Potanko: Pirates Are Making Questionable Decisions on Prospects (+)
Prospect placement is a tough business. It’s met with harsh criticism from both fans and sometimes players. The Pittsburgh Pirates are no different in this particular situation.
The Pirates had to make some tough decisions during spring training and placed some players at levels in the minors that may be a step down from where they belong.
Some names that come to mind are Liover Perguero, maybe Travis Swaggerty and for some people, Endy Rodriguez.
Peguero, early in spring, was sent to Double-A Altoona, Swaggerty was sent to Triple-A Indianapolis, and Rodriguez joined Swaggerty in Indy.
The one option I was ok with was Rodriguez, and I know this may be controversial to some, but he truly does need to work on his defensive side.
In 2022 you could still see the rawness behind the plate with passed balls, but the one thing Rodriguez had going for him was his pitcher chemistry and ability to call a game.
Some even say that Rodriguez’s ability to call a game is better than Henry Davis and I would have to agree with that assessment.
Peguero was a victim of overcrowding in the infield and was forced to start in Double-A in favor of players like Mark Mathias, Chris Owings, and Miguel Andujar.
I understand that you need to have depth in the minor leagues, but other than Mathias, I don’t get placing a guy like Owings or even Andujar over someone like Peguero.
Swaggerty may be more of a toss-up than the other two mentioned.
Swaggerty’s defensive ability in center field already makes him an everyday major leaguer, but the question marks pop up with his ability at the plate.
After his shoulder injury, Swaggerty started the ’22 season slow, but it seemed to a few other people and me that he was making hard contact on the ball.
Unfortunately, that hard contact would be right at somebody; think of it like the Ke’Bryan Hayes situation but with fewer launch angle issues.
During the ’22 season, we didn’t have access to statcast with the Triple-A games, but thankfully we did during spring training this year.
Finally, we could see that Swaggerty was indeed making hard contact, with several balls reaching over 100 mph, and he even hit three homers off major league pitching, one being to All-Star Zack Wheeler.
Well, Pirates general manager Ben Cherington spoke on 93.7 The Fan on the placement of prospects and, more specifically, the potential motivation of being placed in a league that may be a step below where they should be.
“We probably have players at just about every level that are a little disappointed about where they are starting,” said Cherington. “It’s easy for me to say that opening day is overrated in terms of where you are on the roster. It’s not about where you start but where you finish. On the other hand, of course, it means a lot; if you care about what you do and care about the game, it matters. So we can understand that guys are disappointed.”
The conversation then shifted to the competition and how the Pirates will “challenge” guys to earn their way up to the major league club.
“This shows that we are getting deeper and stronger as a team; it means that we’re going to challenge some guys to earn their way up, and we’re confident that that will happen. To be good and win as much as we want, we have to get well beyond players who are good enough to get to the major leagues. We need to get to the point where we have players good enough to stick, sustain and hold a regular role.”
Cherington continued.
“Creating that competition at the minor league level could be like iron on iron. Let’s get our minor league players as good as they possibly can be before we get them that major league call up so they are much better prepared to contribute to winning as soon as they are up here.”
I pulled a couple of things from those last two paragraphs of quotes.
The first thing is, if you’re going to get your guys as prepared as possible at the minor league level, why are you calling up guys like Jack Suwinski?
I’m not picking on Suwinski; I’m simply seeing a major flaw in his game against left-handed pitchers and a severe strikeout rate that is beyond concerning.
That flaw should’ve been fixed in Triple-A, just like the other flaws of the three prospects I aforementioned. I understand you need depth, but there has to be a limit.
It just seems like catering to some players and ignoring others.
The last thing I gathered was having players earn their way up to the majors. Which I guess is just an extension of what I just mentioned.
If you’re basing off spring training numbers and the potential of your prospects, then how did the Pirates end up with the outfield it did?
I get Bryan Reynolds and Canaan Smith-Njigba, but if you’re going to have Connor Joe and Jack Suwinski as your other options, then be prepared for potential bloated ERA numbers from the Pirates’ pitching staff.
If you move Reynolds to left field, that’s fine, but maybe have a more worthy replacement for the center field position other than Suwinski.
You can’t roll with a guy with around ten games of major league experience in center; you just can’t.
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