Kovacevic: Holdovers be warned, a real 'competition' cavalry's coming

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Many moons ago, Bob Walk shared with me a theorem that there's no such thing as a spring surprise. That the Pirates' management types would always arrive in Florida with a firm feel for exactly which 25 players will find their way north. That the script would be followed no matter the served-up storyline, no matter the stats.

If, for example, the fifth starter was supposed to be Josh Fogg, it'd be Fogg and, along the way, poor Sean Lowe was just dragged along through the closing credits.

So, pardon me, please, if I've always covered through a cynical lens anything this time of year that's been cast as "competition."

Oh, sure, that's the term that's been pretty much at the forefront of all conversation at this particular camp. It's come from Bob Nutting, from Ben Cherington and, above all, Derek Shelton, who's both embraced and relayed the term -- and all related spirit -- to anyone who'll listen. They've beamed about it, actually, building it as a bona fide measure of progress since Cherington and Shelton were brought on three years ago.

Be sure it's resonated, too.

"All you have to do is look around here," Bryan Reynolds was telling me. "Look at all the guys we've added over the offseason, then at all the younger guys who are banging on the door now. It's something."

He's right. Heck, in Reynolds' outfield alone, now that Andrew McCutchen's back, there's essentially a single opening for one of:

• Jack Suwinski, who slugged 19 home runs in two-thirds of a rookie season and still has a far higher ceiling for productivity

• Ji Hwan Bae, my personal pick to click in large part because of a skill set that's a pristine match for Major League Baseball banning the shift, bringing back steals and other rule changes

• Connor Joe, a former first-round pick of the Pirates and free-agent signing from the Rockies who's got a similar skill set

• Travis Swaggerty, another former first-round pick who's impressed as much as anyone in the early going here

• Canaan Smith-Njigba, who might be the best overall athlete at any level

And that's to say nothing of Cal Mitchell and Ryan Vilade, both only 24, and both already having broken into the bigs. Or Tucupita Marcano, should he wind up in the outfield. Or, as long as I'm at it, whichever of the team's top two catching prospects, Henry Davis or Endy Rodriguez, might be tried out there at some stage.

That's a bunch of bodies for a solitary musical chair. And that, my friends, is competition. True to Walk's theorem, there still won't be a spring surprise -- Suwinski's earned his longer look, and he'll get it -- but that's a level of competition that'll span the coming season and strengthen the organization as a whole.

I asked Shelton, before the Pirates' 4-3 loss to the Phillies on this Saturday afternoon at BayCore Ballpark, if there's a different vibe this spring that's resulted from this scenario:

Good stuff, huh?

"I think there is a different vibe," he began. "One of the things we’ve talked about, clearly, was that there was a plan when we came in."

That was a reference to Cherington's broader-scope plan, one he laid out on the day he first met with Alex Stumpf and me at PNC Park in late 2019, to amass equal parts quality and quantity throughout the system, with a primary aim of achieving ... competition. He'd hoped to see prospects bumping into each other on the way up the ladder, pushing each other, maybe even enjoying some collective success along the way.

"Sometimes that plan doesn’t happen as rapidly as some people want," Shelton continued. "I don’t think anybody saw a global pandemic or some injuries we have. Sometimes you have to trade away from your major-league group to get to this group of players that we'll have not only this year but in the years to come. Then on top of it, there are guys you acquire through the draft and how you build them in. But yeah, definitely we’re deeper. I definitely think we have more competition, which is ultimately what Ben said when he got the job that we were gonna do."

I followed up in wondering if the current big-league guys maybe sense those footsteps at some positions.

"I think they'd better. Because we’ve been very transparent with it from the first meeting we had. There’s a lot of competition. We’ve talked with players who spent considerable time in the big leagues last year, that they’re now in competition for jobs. When you have this much depth, it breeds competition."

Shelton's as right as Walk was. This competition's not about who's on the charter to Cincinnati at month's end. It's about who'll come up in May, June or July -- health, performance and arbitration status willing -- and who'll become a brick in the foundation. And it might, if I'm being blunt, take longer than that. Not to pounce on small sample sizes, but there isn't a prospect here who's blowing anyone way, who appears as if they'll force management's hand. Not even the highest-ranked kids.

I mean, I love Luis Ortiz. Can't wait for him to zip across I-70 with that triple-digit heater in tow. And I feel no differently about Yerry De Los Santos and Jared Triolo, who did this superlative thing in this game, the second of his life that's ever spent

One might suggest it's just this franchise's luck that its second-best defensive player has the same natural position as its best, Ke'Bryan Hayes. But that's why Cherington and staff are sliding him about the diamond, because they're confident he can generate gems all over.

That's all fine. Let 'em keep fighting it out.

PIRATES

Bob Nutting and Ke'Bryan Hayes are part of a conversation Saturday afternoon in Clearwater, Fla.

• Hill's never been one shy to pipe up, and he had a bit to share about his first formal experience with the pitch clock, one that saw him charged with a violation in the second inning.

First, the violation and his visible response on the mound:

And then afterward ...

"I'm in favor of a faster game," he'd say at his stall when asked about the pitch clock, in general. "I'd be OK if it was part of a concerted effort like, ‘Hey, guys, pick up the pace.’ But putting guys’ careers in the way of a non-competitive action given a result is not the way to do it."

He'd add that he'd welcome seeing five additional seconds added. As well as seeing players vote on any adjustments.

"I think the extra five seconds would be a hard yes. I think it should also be some kind of consensus. How many people in the room ... let's take it to a vote. That's how I feel."

To reiterate from my Friday column from Sarasota: They'll all figure it out.

• Time of this game, by the way, was a glorious 2:25. All eight of the Pirates' games have been done in less than three hours.

• Garcia exited upon being absolutely rocked in the third, his only inning, for four runs on a walk and four hits, including a two-run blast by Alec Bohm. Only 12 of his 22 pitches were strikes.

• Masterful K by Hill, dropping down with this deadly slider to embarrass Garrett Stubbs in the second:

That was 68 mph on the gun, and it wasn't an outlier. Most pitchers will stick with the four-seam early in spring ball, but only 19 of Hill's 37 pitches were fastballs, to go with 10 curves, six sliders, a cutter and a change.

I asked if that's his norm:

"We got a fair amount of fastballs in," he'd reply. "There's work to do, but it was a good first outing."

• Hayes belted an RBI triple, Ji-Man Choi an RBI double, both to the base of the center field fence. I can't say enough good things about Hayes' torque here. Looks nothing like the 2022 version.

Here are the full highlights:

• Bob Nutting was on the road for this game. Reynolds wasn't. So it's not like Nutting's just tailing Reynolds around.

• JT Brubaker's second spring start will come Sunday against the Twins back in Bradenton. First pitch is 1:05 p.m. I'll have that coverage from LECOM Park, after which I'll fly home.

• Thanks for reading my baseball stuff. Always.