Ben Cherington's first offseason as Pirates general manager is nearly in the books, but what direction is the team heading in exactly?
The Pirates have not had many subtractions or additions yet this winter, with spring training a little more than two weeks away. While the Starling Marte trade rumors have been reignited this week, to this point, the most notable departures are Dario Agrazal and Elias Diaz. On the flip side, their only additions have been catcher Luke Maile and outfielder Guillermo Heredia, both of whom signed major league deals, and a handful of veterans on minor-league contracts with invitations to spring training.
While the Pirates had an epic second-half collapse and finished in last place in the National League Central in 2019, they are just two years removed from a winning season in 2018 and were in contention at the All-Star break in 2019. With a new coaching staff and hopefully culture in place, an optimist could argue they could return to their 2018 form. They also have only one impended free agent, reliever Keone Kela, so they do not need to be rushed into trading their major-leaguers.
It raises the question, what direction does he want to go with this team in 2020? Rebuilding? Trying to stay pat and hope that everything gels?
"Just getting better," Cherington responded to that very question. "Every kind of resource you can imagine- whether it's time, energy or dollars- will go into getting better. That is not always a straight line, as we know.
"Every day of 2020, we are going to spend on trying to get better. That can include player related opportunities. It can include acquiring players, it may include trading players at some point, but it also includes a lot of other activity, like working with the coaching group and looking into our scouting process- amateur, professional, international, etc.- throughout baseball operations. I wouldn't say that our focus is anything but simply getting better, and working to build a winning team."
Ok, let's ask this a different way. What would a successful 2020 look like?
"I think we want to see improvement from our current group of players, improvement in the way that we do things throughout baseball operations," Cherington said. "...And then, ultimately, also improvement in our major-league environment in terms of how we're supporting players at the major-league level. That involves coaching and use of information and all those things.
"And I think we can measure all those things. Wins and losses are a tangible outcome, obviously, but there's other ways to measure performance over the course of 2020, and that will be important that we do that."
Some of those metrics include player improvement for both major and minor-leaguers and critiquing their process of how they evaluate and acquire players.
"If we're going to talk about improving as an organization in any of those areas, we also have to have a way to measure that improvement," Cherington added.
Cherington added the Pirates are "engaged on multiple things," but would not commit to making a "major" move before spring training, which starts Feb. 9.
So what is he hoping to buy?
"We'd like to add some pitching depth, both [starting and relief]," Cherintgton said. "We'd still like to add some outfield depth, and again, it can be major-league, it could be non-roster."
The Pirates have only made a few minor-league signings to address their pitching this offseason. Last year, they finished with a staff ERA of 5.19, the second worst in the National League. They will get Edgar Santana and Chad Kuhl back from Tommy John surgery in 2020, but they will be without Jameson Taillon as he recovers from his Tommy John. Oscar Marin will also take over as the pitching coach, replacing Ray Searage.
Cherington is expecting to add to the catching group as well. While he is leaving who will be the starting catcher up to Derek Shelton, he is optimistic about Jacob Stallings.
"I think it's fair to say that we put a have put an emphasis on a group that is going to help our pitching staff, perform at the highest level possible. We believe Jake can be a big part of that," Cherington said.
The one thing that is clear is in the long run, the franchise needs to add more players with high-upsides.
"We need to add to be able to build a winning team," Cherington said. "We won 69 games last year. That's what we're working off of. So that helps us be clear on the amount of work that's required to get to the point where we're playing meaningful games in September and October, and we're going to work as hard as we can to do that."
