SAN DIEGO -- Upon arriving here at Major League Baseball's Winter Meetings, Ben Cherington admitted the Pirates' front office is still getting to know each other, mostly due to his late hiring.
But there is someone in the room that has been there even less than he, or even new manager Derek Shelton, has: Steve Sanders.
Sanders was hired from the Blue Jays to be an assistant general manager on Dec. 2, meaning he had less than a week to prepare for the Winter Meetings with his new club.
"It's been a whirlwind just trying to figure out which way is up from down, but at the same time try to make it a productive week," Sanders said Wednesday on Day 3 of the Meetings. "Obviously there's a lot to do, and we've been chipping away."
Cherington quickly identified Sanders as someone he wanted in his front office when he got the Pirates job.
"We all have people that we admire and respect and feel good working with. He's been someone, among others, I've enjoyed working with, back to the years in Boston and Toronto," Cherington said. "I think he's got a really good combination of curiosity, interest in learning and desire to find advantages, but also [can] combine [it] with empathy and ability to relate to people and understand how relationships build, how trust builds."
Cherington said he does not anticipate adding another assistant general manager beyond Sanders and Kevan Graves in the short term.
Cherington and Sanders worked together to build Toronto's farm system from 2016-19. Sanders was excited for the opportunity, and Cherington was a big reason why.
"Ben's somebody that I've worked with for eight of the last nine years and have a lot of trust in, personally and professionally," Sanders said.
Sanders first full-time big league job came with the Red Sox in 2012, Cherington's first season as Boston's general manager. He earned two more promotions in Cherington's four years as GM before going to Toronto in 2016.
"I think what was so exciting about the opportunity was the people that I met that were already in the organization, outside of Ben," Sander said. "I think getting to know what the organization's about- the culture, the people that are in place, the city of Pittsburgh, the passion that the people have for sports, and particularly the Pirates- I think it was a great opportunity. It was an exciting one for me to come in and learn and grow and be part of something special."
Sanders said he, Cherington and Graves will work together on all baseball operations matters, but that he would work most closely with the amateur and international scouting.
Sanders was the Blue Jays' director of amateur scouting for three years and ran their 2017-2019 drafts. In 2019, MLB.com insider Jim Callis ranked the Blue Jays' draft as the fifth best.
He will work with senior director of amateur scouting Joe DelliCarri, a holdover from Neal Huntington's front office.
"I think there's a lot of good things in place here," Sanders said. "I'm just excited to partner up with Joe, specifically, as it relates to the draft and the scouting staff's that here. Compare notes and compare strategies and hopefully bring some of my perspective and experience."
Sharing strategies was stressed by Sanders.
"I think the cool part is bringing different perspectives together and melding them together and learning from each other," Sanders said. "And being able to bring the best of all of our experiences, put them together and hopefully everybody gets better out of that."
• On Tuesday, Cherington was asked if he is the same person he was when he was with the Red Sox. He said that he had hopefully grown. Arguably nobody has worked more closely with Cherington over the last nine years than Sanders. His response to the same question: "I don't know that he's changed a bunch ... I think the constants for Ben that have been there, regardless of his role, are his passion for people, for growing a culture, for helping people grow in their own roles and as a team environment."
• He wasn't the only reason why Sanders took the Pirates job, but Blue Jays vice president of baseball operations and Pittsburgh native Tony LaCava talked up the city to Sanders: "I take comfort in knowing that he loves it there, and it certainly made me even more comfortable preparing to move my life here."
• Starling Marte's trade market was not addressed in Cherington's session with the media Wednesday, but in a roundabout way, he might have given us some breadcrumbs to follow.
First: He "wouldn't have any issue" making a trade with a division rival. When he was with the Red Sox, he did the near impossible and swung a deal with the Yankees, though it was only for Stephen Drew. The Reds and Cubs could both use outfield help.
Second: He said he would be comfortable with Bryan Reynolds playing in center field.
"I think it’ll depend on the roster and the makeup of the team," Cherington said. "We think he’s (Reynolds) a good player. Whether he’s playing on a corner or playing in center, we think he’ll be a good player and a big part of the team.”
• Edgar Santana and Chad Kuhl's prognosis is good. Both underwent Tommy John surgery in 2018 and were on schedule to be ready for spring training when the last update was given at the end of the regular season.
Jason Martin's return "could take some time," but is tracking well. He underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder in October.
• The coaching search is starting to narrow. One of the positions they need to fill is assistant hitting coach, and Rick Eckstein will have a say in who it is.
"We want as much input as we can. Hitting, Rick would have significant input," Cherington said. "We wouldn’t want to hire anyone he wasn’t comfortable with."
Eckstein had a voice in Jacob Cruz's hiring last year.
• One new role the Pirates could add to the staff is a quality control coach. Shelton served in that role with the Blue Jays in 2017, when Cherington was in the front office.
“We’ve talked about it," Cherington said. I think it’ll depend on kind of the shape of the rest of the staff. We figure out the pitching piece of it, first base and assistant hitting coach and kind of work through all that and there’s a particular skill that we feel is still missing or there’s a need for a particular lens or just additional bandwidth potentially, then we’d have the ability to add that position and we’ve talked about some candidates for it. We’d like to see a little about how the rest of the staff shakes out first.”
• Speaking of coaching decisions, the futures of Jeff Banister and David Eckstein have not been decided.
“We’ve continued to have conversations with both. Shelty and I are going to try to meet with David while we’re out here in California. I can’t tell you exactly yet what 2020 looks like for either, but we really respect both guys, value who they are as people and as Pirates and continue to have conversations with both.”
Both joined the front office as special assistants to former general manager Neal Huntington last offseason. Banister spent four years as the Rangers manager and worked in the Pirates organization for many years before that, including serving as the bench coach from 2011-2014.