Funny, but this could all somehow work out swimmingly.
Yeah, yeah, I know: The Pirates remain buried at the bottom of Major League Baseball's overall standings at 7-17, they remain a deep disappointment to a public that's ostracized them for every reason from Bob Nutting to payroll to Seven Springs to blah blah blah ... and none of that's erased by one rousing 5-4 roar-back and three-game sweep of the Brewers on this soggy/sunny Sunday at PNC Park.
If you missed it, as most of this team's most monotonous critics tend to do, it was made possible by this:
Gregory Polanco. Of all people. Two-run blast to reclaim the lead for good in the eighth inning.
Nice, huh?
The boys enjoyed it, too. As if Polanco's instant smile back toward his bud Jose Osuna in the on-deck circle didn't betray that, there was a ton more once he returned to the dugout:
"We needed to win this one. We needed to fight. The opportunity came," Polanco elaborated on that reaction. "I told Osuna in the on-deck circle like, ‘Hey, watch.’ Something to motivate yourself. That’s something that we do. ‘Hey, watch, I’m about to hit this ball really hard. I’m about to put a good swing on the ball.’ That’s why I was watching it. I looked back to Osuna and said like, ‘You see? I told you.’ "
Also nice, huh?
Look, they are where they are. They are what they are. And with Colin Moran (concussion evaluation) and Kevin Newman (lower abdomen) getting hurt in this game and the injury list now up to an obscene 13 -- virtually half the opening-day roster! -- they'll almost certainly stay where they are and what they are. With lots and lots of losses to follow.
And yet ...
(Insert loud inhale, louder exhale.)
And yet ... stick with me on this, but it's starting to look at least plausible that the entirety of 2020 will align perfectly with what this particular franchise needs at this point in time.
Start with this: They've been terrible. There's no escape from 7-17, nor should there be. Injuries notwithstanding, the Neal Huntington/Kyle Stark scorched-earth system has left this organization with the depth of a Britney Spears lyric. Regardless who's in charge now, that reflects as poorly as it does authentically.
And yet ... there could be two big blessings to show for it at script's end:
1. The No. 1 overall pick.
Neither the Pirates nor any team is a lock to pick first in the 2021 MLB Draft, given that Rob Manfred was granted the right to determine draft order entirely on his own through a peculiar clause in the recent coronavirus-time labor pact. No one knows what that means, or how it'll play out and, weighing Manfred's recent history, I'm betting he doesn't, either.
A No. 1 overall pick isn't a small thing. Vanderbilt's Kumar Rocker is seen by some scouts as a right-handed David Price, and not just because of a common college. Rocker's 6-4, 260 pounds, dynamic, versatile and precisely the type of pitcher that, in baseball's screwed-up economics, teams like the Pirates can only afford through the draft. And the Pirates will pay up. For all the fair criticism they get over spending, no one's outspent them on the draft over the past decade.
Again, this isn't close to certain. But it's significant. And it's obviously better to be in the bottom slot than not.
2. They're clear sellers.
Heck, they might be the only clear sellers.
Get this: Other than the Pirates, who are 5.5 games out of the National League's wild card race, everyone else is within three! And with a week left until the Aug. 31 trade deadline, not much time's left for more filtering out between contenders and pretenders.
Small wonder that Ben Cherington acknowledged earlier in the afternoon that he's "getting a lot of calls" about potential trades, while also sounding very much like a man who knows he's holding the hot cards.
"I want to see acquisitions that help the team get better," he added. "Whether we make trades between now and Aug. 31, whether we make trades in the offseason or next July or whenever it is, we will make trades. But they've got to be trades that really make sense for the Pirates, now and in the long term."
Oh, he'll make those trades. Or he'll sure try. He'd be nuts to do otherwise. The convergence of all this is just too convenient.
Trade Derek Holland. He's 33, he's a lefty so his age doesn't even matter, and he's pitched well enough to start at the back of another rotation. Also, he'll be a free agent. This one's a no-brainer. Anything you can get.
Trade Keone Kela. Provided he can retake a mound at some point in the next week and stay there. He's 27, he's seldom healthy, and he's got the sourest personality in an otherwise upbeat clubhouse. Cherington suggested Sunday Kela could pitch soon, so the next trip should be out the door. Again, anything you can get.
Trade Jarrod Dyson. There has to be a team somewhere that could use a center fielder who can still catch everything, and who, on this day, doubled, singled and casually stole a base. Anything you can get.
