I'm expecting it'll be a blast covering Paul Skenes' inaugural opening-day start today against the Marlins here at loanDepot Park, if only because, based on Miami's final lineup of spring training, these are the bats he'll likely face:
1. Xavier Edwards, SS 2. Derek Hill, CF 3. Matt Mervis, 1B 4. Jonah Bride, DH 5. Kyle Stowers, RF 6. Otto Lopez, 2B 7. Griffin Conine, LF 8. Nick Fortes, C 9. Graham Pauley, 3B
Yowza, huh?
Only name I recognize is Conine's and that's solely because his old man, Jeff Conine, was a fixture here for several years. For all I know about this player and all the rest, they might as well be working extra jobs adding mayonnaise at the end of a Subway assembly line.
Which is ... well, whatever.
Enjoy it while it's there.
Enjoy feasting on the Marlins, just as the Pirates did in opening 4-0 here a year ago.
Enjoy everything Skenes does against everyone everywhere, however long it lasts, and don't make me bring up why.
Enjoy baseball, my friends. With or without a salary cap, with or without a beloved/beleaguered franchise owner, with or without Jared Jones, with or without a first baseman ... it's still baseball. It's still the official opening of the Pittsburgh Baseball Club's 144th season. It's still a rite of spring. It's still a sign, to some, of hope. It's still, at least at the root, a cause to celebrate.
Offering up my annual three reasons to believe ... or not:
BELIEVE!
3. Desperation?
There can't be any spring thought more naive than presuming that Ben Cherington and/or Derek Shelton, the two men running the Pirates' baseball operations on and off the field, will feel pressure to do ... anything, really. That's not how they've rolled through a half-decade, and I have a hard time envisioning it now for that reason alone.
But I continue to hear that this'll be a make-or-break year for both, albeit to varying degrees, and one would think that'd change something, however small. And if it does, maybe there'll be more aggressive moves toward promoting peak performers from Indianapolis, or toward trading for help where needed, or even toward something as simple as not wasting roster spots, at-bats or innings on waiver claims and other experiments.
Urgency alone has to be worth a few wins, doesn't it?
2. Offensive ceiling
Don't laugh this off.
One odd characteristic of the Pirates' projected lineup is that, while it comes with justifiably low expectations, at least one-third of it, maybe more, comes with ceiling. As in, as-yet unrealized potential that also happens to be plausible.
Look, it's possible that Jack Suwinski's who he is in his mid-20s. Same for Ji Hwan Bae. But those were the two offensive standouts of the spring, and not just in terms of meaningless statistics. They stepped into the box with smarter approaches, made more solid contact, showed that their early career trajectories just might have more to extend. That's far from definitive, but it's encouraging.
Nick Gonzales, a No. 7 overall pick in his draft class, has more to give in this, his first full season as the (mostly) unquestioned starting second baseman. That's not a pipe dream.
I wouldn't even know where to begin in describing what Oneil Cruz still can do, and I won't insult anyone reading this by trying. Suffice it to say it'll be his first full season since the awful ankle injury, and he's free to just go play.
And ... is it fair to include Joey Bart in this category?
Feels like it ought to be. It'll be a first full season for him, too, in the bigs.
1. Paul Skenes
What else, right?
Think about this, if only for fun: Have the Pirates ever had a pitcher over those first 144 years who entered a season as the Cy Young favorite?
I'll spare everyone the research. It's a hard no.
The kid's special.
DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS
DON'T BELIEVE!
3. Desperation? ... Oh, please
It's just not in the DNA. It can't be created. It can't be coaxed. Competitiveness is either there or it isn't, and Cherington and Shelton have forever seemed stuck in a rebuilding time-warp in which nothing matters beyond ... repeat after me ... "getting better."
That doesn't mean dumping a hitter after a single sombrero. That doesn't mean dumping a reliever after his first blown save. And no, that doesn't mean going all Jim Leyland on the food table after the first tough loss.
But there has to be sense that stuff's different this summer. Or that it needs to be. And I can't sufficiently communicate here what level of transformation would be required for one or both of this GM and this manager to be the ones to instill that.
And without this, I'm not sure much else will matter. This ship's not about to pilot itself.
