P2Daily: Piecing Together the Short-Term

After dithering around with deadenders for the first month or so of the season, the Pirates are finally starting to provide a bit of a look, just a bit, at some players who might actually be pieces of the puzzle going forward. Most notably, Jack Suwinski — an actual outfielder of all things — has played well enough to forestall any decision to send him back to the minors. In fact, going into the second game of the Cincinnati series, his 107 OPS+ and 0.7 bWAR both ranked fifth on the team among players with at least 15 plate appearances. Suwinski’s 49 plate appearances aren’t much to go on, but it beats Cole Tucker’s 15 OPS+.

In fact, the Pirates right now have something that resembles a real outfield. No more of that sandlot look, where you put the little kid who’s terrible at sports in right field. Bryan Reynolds is starting to come around and Ben Gamel’s been the team’s best hitter. I’d hold off celebrating too much on Gamel, though. He’s having a huge May (1.106 OPS, leaving aside the TOOTBLANery) after a terrible April (.629). This isn’t new. Last year he had one great month (July) and was a weak hitter the rest of the year. Still, he’s been legit and, considering what the Pirates have been getting out of their outfield in recent years, it’s great as long as it lasts.

It should be possible for the Pirates to put together a team in the short term that’s made up primarily of players who have a reasonable chance to be useful to them in the medium or long term. Not totally, because catcher as it stands now is hopeless, although the Pirates could certainly improve things a bit by replacing Andrew Knapp with anybody. With the pitchers, I’m going to save my comments for later. I’m going to assume that players keep playing more or less the way they are now, which of course won’t happen. And I’m not going to look at longer term matters, like Oneil Cruz. His bat coming around will dictate how things go for him, regardless of what else is happening with the team. Once he’s been hitting for long enough, he’ll be in there somewhere.

Things could actually come together reasonably well in the next few weeks. The Pirates should be getting two players back from the IL — Kevin Newman and Greg Allen — who at least have a non-zero chance of contributing in the medium term. Newman was hitting well when he got hurt and, with Tucker gone, is the only legitimate shortstop available for now. Allen had a good spring and deserves at least something of a shot before more outfield prospects arrive. He’d give them four actual, honest-to-goodness outfielders, as well as a center field backup, which they currently lack. I don’t have high hopes for Newman or Allen, but they might have something to add, which can’t be said about . . . .

Well, for this to work, the Pirates have to be willing to dispense with some tenured veterans when the injured guys return. And to resist the impulse to send younger guys back for “more seasoning,” which is one of the emptiest, most meaningless phrases in baseball. The most obvious choice is Josh VanMeter. In the minds of certain elements of the local media, his one good day against the Dodgers somehow turned him into an All-Star. In the real world, though, VanMeter has a terrible 66 OPS+, which doesn’t differ much from his career figure of 74.

The other players the Pirates need to be willing to part ways with are Yoshi Tsutsugo and, when he’s off the IL, Jake Marisnick. Tsutsugo has a .553 OPS and is a liability in the field. It’s looking more and more like his good month or so last year was a fluke, and that the Rays and Dodgers had the right idea. Unless he starts to hit yesterday, it makes no sense to stumble along with him the way they did with Gregory Polanco, especially considering that he’ll be a free agent after the season. Hopefully, they won’t delude themselves into thinking somebody will take a little bit of Tsutsugo’s salary off their hands, the way they did with Polanco. Marisnick has impressed people with his defensive play, but he’s an outfielder with a 17 OPS+. Only a team that’s perfectly OK with endless failure could find that acceptable, especially not for an outfielder.

In the infield, that would leave the Pirates with Ke’Bryan Hayes, Newman, Diego Castillo, Rodolfo Castro and Michael Chavis. First base shouldn’t be a problem. Daniel Vogelbach should never play there, but Chavis seems decent at the position. Gamel could also get time there. His experience is limited to 11 innings, but for a team willing to play Tsutsugo, why would that be a problem? Castillo has struggled lately and Castro might, but if the Pirates decide either or both needs to go to AAA, they could bring up Hoy Park and/or Tucupita Marcano. I’m not wild about Park and not a fan at all of Marcano, but they’re on the 40-man roster and now is the time to see whether they have any value going forward. And Ji-Hwan Bae should also be a possibility.

With those infielders and an outfield of Reynolds, Gamel, Suwinski and Allen, the Pirates would actually have a group of position players, apart from the disaster the front office has created at catcher, who’d be worth watching at least in the short term. Eventually, maybe very soon, they’re going to have to give Cal Mitchell a chance. Somebody might struggle or they could just limit themselves to 13 pitchers, even though that would create work for the manager. This wouldn’t be a good team by any means, but there’d be some purpose in all of them, other than the catchers, being there.