Shortly after the regular season ended, general manager Ben Cherington announced that there would be a restructuring in the Pirates’ player development department. The group mostly stayed intact after his hiring last November, so change was inevitable, but first he wanted to get to know the people already in place and see if they could contribute going forward.
While self-evaluation is never truly over, energy has shifted to the hiring process and improving how the Pirates develop players.
“It’s actually been fun for me because I’ve got a group of people, including a lot of folks who are current members of our player development staff, who are helping me with those searches,” Cherington was telling me. “It’s been a chance to work together with them through that and talk about candidates.”
The goal of this search is to find more personnel who will fit into the player-centric culture the club is trying to create, something Cherington and Derek Shelton both have discussed many times in their first season with the organization.
This can be seen in the ongoing development camp in Bradenton, Fla. Players have the freedom to work on what they want for the first parts of the workday. If they want to take extra batting practice, they can. If they would rather spend time hitting the gym, fielding ground balls or doing some of all three, that is also an option. After those blocks, players group up for more formal instruction with coaches.
“It’s been an ongoing conversation,” Cherington said. “It certainly was going on in spring training. It continued through Altoona. It is certainly going on here [in Bradenton]. I’m really encouraged directionally with that. We’ve been pulling feedback from players a lot, just to make sure we know where they are, as much as possible.”
While Cherington believes they are heading in the right direction, it will take time for his and Shelton’s vision to be fully realized. And while the major-league coaching staff will return in 2021, just about every aspect of the player development department has seen some shakeup.
The most pressing roles to be filled will be a new farm director and a pitching coordinator, plus a potential assistant coordinator.
Larry Broadway is no longer the senior director of minor league operations, a role he had held since September 2011. He will stay in the organization in a different position, though that role has still yet to be determined. Cherington said he wanted to see “where the cement dries” and continue talking to Broadway first so they can find a position that is fulfilling for both himself and the organization.
On the pitching side, senior pitching coordinator Scott Mitchell and assistant coordinator and Tom Filer have both been let go after being with the organization for more than a decade each. The move signals the ideology changes the Pirates’ major-league pitchers saw this season, including focusing on a pitcher’s individual strengths, will be used in the minors as well. It would certainly fall in line with being player-centric.
Cherington said that the Pirates don’t necessarily need to hire a farm director before pitching coordinators, but with where they are in those searches, it looks like the farm director position will be filled first. There's no timetable for when that hire will happen.
As for who it could be comoing to the Pirates, hundreds of executives across baseball have been laid off this year as teams tried to slash costs during COVID-19, so there are certainly plenty of quality candidates available.
Considering Cherington and assistant general manager Steve Sanders both came from the Blue Jays and that system has produced some terrific young players lately, it seems safe to assume they took a close look there, too. To speculate on some names, that could include assistant director of player personnel Joe Sclafani, pitching programs coordinator Cory Popham and player development analyst Evan Short. All three fit a mold that is appealing to the Pirates: A young executive with a firm understanding of analytics and applying it to coaching and development.
So what exactly are the Pirates looking for in these positions, and from player development going forward?
“If we could boil it down to one word, we’re trying to encourage collaboration around the player,” Cherington said. “There’s different kind of expertise, there’s players involved in that, collaborating towards solutions as much as we possibly can. That’s the cultural shift.”
That shift is ever changing. It was a shortcoming of the previous regime, who were once on the cutting edge but quickly fell behind because they were unable to evolve.
There is no way around it: For a franchise like the Pirates to be successful, they must produce young, impact players. The best way to do that will continue to change.
“There’s no endzone when it comes to player development,” Cherington said. “We have to continue to push ourselves to get better, because 29 other teams are.”