Kovacevic: These 2023 Pirates will make important, impressive strides

CINCINNATI -- "Hey, nice beep."

That means batting practice. This was Jack Suwinski passing Bryan Reynolds in the dugout with a bit of a plaudit on this sunsplashed Wednesday afternoon inside Great American Ball Park.

"One round," Reynolds replied to his bud. "One round, and then I forgot how to hit again."

My friends, I love Reynolds almost as much as I love baseball itself. Not that they're easily separated, anyway.

Beginning today, the Pittsburgh Baseball Club will embark on its 142nd season with a game against an opponent that once was known as the Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1869, making this a meeting of two of this grand old game's most venerable franchises, none older than the latter.

The first pitch Oneil Cruz sees from Hunter Greene will come at 4:10 p.m. The final pitch these Pirates will see ... I'm betting it'll be on the first of October against the Marlins, but I'm bad with predictions, so let's just leave that open-ended.

Heck, let's leave it all open-ended. 

Because the truth, like Reynolds' batting prowess, surely falls somewhere between a few of his swings bringing a bunch of sad bouncers to second ... to the reality that the round he'd just panned included a bomb he'd just launched toward one of the smokestacks high atop the right-field seats.

Once Reynolds was out of earshot, I mentioned this to Suwinski.

"Yeah, I know," Jack came back. "I saw it."

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For one, it's opening day in the only city where the citizens have a right to capitalize that term since it's the one city in which it's an official holiday -- businesses and schools are closed and a parade rolls through the center of town, a celebration like no other in professional sports -- and if hope can't spring eternal today, then when can it?

Literally or figuratively, bring a lawn chair and soak up the rays on what's expected to be another wonderful weather day:

And for another ... man, forgive me for this, but I kinda like this team.

(Ducks for cover.)

Uh-huh. The Pirates. For real. Even after back-to-back 100-loss seasons. Even though payroll will still fall miles short of the $100 million marker where I feel it should be, projected to add up this afternoon to a sliver over $75 million. Even though so, so much has to go so, so right for so, so many individuals.

And beyond that, maybe more important from my perspective, so, so much has to change about the general approach, the sense of a common goal, the enforcement that keeps that intact through tough stretches.

"Confidence," Wil Crowe would tell me before taking the field Wednesday for the team's annual pre-opener workout. "You're talking about confidence."

Well, yeah, I replied.

"That's here," he'd continue as if I hadn't spoken a syllable. "The confidence is here. The belief in ourselves, the belief in each other ... that's here."

Fine, but I reminded him he also was the one who had a whole lot of big talk in that regard after a late-May swing through San Diego last summer. To his credit, that was immediately followed with that stirring sweep of the Dodgers up in Los Angeles, but obviously not much more over the rest of 2022.

"Yep, you're right," he kept going. "And that's OK."

So, I tried again. I challenged him to share why he thought the Pirates' fans -- not the perpetual Bob Nutting-obsessed cynics, but those who are most eager to get behind them -- should buy that.

"I think they need to believe in us because of the process that we've gone through," he'd say this time. "From where we've been to where we are now, there's a different mindset, a different feel, a different vibe here."

Different.

Can't count how many times that word came up in conversations on this day.

When I'd mentioned to Cruz, in an unrelated talk earlier, how impressed I was in 2022 with how he kept his chin up through an often trying rookie year, both from the team's standpoint and his own, he responded with a glance around the room and this: "It's not just me now. It's everybody. It's different."

Different.

"There's no question it's different," Reynolds would essentially echo. "And you've gotta start with the talent, the veterans who were brought in to help us win and the younger guys who are getting to this level now. That's what stands out for me."

It should.

Andrew McCutchen's back. And for as much of an intangible punch as his return will pack, he also still happens to be a better ballplayer than those he'll be replacing. Ben Cherington also did well to ensure Carlos Santana and Ji-Man Choi will divvy up first base, a complete black hole in Derek Shelton's lineup a year ago. Both also arrive with impeccable leadership credentials from their previous stops in Seattle and St. Petersburg, respectively. Same goes for Rich Hill, the oldest active big-leaguer at 43. Dude's got a fastball that wouldn't penetrate a soaked paper towel, but he can still pitch ... with an emphasis on pitch. When he's clicking with the full arsenal, all those funky arm angles, as I saw in spring training, it's an old-school circus.

All of these are upgrades. All of them.

