One Area of Strength for Pirates Heading Into 2024 Season (+)
With less than a month until spring training commences and the Pittsburgh Pirates head to Bradenton, their roster is still not yet a finished product.
The club remains on the hunt for another addition to their starting rotation, even after trading for Marco Gonzales and signing fellow left-hander Martín Pérez to a one-year contract.
General manager Ben Cherington has stated that the Pirates are still exploring adding to their position player mix before the offseason comes to a close.
One area of the roster that looks more or less complete is the bullpen. The Pirates could add another reliever into the mix — more likely a non-roster invitee — but the back-end of the bullpen looks set in stone.
In fact, a spot or two remain up for grabs, but the majority of the Pirates’ bullpen looks to be settled, barring any injuries. Judging off of the main arms projected to be on the opening day roster, the bullpen looks poised to be a strength for the Pirates next season.
Coming off of a year in which the club improved by 14 games, having an effective bullpen bodes well as Pittsburgh looks to make a further jump into the postseason next year.
“The teams that I’ve been on, I’ve been to the playoffs twice, and the backbone of both those teams was the bullpen,” reliever Ryan Borucki said at PiratesFest. “In playoff baseball, starters only go three or four innings then it’s bullpen games. It’s one of those things where you gotta have your core guys but then the depth behind it when guys go down because it’s a long season, guys are gonna go down. It’s the nature of the game. But I think it’s really gonna be a really big strength for this team, that bullpen.”
Borucki served as a pleasant surprise for the Pirates last season, and he’s a big reason as to why the bullpen looks much more capable heading into next season.
The 29-year-old is the primary left-handed option after he was signed to minor league deal last year. He went a spotless 4-0 in his first season in the black and gold and posted a healthy 2.45 ERA across 38 appearances.
After he was signed, Borucki began his Pirates’ career in the minor leagues. He was able to see the current mix of relievers both in the minor leagues and in the majors, and he feels the group is more than capable.
“We can be a really, really big strength to this team,” he said. “Obviously we got David (Bednar) as our horse and just the guys that filled in last year, all the young guys…I feel like we are so deep when it comes to relief pitching. It’s really gonna be like it was last year. If someone goes down, it’s gonna be next man up and they’re ready to go which is such a strength to a team.”
With Bednar (2.00 ERA in 2023), Borucki (2.45), Colin Holderman (3.86) and Carmen Mlodzinski (2.25) expected to be the high-leverage options, manager Derek Shelton should have confidence in shortening games when necessary.
To go along with that quartet, Dauri Moreta had a strong first season with Pittsburgh and Jose Hernandez showed flashes at times in his debut season. Rookies Kyle Nicolas and Colin Selby have interesting pitch mixes, and the Pirates are hoping to see more consistency after getting their feet wet in the big leagues.
On paper, there’s plenty to like with the current group in place.
“As a group, as a whole, we have a lot of guys coming back. It’s a tight-knit group, and that’s one of the things that makes us good,” said Bednar, the Pirates’ two-time All-Star closer. “Everybody is pulling for each other. That’s one of the big things about it. As a group, we’re excited to get back to spring training and work to continue to get better.”
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