BRADENTON, Fla. -- It was a little after 1 p.m. by the time the final live batting practices of the day concluded Friday. The penultimate Pirate City practice was in the books, and most of the players were packed up and heading back to the clubhouse within a couple of minutes.
Cole Tucker, Kevin Newman and Erik Gonzalez hung back from the group. Instead, they headed back out to the Willie Stargell field to take a couple more ground ball reps.
It had to be the whole trio. After all, they’re the contenders for the Pirates’ most public competition, the starting shortstop job.
“It’s fun,” Tucker said in a Zoom call after practice Friday. “I wish I was competing against guys I didn’t like so much. But it’s good to have that competition. It’s going to make us a better team.”
Since the early stages of the offseason, Derek Shelton and general manager Ben Cherington made it clear that there would be plenty of player competition this spring training, routinely citing shortstop as one of the jobs that’s up for grabs.
While Gonzalez got the most playing time at shortstop in 2020, accounting for just over 60% of the innings at that position, the main competitors appear to be Newman and Tucker. A positional battle like this has been expected for quite some time, dating back to when the Pirates selected Newman in the first round of the 2015 amateur draft, one year after they took Tucker in the same round.
For Newman and Gonzalez, they have some alternatives if they lose the job. Gonzalez was a utility infielder for years and can play around the diamond. Newman played almost as many innings at second base (159) as he did at shortstop (184 ⅓) last year. That flexibility might come into play come the trade deadline, as second baseman Adam Frazier has been the subject of some trade talks the last two offseasons and will most likely be brought up again come July.
But in Tucker’s case, it’s shortstop or bust. After playing almost every one of his innings in the outfield last year -- with the exception of three frames at second base in a blowout loss against the Royals near the end of the season -- Tucker is back at his natural position.
Even though there is a spot in the outfield up for grabs this camp as well, Tucker will not be getting a look there.
“We've been very direct and honest with him about it,” Shelton said. “There's things that we're working on, position-specific for him at short, and that he's working on with Joey [Cora] and Greeny [infield coordinator Gary Green] and Jamey [Carroll], and going from there. But we've been very direct that we have a competition at shortstop."
Despite converting him to an outfielder last year, the Pirates never closed the door on Tucker returning to the infield, and he continued to take drills at shortstop and second last year despite not getting a start there. During the exit interviews last year, Shelton and Cherington told him they planned to shift him back to his natural position.
“The Cole Tucker outfield experiment,” as he saw it described so many times, was partly out of necessity, with the Pirates needing outfield depth, and partly to make sure he could get more at-bats since there was no minor-league season. While some of his defensive metrics weren't great, he performed admirably considering the idea was brought up for the first time just weeks before the first spring training game. He’s calling the experience a “feather in his cap,” showing that if the Pirates need him to, he could go back to the grass, but he is happier this way.
“I feel really good on the dirt,” Tucker said. “Just focusing on all the little details that I missed. There’s so much that goes into being an infielder. Not that there isn’t being an outfielder. You’re just way far away and withdrawn from the action. You don’t feel as in the game. I miss that. I miss my personality and my energy and the way I compete on the dirt. I really did. I think that’s the best part of my game, so I’m excited to let that shine through.”
But for him to get that time in the dirt, he’s going to have to hit for it.
Since joining the organization, Tucker has been praised for his speed, base running and defensive abilities. He had potential as a hitter as well, but those tools have taken longer to develop. While he still posted mostly average offensive results in the upper-levels of the minors in 2018 and 2019, he has had a hard time hitting in the majors.
Last year he slashed just .220/.252/.275 with one home run and eight RBIs over 116 plate appearances. His batted ball profile supported that slash line, with his exit velocity averaging only 83.1 mph while striking out in 26.7% of his plate appearances.
This offseason, he worked on mechanical tweaks to help him be more stable in the box and control his body more through his swing. He said the feedback on the new swing has been positive, with hitting coach Rick Eckstein also feeling it’s better approach than last year.
“It’s about me being able to go and have the consistent at-bats that I expect [from myself] and everyone's expecting me to have,” Tucker said. “It comes down to controlling myself and being in an athletic position for my swing to show up.”
Tucker opted not to go into the details about his changes, but watching him through the cages at Pirate City Friday, it looks like his back leg does not get as low as it used to:
If Tucker is going to have an “ah-ha” moment as a hitter, 2021 would be a great time for him to do it, because there are a fresh batch of middle infield competitors coming in the near future. Liover Peguero and Nick Gonzales have been two of Cherington’s most high-profile acquisitions since coming to the Pirates, and they both could be in the mix for the shortstop job as soon as midseason 2022.
That’s not to say Tucker, or Newman, will simply be passed over when either is ready for a promotion. Both are still young and under team control for years to come, so they could still be part of the Pirates’ next competitive team a couple years down the road.
But the best way to have that spot established is to earn the starting job this year. Put the emphasis on year, because while someone will emerge as the starter this spring, that doesn’t mean they’ll have the job for the whole year.
“We’re all selfless, and we’re all selfish,” Tucker said. “We all want what’s best for this team. We also want what’s best for our careers. But once the competition ends, the internal competition of who’s going to be our shortstop, who’s going to be this, who’s going to be that, we have 162 games to go compete and go win as a team and get better as a team and progress as a team. As we’ve seen, everything changes during the season. There’s a lot of next man up. There’s a lot of stay ready. There’s a lot of people picking up the pieces. We know that.
“But we’re going out every day and trying to win this job. I’m going out there and trying to win the job every day, doing my work, staying prepared, staying strong. Just trying to rake, so I don’t give them an option.”
