Potanko: Does the Pirates Front Office Have a Game Plan? (+)
Preparation needs to be the Pittsburgh Pirates’ biggest noun in their vocabulary heading into the 2023 offseason.
The Pirates were woefully unprepared for the 2022 season. When the biggest acquisition you make is Jose Quintana, or arguably Daniel Vogelbach, there are some issues.
With the departure of Quintana and Vogelbach, the Pirates are clinging and grasping to any player with a pulse to make it through another likely 100-loss season.
Before we go any further, this is not speaking ill of the players; we all know they are doing something that many would kill and that’s to play in the major leagues.
The criticism should go to the Pittsburgh Pirates front office for continuously putting players in a position to fail. In a perfect world, Jack Suwinski wouldn’t have been in the majors, Tucupita Marcano would be fixing his swing mechanics, and Roansy Contreras probably wouldn’t have been in the majors until June.
As we all know, this isn’t a perfect world, and the Pirates’ roster now has waiver claim fever with no cure in sight.
“Every good team has players that come from all sorts of places,” general manager Ben Cherington said. “We expect to develop the core of this team by acquiring players through the draft, trades, or developing young players to the big leagues. We can’t leave any stone unturned.”
In terms of the waiver claims.
“There are times we will hit on a (waiver claim) and in some cases, they will serve a need for now,” said Cherington. “It’s a case-by-case basis, but I can’t think of a good team that is made up of just homegrown players.”
So what would a competitive team look like if the Pirates ever got there?
“Over time, we will acquire players from waivers, and they will help us win games,” said Cherington. “Some of them have already helped us win games. Obviously, we expect the bigger part of the core to be the players that are here and in the farm system.”
We can all agree that 2022 was expected to be a really bad season, but progress still needed to be shown. From here, things look the same as 2021.
The one thing the Pirates have done differently in 2022 has been the influx of semi-interesting prospect call-ups like Marcano, Suwinski, Cal Mitchell, Rodolfo Castro, and Yerry De Los Santos.
Other than Castro and De Los Santos, one could argue that the rest were not ready for the big leagues, and it could slow or halt their development; Cherington says otherwise.
“Every one of them is benefiting from this experience, and (calling them up) is something that we need to do,” Cherington said. “If we think that a younger player can benefit from major league experience, we are willing to do that even if they are going to have some struggles.”
Cherington continued to discuss that they try to find the right spots to call up these young players but will never hesitate to give them an opportunity.
Even after listening and decoding the language of the Pittsburgh Pirates general manager, we are left with more questions than answers as the 2022 season nears its conclusion. One thing is for sure if the Pirates want to improve in 2023.
You can’t just throw things at a wall and see what sticks like the Pirates have done time and time again during this painful season.