Trade Richard Rodriguez. There's always a GM overpaying for a closer. He isn't that yet, but his 1-2-3 save to close this one out will mesh nicely with his .125 opponents' batting average for the season. Do a little better than anything.
Trade Moran, too, if he recovers in time. Or Adam Frazier. Or Trevor Williams. Or Polanco, in the unthinkable event that someone decides his real value is the past week and not the misery before it. If I'm Cherington, I've got to be floored by offers on any youngsters, and the same goes for Josh Bell because of the value his 2019 will still hold, but I'm not hanging up upon hearing any single name on this roster. Not one.
There's just too much to gain in this moment. And unlike other possible future stages of his tenure, Cherington will have no pressure, public or otherwise, to hang onto anyone. If anything, he could trade everyone I just cited up there and not have half of Pittsburgh even realize it.
Don't stop there, though. Cherington and Derek Shelton need to commit to prioritizing youth for the remaining half of this 60-game schedule. Bring up top prospect Ke'Bryan Hayes, promising outfielder Jared Oliva and flamethrowing reliever Blake Cederlind from Altoona. Return Cole Tucker to shortstop and slide Newman to second, a better fit for both, and set the middle infield for years to come.
And from there ... man, let's see people "getting better," to borrow the favorite phrase of both Cherington and Shelton.
This is the moment for that, too, the ideal environment.
When JT Brubaker took the mound here Sunday, he did so in front of no one but a handful of us media types, a couple security officers and this one hulking dude with 'DISINFECTANT PATROL' on his back. Brubaker faced more intimidating environments in Pony League. To boot, the circumstances of a 7-17 team are as hollow as the stadium itself.
So, it's worth appreciating, I'd say, that he took another small stride, going four innings for the first time -- he'd been stretched out only for piggybacking before the injuries shoved him into the rotation -- and held the Brewers to two runs on four hits, with six strikeouts and a walk. At times, his slider, especially, was bitingly effective.
Good for him. A 4.80 ERA and a 1.45 WHIP will excite no one, but he's getting outs.
I asked Shelton if this start represented progress, and he embraced the subject: "That’s a really important point. It is a step forward. We need JT to keep taking steps forward. We've talked about teaching points. We've talked about getting better. He threw 19 more pitches today. At the end, his stuff wasn't as sharp, and he started to get tired. It was hot. It was the longest he’s gone. But it's a next step for him to take to be a quality major league starter. We need him to keep taking steps forward."
Damned right they do. And that's not talking about getting better. That's doing it. This kid looks like he could be part of the solution.
When Bryan Reynolds stepped into the box in the sixth inning with the Pirates down two and a runner at second base, he took another of several strides of late, lasering an RBI single through a hard Milwaukee shift on the right side, then uncharacteristically clapping upon rounding first.
Good for him. For the weekend, he went 6 for 13 with a home run, a triple, a double and seven RBIs. He's reached safely in 12 of his past 14 games. He's regaining that rookie form.
Oh, and he recorded the 27th out with this fine running catch on a bullet by Avisail Garcia:
Also nice, huh?
"That ball was stung," Shelton observed. "That's a really good play."
When Tucker entered as an emergency substitute in the third inning, he was sent to -- wait, I always have to check the boxscore with this guy -- right field, so Osuna could shift to first. He couldn't have been as prepared as the starters to contribute, and he went hitless in his first two at-bats. But in the eighth, he took another stride of his own by lining a one-out single into left. Another out later, Polanco decided it.
Good for Tucker, too. Being bouncy and lovable won't get him everyday work. Hitting the ball will. And he's 7 for his past 17, including a career-high three hits Friday night, driving to all fields.
I asked Shelton if his staff's instruction to youngsters might meet with a better reception when the team's winning, and he gently rejected it.
"Yeah, I think that's something our players have done a really good job of," he began. "They’ve stayed attentive, even when we haven't won games. We’ve had teaching points the next day, and they've been very aware of it. We came into it knowing we were going to have to teach, we were going to have to try to get better, and our guys have been really good."
A lot's gone wrong, too, chiefly the injuries. A lot will continue to go wrong. But seeing individual players improve and pursuing outside talent, even while prioritizing the youth that's already here and -- unwittingly or otherwise -- continuing to lose ... hey, something real's resting at the end of that rainbow.
Might as well make the most of it.
MORE PIRATES COVERAGE
• Hiles: Team meeting sets up sweep
• Hiles: Moran, Newman hurt
• Stumpf: Cherington taking calls