Potanko: Pirates Must Find Mix Between Young Players, Competent Veterans (+)
Have you ever had that dream where you’re walking down the hall, and the door gets further and further away? The 2022 Pittsburgh Pirates fit that dream perfectly.
No matter how close you get to the door, the Pirates seem to respawn back to the beginning of the hall.
One of the biggest things that have been in the Pirates’ favor in a national light has been their farm system, and how “stacked” it is.
Admittedly, I believed that this Pirates’ farm system was one of the best and could take this team from the basement to the playoffs in a few years.
While this Pirates’ system has some notable names like Henry Davis, Quinn Priester, and a wild card like Endy Rodriguez, it still feels filled with question marks.
Take, for example, Davis, yes, he seems to have an advanced approach at the plate, but health has been a big question mark, never good for any player, particularly a catcher.
Priester looks to have developed a two-seam fastball which SHOULD play well in the majors, but yet again, we are left with a question mark.
What this long-winded explanation is trying to say is when general manager Ben Cherington says the Pirates are “close” to competing, it sounds a bit suspect.
So when is this team supposed to get better, or how will it get better?
“I don’t know because predicting human beings and their behavior is difficult,” said Cherington on his weekly radio show on 93.7 The Fan. “What I do know is this team can compete sooner than people think because of the number of position players and pitchers at the major league level down to Double-A who are much closer to being effective major league players.”
Cherington continued to stress that when a player is closer to the major league level, it means less improvement is necessary to turn from a interesting young prospect into a contributing major league player.
“Although the outcomes are really hard right now, it excites me about where we are right now,” said Cherington. “I believe many of those pitchers and position players that are close can be positive contributors at the major league level. Almost all of them still need to take a step forward which could range from a few months to a couple of years in some cases.”
Cherington continued to discuss that not all of those “close” players will pan out, but if you have enough of them, some will.
“It’s our job to make sure that more of them will pan out than not,” said Cherington. “When that happens, then results will start to show up.”
While the Pirates have interesting prospects close to the major league level, it still leaves a gaping hole of experienced major league talent.
Obviously, Cherington wants the Pirates’ main core to be made up of homegrown talent, but there has to be a point when you add better players than people like Yoshi Tsutsugo and Josh VanMeter.
This isn’t where I get on my soapbox and scream for Bob Nutting to spend hundreds of millions of dollars. Yet there has to be a compromise between young players and competent major league players that still results in a payroll that is reasonable for a small market team like the Pittsburgh Pirates.