MILWAUKEE -- For the decade-plus Neal Huntington's presided over the Pirates' baseball operations, he's moved prospects through the system gradually, then promoted them to Pittsburgh only when management's deemed them ready. Only very rarely have they been rushed based on need.
I've regularly criticized this team's drafting and developing but never that specific component. It's a common-sense approach that prioritizes the player over the game being played that night at PNC Park.
So, when Huntington met with the reporters covering this trip Sunday afternoon at Miller Park, I felt compelled to ask, now that Cole Tucker's been optioned back to Class AAA Indianapolis after mixed results, how he felt about Tucker's experience.
"His ability to fight back to almost .200 on his way out the door speaks volumes about this young man," Huntington replied, referring to Tucker's 7-for-12 finish to raise his slash line to .196/.244/.321. "And that was where we felt, if there was a young man who could handle it, Bryan Reynolds was one, and Cole Tucker was another. Because they were both clearly rushed. It's worked out really well for Bryan."
Just a bit. Reynolds has been among baseball's best hitters, rookie or otherwise, at .348/.403/.553 with five home runs and 20 RBIs.
"For Cole, he ... survived," Huntington continued. "He played really good defense but survived offensively. And when you have holes, major-leaguers find them quickly. We joked with Cole, 'You know, they found your holes in five games.' And he joked back, 'It was five at-bats.' So he's going down to refine his approach and, when he comes back, he'll be better for it. But we felt both of these young men had the intelligence and maturity to handle a major-league struggle if it were to come their way. Not all players have that."
Turning visibly more serious, Huntington added, "Sitting with Cole yesterday was really hard, to send him out, because you love the young man and what he's going to do. But it just felt like it was the absolute right move right now, to get him to go play regularly and close up those holes."
Reynolds is still here, of course. So I then mentioned to Huntington that a cynic might suggest Reynolds is blowing up any hope of the Pirates preventing him from gaining Super-2 arbitration status. That's a complicated process, but it can be condensed to this: A player with three full years of major-league service time can be eligible to start their arbitration clocks a year early. That costs a team more money in the third year. Almost all teams, even the biggest spenders, maneuver to avoid that.
I asked Huntington if Reynolds is leaving the Pirates no choice: "Yeah. And we brought up both of those guys knowing full well they might be Super-2 in three years. And we're fine with that. So yes, if Bryan Reynolds continues to play the way he's played, we'll be more than happy to pay him a lot of money in three years when he's arbitration-eligible. That's a part of the game, and you love that part. He's helping us compete. He's helping us hang in this thing despite some tremendous adversity and self-created challenges at times."
Huntington somewhat defiantly added that he felt the Pirates can get unfairly labeled regarding Super-2.
"There's no doubt we knew when we brought him up he could be a Super-2," Huntington said of Reynolds, "just like Austin Meadows a year ago and Nick Kingham a year ago. We've put ourselves in a position to have guys be Super-2. It's not something that we won't do or don't do. That's probably a little overblown from some prior years. I'd even say that some guys who we took criticism for not bringing them up, we then took criticism for bringing them up too early."
Much more from Huntington's session:
• On whether he might be open to trading an outfielder, now that he's got five who can play regularly: "We like all five. But we’re always open to opportunities to make this club better. If something makes sense, then we’ll certainly explore it."
• On how he'll try to trade Kingham during his DFA period: "History tells us that a guy with some pedigree, these guys tend to get traded. We feel like we’ll be able to get something in return for him. If not, then we’ll have to go through the outright waiver process. We may lose him. We knew that going in to the decision. Just felt like an out-of-options guy that’s struggled hamstrings your club a little bit."
• On what went wrong with Kingham: "It’s a combination of different things, and certainly not effort. Nick worked hard to be the best he could be. After that magnificent debut from a year ago, it’s been a struggle off and on, more off than on, unfortunately. If he's able to clear waivers, we’re going to go back to work to get him to become the best Nick Kingham he can be."
• On whether he did enough to prepare this roster, given all the injuries: “You always prepare for injuries, and you feel like you have depth and you feel like you have numbers and you feel like the guys that you have are going to come up and do well. We’ve had a large number of guys not do well when they’ve been brought up. We’ve had to force-feed some guys into roles that maybe they’re not ready for. That’s on me, and it’s on us that we didn’t have enough depth or we didn’t properly evaluate our depth. Now, how do we move forward? It’d be nice to get some guys healthy. That would help. Get Trevor Williams back. Bring up a young prospect like Keller when he’s ready. Get a Chris Stratton back. Now you start to move guys back into roles where they’re more comfortable. Get Keone Kela healthy at some point here down the road. But we continue to look externally to see if there are some available options. The asks are really high right now on very marginal upgrades and/or there are very few marginal upgrades available.”
• On his estimate that six losses have accounted for the Pirates' minus-70 run differential: "We’ve had number of games where we were trailing, 4-2, our starter gets knocked out in the fifth inning and we go to our middle relievers, and the next thing you know, it’s 9-2 and the ballgame is over. On the one hand, those are brutal and they’re painful. On the other hand, our run differential is pretty misrepresentative of how we’ve been in some cases. As we get guys healthy and as we get better, there are some things we can do on the positive side.”
• On whether Mitch Keller will be brought back up to fill the rotation's next TBA slot Wednesday in Atlanta: "He’s certainly in the conversation for us as we go forward. And ideally the next time he comes up, he doesn’t go back. Are we to that point yet? That becomes the question."
• On Keller's 13 strikeouts Friday night in Toledo, Ohio: "Really impressive. The best part of the night might have been (catcher) Christian Kelly’s trip to the mound after he loaded the bases with nobody out in the first inning. Then he went on to strike out the side. It was a single, walk, walk to open the game. Need to make sure we don’t do that his next start up here. Certainly showed the dominant ability and the reasons why we’re excited about him."
• On Francisco Cervelli's status, as he's still on the concussion list and not on the trip: "In rest period right now. Not traveling with the team. Taking the time to try to get as healthy as he can. We're in that gray area where he wants to play, but at the same time, we need to take every precaution we can to put him into a position to be successful."
• On whether Cervelli might join the team at any point on this 10-game trip: "Obviously, we're staying engaged with him, but probably not. We'll probably give him the rest of this trip and reassess when we get back off the road."