BRADENTON, Fla. -- It's been a while since I heard the word "opportunity" around the Pirates. It was such a buzzword these past couple years with the club, but this winter, it was seldom spoken when brass was made available.
And it's something that I really didn't notice until Derek Shelton brought it up Wednesday at Pirate City after the Pirates had completed their first pitcher and catcher workouts.
"We’re going to have competition," Shelton said. "This is going to be a camp that we’ve talked about before, where we have opportunities for guys. We’ve kind of transitioned from opportunities to competition. I think in a lot of spots position player-wise, and definitely in our bullpen, there’s going to be a lot of competition."
To opine, for a moment, "opportunity" was a code word last year. It really meant they didn't have anyone for that position and they were going to throw whatever they have against the wall. Take second base, for example. The job was between Michael Chavis, Cole Tucker and Josh VanMeter. There was, um, well, an opportunity for one of them to become a major-league starter.
There's a competition for the second base job this year too, primarily between Rodolfo Castro, Ji Hwan Bae and Tucupita Marcano. That's a lot more interesting. We're not talking about players who were either acquired for next to nothing or about to hit the waiver wire. There are legitimate options at that position.
Maybe you think Castro is the best choice for the job because of his power. Maybe it's Bae because of his speed. Maybe it's Marcano for his ability to get the bat to the ball. If you're willing to wait a little bit midseason, this can expand to Jared Triolo -- who has a great glove -- Nick Gonzales -- the former first-round pick -- or Liover Peguero -- a recent top 100 player. That's a competitive position, not just for camp, but once the season gets underway. Nobody in that group is going to get 200 or 300 plate appearances just because there's no one else the Pirates can turn to. They have to earn their keep.
In the bullpen, I don't know how many people are guaranteed a spot outside of David Bednar, Jarlín Garcia and Colin Holderman. I would expect Chase De Jong and most likely Wil Crowe and Robert Stephenson, but what about Duane Underwood Jr.? Yerry De Los Santos? Yohan Ramirez, Dauri Moreta, Johan Oviedo, Jose Hernandez and Colin Selby? There are better pitchers in that group than some of the guys we've seen the Pirates break camp with these past few years, and they can't all make the team.
And how about the outfield? Jack Suwinski, Canaan Smith-Njigba, Travis Swaggerty, Cal Mitchell. I've talked about that group so often these last few years -- and that's not even counting newcomers like Ryan Vilade and Connor Joe -- and there's a chance only one or two of them starts the year in Cincinnati.
The opportunity isn't that there is an open spot and the team is willing to roll through 68 players over the course of the season to try to fill it. The opportunity is perform or you might get replaced, which is the sign of a much deeper roster. And that will probably change the evaluation process.
"It won’t just be based on what their batting average is or statistical things," Shelton explained. "It’s going to be on what we see, how much opportunity they get in terms of ground balls. That’s the one thing that can be challenging in spring training is you can play a guy at a position and he can never have a ball hit to him. We have to make sure that we’re evaluating on a full circle."
So yeah, take the competition talk over opportunity. It confirms there are still question marks, but it's a lot better of a position to be in.
• Speaking of looking better, Ke'Bryan Hayes has added 10-15 pounds this offseason, and it looks like every ounce of it was muscle.
He played with a hurt back all season because of a weight room injury last winter. That didn't scare him away from trying to bulk up this year.
"Going into the offseason, I learned a lot, even more about the hips and a lot of stuff I was doing in the weight room, making sure I was doing it in the correct way. When you’re younger, you can kind of get away with it a little bit because you’re going through that newbie phase and gaining your strength. This offseason, I didn’t really put a bar over my back. I was still able to accumulate my strength. I feel like my strength is there. I just learned a lot about my body and the weight room and a lot of the core and trunk stability.”
• Hayes is also short one piece of hardware this offseason.
Look, I'm not going to dive too deep into the defensive analytics of Hayes vs. Nolan Arenado. Hayes had a slight advantage, but not by much. The Gold Glove is still a popularity contest, even if defense is finally weighed into the decision.
But Hayes had a legitimate case for a Gold Glove but didn't win it. He didn't seem to mind all that much, though.
"All I can do is play to the best of my ability to help my team win games," he said. "I'm not really worried about individual award stuff. I want to get to the playoffs, eventually playing in a World Series; all that other stuff just comes with it."
Let's hand the ball off to the manager for how he felt.
"Disappointing. Frustrated," Shelton said. "I think he should have won it. I think if you look at some of the metrics, he led third basemen in that. I realize and respect that Nolan won it. He’s won it many years. He’s an elite third baseman. Probably one of the best I’ve ever watched. I thought in Key’s last year — and I’m always going to defend our own guy — it was a situation where he should have won it. Maybe I can start the campaign for the ’23 season now. He’s an elite defender. The things that we can prove in the game now prove that. The metrics prove that."
• I referred to Mike Burrows as a three-pitch pitcher recently. Not the case anymore. His big offseason project was to add a slider (well, slider-cutter), giving him another breaking ball to utilize, this time with a little more speed. It's a tool to help get righties out, which when paired with his improvement with the changeup these last few years against lefties, gives him a couple of offerings to fall back on if the fastball and curve aren't going to work.
He's looking forward to throwing it in a game and showing off what it can do. Really interesting development from one of the Pirates' top pitching prospects.
• Transaction news to close the day: The Pirates have signed left Kent Emanuel to a minor-league deal. His major-league salary (if he reaches) would be $735,000.
Emanuel, 30, recorded a 2.37 ERA over 49 1/3 innings and 10 starts for the Phillies' Class AAA affiliate last year. He should give the Pirates some minor-league depth and perhaps an option for their bullpen.
