position to potentially take a step forward in 2023.
And it was because of that young core that either came up to the majors in 2022 or will this season that really facilitated the front office becoming more aggressive on the free agent market.
"It was time to add players," Derek Shelton said. "We had the opportunity, especially last year. We used what, 68 players? We had the opportunity, like we talked about all season long, to give our young players at-bats, give them innings. There’s nothing that can replicate major league experience. We were able to give our guys that last year. As we’ve talked about, the gap between Triple-A and the big leagues is probably the biggest it’s ever been. To be able to get those major league reps was important.
"But now it was time for the ’23 and ’24, ’25 and ’26 [teams] to add players. To not only worry about this year, but our future, because these guys are going to help us on the field, because they’re all still very good players. And they’re going to help us in our clubhouse, where now we’re to the point where some of these young guys are taking steps forward."
Shelton was right: The Pirates used 68 different players last year, one shy of the major-league record. It was spun as a way to give players opportunities. The reality was they simply didn't have the depth necessary to be competitive, so when a player was injured, like Roberto Pérez, or not performing, like Heath Hembree or Yoshi Tsutsugo, they would have no choice but to go to the waiver wire or to a lower-level prospect to fill the gap.
Talking at his end-of-season availability, Ben Cherington said avoiding that record and using a smaller pool of better players was aspirational. Adding more major-league free agents is a step toward doing that.
"We believe we’re better," Cherington said Thursday. "We went into the offseason looking to get deeper, stronger, build a lineup that had more options. That was deeper and we were eliminating as much as possible some of the empty spots in the lineup, just giving Shelty more options to build lineups out. We think we’ve done that. Never going to be satisfied. Still know we need players to step up and improve."
Of course the success of this team is going to come down to development and having the young players in the system succeed in the major leagues. That has always been the plan. But adding over $30 million in free agents at key positions, both in terms of production and veteran leadership in specific areas, is a way to supplement that.
It also creates more competition among those young players, which the team believes will yield a better club.
"I think we’re going to be better," Shelton said. "That’s the step forward we needed to make. Some of it came with the lumps we had to take by giving guys opportunities. Now, I think the thing that really stands out going into spring training — and one of the spring training messages — is there’s competition now. When you sign veteran players, you know they’re going to play. You know they’re going to be on the club. For the young guys who got this opportunity, now there’s competition. There are guys at those spots, then there’s competition amongst that young group, which I think is really important for us."
And those veterans weren't going to brought on if they didn't believe in the vision.
"We had conversations about, ‘OK, this is our group. This is where we feel like we need to move forward,’ " Shelton said. "The really cool thing about all the guys we added is they were really excited about our group. When we talked to Carlos, he started talking about our young players. When you talk to Cutch, the first thing that comes up is Oneil [Cruz]. You talk to Rich Hill, and he’s talking about Keller. You talk to Hedges, and he’s talking about our pitching group. The one thing about veteran players is they have the opportunity to go where they want to go. The exciting thing for us was the fact that these guys chose to come here. They chose to come here with things in mind like, ‘OK, we’re seeing how the culture’s been built, how you guys are building and the young players that you have.’ "
That's certainly a departure from 2020, when the only major-league free agent they signed was Jarrod Dyson, who admitted he only signed with the Pirates because there "ain't too much out there right now."
"I definitely think it’s a compliment to our group, to our baseball ops group and ultimately to Ben’s vision," Shelton said. "Ben said four years ago, ‘We’re going to do things a certain way. We’re going to do it to sustain.’ Again, that’s why these moves are not only important for ’23, but they’re important moving forward. Yes, we had guys sign early here. We had a guy who played here for a long time and wanted to come back here because of the things that he heard. One of the first things Cutch said to me was, ‘You guys have a good, young core.’ That’s exciting to me. He’s a guy who played in our division last year and saw us play. I think it is important, and I think it symbolizes or maybe even reflects what we’ve tried to do here and what we’ve tried to build."
This is going to be the fourth year of the Cherington and Shelton era. It's a year that needs to show some tangible improvement, not just in terms of developmental wins or implementing new ideas. In terms of win-loss record.
The first step of that is getting the team to buy in for the year ahead.
"We believe we’re deeper," Cherington said. "We believe we’re better. But the proof plays out on the field. Gotta go do it now and get to work."