As long as I'm picking on the Miami lineup, here's the one I'm anticipating Shelton and Don Kelly will pin to the clubhouse bulletin board today:
1. Jack Suwinski, LF 2. Bryan Reynolds, RF 3. Oneil Cruz, CF 4. Joey Bart, C 5. Andrew McCutchen, DH 6. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B 7. Nick Gonzales, 2B 8. Jared Triolo, 1B 9. Isiah Kiner-Falefa, SS
If/when Spencer Horwitz and his wrist heal up, that'll add a platoon to first. If/when Endy Rodriguez learns first, maybe he'll see more time. If/when Henry Davis breaks through the mythical Class AAAA level, there'll be more height to the ceiling, if not more certainty.
That's a lot of if/whens. Not to mention far too many strikeouts and not nearly enough home runs, walks or dynamic baserunners.
I love what I've seen and heard from Matt Hague to date, but my goodness ...
1. Pitching depth?
Making an admission here: I had Nos. 1 and 2 on this little list flipped as recently as 48 hours ago. But Jones' injury casts the rotation, the towering strength of this roster, in a harsher light in that Skenes and Mitch Keller need to both dominate (not unreasonable), Bailey Falter and Andrew Heaney have to be more than serviceable lefties (not unreasonable), and ... Carmen Mlodzinski as fifth starter?
See what I mean?
And see why I wasn't wild about handing Luis Ortiz to Cleveland in exchange for a platoon first baseman even before the rest of us learned what Cherington already knew, that he had chronic wrist issue?
The bullpen showed more good than bad in Grapefruit ball, but I can take that whole ball of yarn, tug at one string by bringing up David Bednar, and it all comes undone. He was erratic from pitch to pitch, appearance to appearance, way too much like 2024, and Shelton couldn't even call him the team's closer by the time the buses rolled across Alligator Alley.
Who'll close if not Bednar?
Aroldis Chapman's long gone. Colin Holderman had a terrific month here, but he doesn't have a history with the role. Kyle Nicolas, who'd been touted as a candidate a year ago, was just demoted. Mlodzinski, another who'd been touted, now is a starter ... I think.
So, yeah ... play ball. And play it better than anyone has cause to expect.
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THE ASYLUM
Dejan Kovacevic
1:38 am - 03.27.2025MiamiDK: Reasons to believe (or not)
I'm expecting it'll be a blast covering Paul Skenes' inaugural opening-day start today against the Marlins here at loanDepot Park, if only because, based on Miami's final lineup of spring training, these are the bats he'll likely face:
1. Xavier Edwards, SS
2. Derek Hill, CF
3. Matt Mervis, 1B
4. Jonah Bride, DH
5. Kyle Stowers, RF
6. Otto Lopez, 2B
7. Griffin Conine, LF
8. Nick Fortes, C
9. Graham Pauley, 3B
Yowza, huh?
Only name I recognize is Conine's and that's solely because his old man, Jeff Conine, was a fixture here for several years. For all I know about this player and all the rest, they might as well be working extra jobs adding mayonnaise at the end of a Subway assembly line.
Which is ... well, whatever.
Enjoy it while it's there.
Enjoy feasting on the Marlins, just as the Pirates did in opening 4-0 here a year ago.
Enjoy everything Skenes does against everyone everywhere, however long it lasts, and don't make me bring up why.
Enjoy baseball, my friends. With or without a salary cap, with or without a beloved/beleaguered franchise owner, with or without Jared Jones, with or without a first baseman ... it's still baseball. It's still the official opening of the Pittsburgh Baseball Club's 144th season. It's still a rite of spring. It's still a sign, to some, of hope. It's still, at least at the root, a cause to celebrate.
Offering up my annual three reasons to believe ... or not:
BELIEVE!
3. Desperation?
There can't be any spring thought more naive than presuming that Ben Cherington and/or Derek Shelton, the two men running the Pirates' baseball operations on and off the field, will feel pressure to do ... anything, really. That's not how they've rolled through a half-decade, and I have a hard time envisioning it now for that reason alone.
But I continue to hear that this'll be a make-or-break year for both, albeit to varying degrees, and one would think that'd change something, however small. And if it does, maybe there'll be more aggressive moves toward promoting peak performers from Indianapolis, or toward trading for help where needed, or even toward something as simple as not wasting roster spots, at-bats or innings on waiver claims and other experiments.
Urgency alone has to be worth a few wins, doesn't it?
2. Offensive ceiling
Don't laugh this off.
One odd characteristic of the Pirates' projected lineup is that, while it comes with justifiably low expectations, at least one-third of it, maybe more, comes with ceiling. As in, as-yet unrealized potential that also happens to be plausible.
