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Can Gift Ngoepe Figure Out His Offense to Get His Defense to the Majors?

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FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Pirates have a starting shortstop in Jordy Mercer. Beyond that, they have a lot of question marks at the position.

Mercer has been reliable throughout his major-league career, but the departure of last season’s primary backup Sean Rodriguez has left a hole that doesn’t appear to have been filled this offseason.

The team has plenty of options, but few of them seem to have the glove to keep up with the demands of the position for any length of time. Adam Frazier played shortstop in college and some as a pro, but has just two games of experience about the Double-A level. Phil Gosselin has eight games at the spot in his three-year MLB career. Alen Hanson was moved from shortstop to second base at Altoona two years ago.

“Jordy wants to play 162 games and if we let him, he probably will, but we’re probably going to push him to get an off day here and there, especially in that stretch [with a lot of games in May],” general manager Neal Huntington said. “We’ll need someone to go out there and man that position.”

The one player in the clubhouse that can definitely field the position is Gift Ngoepe. The 27-year-old South African showed of his range and slick glove skills against the Red Sox on Thursday, making a couple of exceptional plays in the field.

That is not new. Ngoepe has been known as one of the best defensive players in the entire Pirates’ system for several years now. What is new is what he’s doing with his bat. Ngoepe is hitting .405 this spring with a .963 OPS. That’s a huge departure from his .232 and .669 career minor-league numbers.

Spring Training statistics aren’t necessarily all that meaningful, but manager Clint Hurdle thinks that the fact that Ngoepe has combined some approach changes with hard work in the cage makes the results meaningful.

“He’s done things that other people that have seen him play longer have not seen him do before with consistency,” Hurdle said. “The mindset at the plate, the routine at the plate and the job done at the plate has lasted two weeks with pretty competitive pitching.”

Hurdle went on to say that the ability to be a consistent offensive threat is what will determine whether Ngoepe is a “player that gets called up when somebody gets hurt” or an MLB regular. Ngoepe is familiar with that idea.

“It all depends on my offense,” he said. “That’s what’s going to bring me to the big leagues and that’s what’s going to keep me in the big leagues. As long as I can produce some way and help the team as much as I can offensively, it will keep me the in the big leagues and may keep me the in big leagues for a long time.”

Ngoepe said that he’s trying to let the ball get deeper in the strike zone and working on identifying pitches out of the pitcher’s arm in order to get a better read on the ball. It’s been a work in progress, but he’s pleased with the results so far.

“I feel pretty good,” he said. “We’ve been working hard in the cage. The process of everything that we’ve done over there has now come over to the cage and we’re starting to see results.”

Huntington pointed out that Ngoepe’s spring numbers are even more impressive considering the fact that he’s only been a right-handed hitter for three years. He switch-hit before that, meaning that he hasn’t faced right-handed pitching as a right-handed hitter for very long.

“The interesting thing about Gift that we forget about is he’s a three-year-old right-handed hitter,” Huntington said. “He [made the switch] it a Double-A, which is not an easy level to all of the sudden decide you’re going to start facing a slider going away from you. There’s still optimism there, still room for growth, it’s just a matter of can we keep this approach locked in? Because if we can, he can be a very good player.”

“I’ll be ready for every opportunity they have for me,” Ngoepe said. “I’m going to take it with both hands and run with it. … I’m hoping that this continues throughout the season wherever I may be.”

It seems most likely that he’ll begin the season in Indianapolis. But with so little depth at shortstop, he’s only one injury away from significant playing time.

“We’ve had that conversation,” Hurdle said. “He would definitely be the guy we would look at in a long-term situation. … We would have no problem looking at him to be the answer.”

Mercer, meanwhile continues to prepare to play at or near a career high in innings in 2017. But he’s also invested in making sure whoever backs him up is prepared for the role.

“It’s a long season, and you don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said. “We’ve got plenty of choices in here. … I’m just trying to give a little insight positioning-wise, things to make their transition easier.”

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