BRADENTON, Fla. -- While Derek Shelton was adamant during PiratesFest about not wanting to announce which players are in certain roles until camp is underway and he can watch players perform in person, most of the starting rotation was formed before he was named manager.
Chris Archer, Joe Musgrove and Trevor Williams are starters through and through, so the rotation has at least three of their five members set in stone. After that, there is some competition. Steven Brault, Chad Kuhl and Derek Holland are popular picks to compete for a starter spot, but other young arms like Clay Holmes, J.T. Brubaker and Cody Ponce could possibly be in the mix, too.
Mitch Keller, the team's top prospect, seems very likely to make the opening-day rotation. However, he does not view it that way.
"I'm approaching it like I don't have a job right now," Keller was telling me. "I need to perform and win my spot. I need to earn it."
Keller went 1-5 with a 7.13 ERA over 11 starts last year, but those metrics do not tell the whole story. He had terrific peripherals that suggest he pitched much better than the back of his baseball card would show, striking out 28.6 percent of his batters faced and finishing with a 3.19 FIP.
Keller also made great strides with his slider in 2019. He started throwing the pitch midseason and has worked on it this offseason.
He is still using the original grip he found when he started experimenting with the slider, so he feels comfortable throwing it.
"It was a huge pitch for me. It's going to be a huge pitch for me coming up in the upcoming season," Keller said. "I'm really excited about it."
• Tuesday was a quiet day at Pirates City. Mostly player physicals and other clerical matters. The first team workout is Wednesday.
• There's a good energy in the clubhouse. Of course, it would be a lot better than it was at the end of September last season, but players have told me the mood feels different than spring last year. Lot of smiles, lot of hugs, lot of objectively questionable 90s-00s music playing. Good first baby step for building a better culture.
• Some more position players came in Tuesday, including Cole Tucker, Ke'Bryan Hayes, Colin Moran, Guillermo Heredia, Stephen Alemais and Jared Oliva.
Erik Gonzalez is also here, and actually arrived Monday.
Again, position players don't have to report until Feb. 16. Getting to Bradenton early is just a feather in their cap.
• Oliva reported to Bradenton with a little more fuzz on his face than usual. He had been clean-cut his whole life but grew out a goatee during the Arizona Fall League and decided to keep it after getting some compliments.
Oh yeah, and he hit .312 in Arizona and was an All-AFL selection by MLB Pipeline, so that was a fun couple of weeks for him.
"It's unique, and a lot of guys told me this might be the most fun you have on a baseball field," Oliva was telling me. "To this point, I can say so."
Oliva's success in Arizona was a product of the work he and hitting coach Jon Nunnally did in Altoona to get his body in the right position and utilize his leg kick to open his hips more effectively.
Oliva struggled early in 2019 but finished on a tear and was named the Curve's most valuable player. He had a .352 on-base percentage and stole 36 bases.
This winter, he has been tweaking some things with his swing to try to get more out of his lower-body.
"It's been fun to see working this past month and a half in the cage," Oliva said. "Looking forward to applying it out here and seeing what I can do."
• A quick aside: Nunnally is going to be the Indianapolis Indians hitting coach this season, so he and Oliva are going to keep working together in 2020.
• Oliva isn't going to break camp with the big-league team. He knows it. He hasn't played above double-A yet. But looking at the current lack of depth in the outfield and seeing how Bryan Reynolds made the jump to the majors in 2019 under similar circumstances, he could be on the cusp.
"That's all out of my control," he said. "I just know if I can play my game, maximize my abilities on the field, I can help the big-league club."
• One of the non-roster invitees, Hector Noesi, is hoping to recapture some of the magic he had pitching in Korea. Noesi pitched in five big-league seasons before going to the KBO from 2016-2018, where he posted a 3.79 ERA over three seasons, an impressive total in the hitter-friendly league.
In Korea, he discovered he does best when he throws fastballs in on the batter and then offspeed pitches away. He plans to do the same with the Pirates this spring.
"I think I have a lot of potential here," Noesi was telling me.
