Joe maintains positive mindset amid recent slump: ‘You just keep plugging’

DENVER -- When the Pirates acquired Connor Joe from the Rockies in December 2022, Derek Shelton remembers having folks from the organization rave to him about Joe's stability in terms of his mindset and the way he goes about his business and approaches the game. 

The stability Joe possesses, in addition to the positivity he maintains in the face of adversity, has carried over to his time with the Pirates. He's enjoyed success over his last year and a half back with the team that originally drafted him in 2014, but there have also been stretches where he's gone cold at the plate. 

Joe is currently entrenched in one of those latter portions of the season, as he's produced less-than-desirable results with a .167 average (7 for 42) and a .581 OPS in the month of June. Joe, who is still managing to make solid contact on a frequent basis, has ultimately served as one of the Pirates' most reliable offensive contributors through the first few months of the season and continues to rely on a positive mindset in the midst of this challenging stretch. 

“It’s part of a baseball season, it’s part of why what we do is so special and unique," Joe told me prior to Saturday's game in Denver. "It’s not just a sprint, it’s a marathon, and it’s what makes the good players really good. It’s something I’ve dealt with before and learned to get through. You just keep plugging." 

Joe, who is hitting .256 with a .754 OPS along with seven home runs and 28 RBIs in 62 games this season, said it's easy to get beat up by a couple of games, a bad series or a bad week. But there's no use in dwelling on the struggles. 

"I think the good players, talking to guys, just don’t let the bad weeks become bad months," Joe said. "You keep plugging, you work hard. Me and (Andy) Haines were out there (Saturday) hitting early on the field, diving into video and stuff like that. I’ve hit a lot of balls hard, too, and you’ve got to recognize that, like if you hit a ball a couple feet to the right or left, then we’re not even having this conversation. Yeah, you want to work things out, but you also have to take a step back and not over-swing or swing into oblivion. You just realize you get so many opportunities and, yes, we want to produce every day and we want to post every day as baseball players and competitors, and help the team win, but bottom line is you’ve just got to keep plugging, and that’s what I’m doing."

Even if his recent offensive results haven't been ideal, Joe is still focused on impacting a game in one way or another. The best example of this came in the first game of this current series in Colorado. With runners on second and third and nobody out in the fifth inning Friday, Brenton Doyle lifted a fly ball out to Joe in right field. He camped under it, made the catch and delivered a strong throw to the plate. Henry Davis made the tag on Adael Amador and completed the double play to preserve a 1-0 lead: 

"It's really cool to make plays on defense, but like one that directly affects a run, that's really cool," Joe said. "You know in Colorado a one-run lead is nothing, a four-run lead is nothing. The way that game was going, it kind of seemed like it was going to be a close game with the way Feltner was pitching and the way Louie was pitching. In the moment it was really cool to stop the run and get momentum back on our side." 

Joe undoubtedly wants to be contributing at a high level at the plate every night. That's why he continues to stay positive and work to get better. But he takes the same amount of pride in being able to hold a runner from scoring as he does from driving in a run or scoring himself. Either way, he's doing his part. 

“You have to find other ways to help the team win, whether it’s defense and preventing a run," Joe said. "Just contributing to the team when you’re not contributing offensively like I want to be.”