Pirates Q&A: Holderman’s Struggles, When Will They Finally Win?
The Pittsburgh Pirates are back in Pittsburgh after a 3-3 road trip in California.
The Pirates won two of three against the Los Angeles Angels and won the first game of a weekend series with the Dodgers before dropping the final two games.
With their latest stretch, the Pirates have an 11-18 record and are still in last place in the National League Central.
Plenty to dive into this week. Let’s get to your questions.
When will the Pirates cut ties with the weak hitting Jared Triolo and Jack Suwinski? – Corky Miller
The Pirates finally decided to option Suwinski to Triple-A Indianapolis after a horrid start to the season. Prior to getting sent down, Suwinski hit just .128 with a .398 OPS and struck out in 42% of his plate appearances.
After leading the team in home runs and OPS in 2023, Suwinski has slashed .175/.262/.301 with nine home runs in 104 games. That’s a large enough sample to seriously question if he’ll ever get a shot to be an impact player again.
Triolo, meanwhile, has a .171/.216/.229 batting line in 16 games played. I’m assuming the Pirates will be more patient with him, at least until Spencer Horwitz and/or Nick Gonzales return, given what he provided defensively. Right or wrong, the Pirates seem to feel his glove makes up for an inadequate bat.
Why is Shelton still our manager?!?! – Lew Bosco
I’m still not in the camp of thinking Derek Shelton is the biggest reason for the Pirates’ faults, but he still deserves some of the blame. His decision to bring in Colin Holderman when he did on Saturday night was head-scratching.
Shelton remains the man in charge for now, but his seat is getting warmer with each loss. If the Pirates continue to slip further below .500, it’s nearly impossible to envision him returning next season — if he even makes it that far.
Will the Pirates finally get rid of Holderman? – Jason Williams
Speaking of Holderman…
The Pirates recently reinstated Holderman from the injured list and he’s made two appearances since — one good and one bad.
Holderman took the loss on Saturday and was charged with three earned runs without recording an out on Saturday night. But on Sunday, Holderman entered the game with the bases loaded and two outs in the sixth and prevented the Dodgers from building onto their lead. He then threw a scoreless seventh inning.
There’s no doubt about it — Holderman needs to get back on track. He’s done enough during his time with the Pirates — including finishing last season with a 3.16 ERA — where he’s earned a little bit of a longer leash. But if his struggles continue, the Pirates will be forced to make a hard decision.
Can the City of Pittsburgh MLB or the state of PA do anything to force Nutting to sell the team? – David Stover
The short answer is no, given something unprecedented happening.
The only real action Pirates’ fans can hope for is the players’ association threatening a grievance like they did to the A’s, which certainly spurred some activity this offseason. Frankly, I’m surprised they haven’t done so yet to the Pirates, to be quite honest.
But ultimately, the only person that can force a sale of the team is Nutting, and there’s no reason to believe he’s considering that.
Will the people of the tri-state ever see another competitive team or World Series Title in this lifetime??? – Mike Bowman
The optimist in me says yes, because eventually, they should be able to build a competitive team. They have one of, if not the best starting pitchers in baseball in Paul Skenes and a potential difference-maker in Oneil Cruz.
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