Look, it's possible that Jack Suwinski's who he is in his mid-20s. Same for Ji Hwan Bae. But those were the two offensive standouts of the spring, and not just in terms of meaningless statistics. They stepped into the box with smarter approaches, made more solid contact, showed that their early career trajectories just might have more to extend. That's far from definitive, but it's encouraging.
Nick Gonzales, a No. 7 overall pick in his draft class, has more to give in this, his first full season as the (mostly) unquestioned starting second baseman. That's not a pipe dream.
I wouldn't even know where to begin in describing what Oneil Cruz still can do, and I won't insult anyone reading this by trying. Suffice it to say it'll be his first full season since the awful ankle injury, and he's free to just go play.
And ... is it fair to include Joey Bart in this category?
Feels like it ought to be. It'll be a first full season for him, too, in the bigs.
1. Paul Skenes
What else, right?
Think about this, if only for fun: Have the Pirates ever had a pitcher over those first 144 years who entered a season as the Cy Young favorite?
I'll spare everyone the research. It's a hard no.
The kid's special.
DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS
DON'T BELIEVE!
3. Desperation? ... Oh, please
It's just not in the DNA. It can't be created. It can't be coaxed. Competitiveness is either there or it isn't, and Cherington and Shelton have forever seemed stuck in a rebuilding time-warp in which nothing matters beyond ... repeat after me ... "getting better."
That doesn't mean dumping a hitter after a single sombrero. That doesn't mean dumping a reliever after his first blown save. And no, that doesn't mean going all Jim Leyland on the food table after the first tough loss.
But there has to be sense that stuff's different this summer. Or that it needs to be. And I can't sufficiently communicate here what level of transformation would be required for one or both of this GM and this manager to be the ones to instill that.
And without this, I'm not sure much else will matter. This ship's not about to pilot itself.
2. No, seriously, who'll hit?
Not to be repetitive, but I just don't see it as a whole.
As long as I'm picking on the Miami lineup, here's the one I'm anticipating Shelton and Don Kelly will pin to the clubhouse bulletin board today:
1. Jack Suwinski, LF
2. Bryan Reynolds, RF
3. Oneil Cruz, CF
4. Joey Bart, C
5. Andrew McCutchen, DH
6. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
7. Nick Gonzales, 2B
8. Jared Triolo, 1B
9. Isiah Kiner-Falefa, SS
If/when Spencer Horwitz and his wrist heal up, that'll add a platoon to first. If/when Endy Rodriguez learns first, maybe he'll see more time. If/when Henry Davis breaks through the mythical Class AAAA level, there'll be more height to the ceiling, if not more certainty.
That's a lot of if/whens. Not to mention far too many strikeouts and not nearly enough home runs, walks or dynamic baserunners.
I love what I've seen and heard from Matt Hague to date, but my goodness ...
1. Pitching depth?
Making an admission here: I had Nos. 1 and 2 on this little list flipped as recently as 48 hours ago. But Jones' injury casts the rotation, the towering strength of this roster, in a harsher light in that Skenes and Mitch Keller need to both dominate (not unreasonable), Bailey Falter and Andrew Heaney have to be more than serviceable lefties (not unreasonable), and ... Carmen Mlodzinski as fifth starter?
See what I mean?
And see why I wasn't wild about handing Luis Ortiz to Cleveland in exchange for a platoon first baseman even before the rest of us learned what Cherington already knew, that he had chronic wrist issue?
The bullpen showed more good than bad in Grapefruit ball, but I can take that whole ball of yarn, tug at one string by bringing up David Bednar, and it all comes undone. He was erratic from pitch to pitch, appearance to appearance, way too much like 2024, and Shelton couldn't even call him the team's closer by the time the buses rolled across Alligator Alley.
Who'll close if not Bednar?
Aroldis Chapman's long gone. Colin Holderman had a terrific month here, but he doesn't have a history with the role. Kyle Nicolas, who'd been touted as a candidate a year ago, was just demoted. Mlodzinski, another who'd been touted, now is a starter ... I think.
So, yeah ... play ball. And play it better than anyone has cause to expect.
Want to participate in our comments?
Want an ad-free experience?
Become a member, and enjoy premium benefits! Make your voice heard on the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates, and hear right back from tens of thousands of fellow Pittsburgh sports fans worldwide! Plus, access all our premium content, including Dejan Kovacevic columns, Friday Insider, daily Live Qs with the staff, more! And yeah, that's right, no ads at all!
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