On the youth front, although the more electric prospects will start out in the minors -- Endy Rodriguez, Henry Davis, Quinn Priester, Mike Burrows, Termarr Johnson -- all but Johnson are at least in Indianapolis or Altoona now rather than light-years away. And no one inside or outside the organization would be surprised if any of those first four makes it to PNC Park. Especially Rodriguez, who's ... oh, just wait. Kid can hit unlike anyone I've seen in this system in quite some time. And he'll come with charisma to match.

Already in the fold, now official after this week, are Canaan Smith-Njigba, fresh off a .333/.407/.583 spring with three home runs, three doubles, 14 RBIs and sound outfield defense, as well as Ji-Hwan Bae, who was pretty much born to capitalize on Major League Baseball's shift ban, bigger bases, pitch clock and all that. Not to mention the first fully extended opportunities for the likes of Roansy Contreras, Johan Oviedo, Rodolfo Castro and -- lest we forget -- Suwinski's 19 home runs last year came in only 106 games at the top level.

Cruz sees himself in the same light, his 17 home runs and 54 RBIs coming in only 87 games. Like, half a season.

"It's only the start for me," as he'd tell me.

That's not to paint some pollyanna picture. I've got doubts about the bottom of the order, anchored in the worst way by a sub-.200 bat in defensive catching whiz Austin Hedges, about the bullpen from the middle innings right through to David Bednar having to show his back's healthy, and about a few other facets, as well.

I'm seeing 77 wins. That's it. That's 15 games better than a year ago, but it's also well shy of .500, never mind anything meaningful toward contention.

Want to see them top that? You know, the all-out pipe-dream, freak-show type of material?

Good luck fending off the baseball history gods, who can be a ruthless sort: In non-shortened seasons, the Pirates have improved by 20-plus wins year over year exactly twice, by 21 in 1948 and by 22 in 1958, never by more than 18 any other time. So a leap of 15 would be plenty impressive unto itself.

Internally, though, I'm quite comfortable sharing that the outlook's far more bubbly than that. Away from the cameras and microphones, they feel like they've really got something here. Maybe not right off the bat, but very soon.

I asked Shelton, after this workout, to share his excitement factor:

"Yeah, I'm very excited," he came back with a small laugh and, after a few words about leaving Florida, he added, "I think we have a team that's better. We have to execute. We still have a ton of youth here, which we're going to realize there are still going to be growing pains. But I really feel like we're moving in the right direction."

That direction being away from waiver-wire reclamations, away from on-the-spot development, away from holding one's breath for the next blow-up ... to winning.

____________________

No team sport's more humbling than baseball. As it's been told for a century and a half, it's the only one where a 70% failure rate makes one a virtual lock for the Hall of Fame.

There's a lot of that evident in this environment, too, not just the Reynolds example from above. The most compelling editions of the Pirates that I've been blessed to cover were built on players who had just that right mix of confidence, even cockiness, while never ceasing to at least try to improve. Even Cutch, who's keeping his nagging right elbow wrapped in heavy ice off the field, was showing palpable passion -- smiling, cringing -- though his own batting practices.

That's the formula. It's been that forever. This was how it unfolded just before the three consecutive playoff years in 2013-15. This was how the Fa-Ma-Lee was formed into 1979, with Dave Parker maturing into a superstar alongside a still-MVP Willie Stargell. This was how Steve Blass described the strut that Roberto Clemente and the 1971 team took in staring down the Orioles' phenomenal pitching staff. This was how Bill Mazeroski's described the late 1950s leading up to the greatest home run ever hit.

They kept getting better. They grew their belief in what they were doing. And that belief carried them to the next level.

So, who's ready to take on a ... 1958 ... or a 1970 ... or a 1978 ... or even the one-and-done heartbreaks of the past decade ... if it means having honest-to-Honus hope for what might follow?

As the 2022 season came to a close, Shelton texted every player on the roster what follows: “Go home, enjoy your family, but come back ready to win.”

Win?

Talk about different.

“I loved it," Crowe recalled of seeing that on his phone. "I think it’s something that we needed. I think it’s good for us as a whole, as a group. I think it’s going to bring out the best in us. The whole ‘let’s keep growing and rebuilding and getting better ... we’re no longer saying those things, right? We’re saying, ‘We’re going to go out every day and give it our f---ing best."

As for the aforementioned cynics?

"Hey, that's fine, too. People can feel how they want. When we're where we want to be in a couple months, everyone can go back and delete all their tweets or whatever."

So much for that 1958 parallel, I guess.

Or not. Beginning today, we'll find out if this is the next big strikeout or the next big stride forward. And it just might be fun, which would be the most different element of all.