Ever since being named general manager in November 2019, Ben Cherington has stressed four pillars for making the Pirates a successful organization: Player development, identification, acquisition and deployment.
On Tuesday, that first pillar will finally be able to proceed in earnest with the start of the minor-league season.
This weekend, the team released the rosters for each of its affiliates. After not having a season last year, figuring out where exactly to put some of those players was not cut-and-dry.
“[There were] two things mostly we were focused on,” Cherington said, explaining the process. “One is, you always want guys to be at a level where they're challenged, where it's not easy, but also where they're not going to dominate nor be overwhelmed. You're trying to kind of find that sweet spot. You've also got to consider how do you create as much opportunity as possible. So there's a spacing element to it, as well, and you balance that. In some cases, there may be particular circumstances with a particular player that might be working on something specifically where we feel like being at a certain level might be better to start.”
For some players, that meant skipping a level. Quinn Priester, the top pitching prospect in the system, is going to high Class A Greensboro, skipping the traditional low-A spot he would have seen last season. Travis Swaggerty is going to Class AAA Indianapolis, bypassing a stint with the Curve. Nick Gonzales and Carmen Mlodzinski, last year’s first-round picks, will begin in Greensboro.
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While the Pirates had the alternate training site and a larger-than-usual instructional league to pull from, they also got a lot of information to drive those decisions from minor-league spring training, which just concluded.
“Certainly we could see where guys are physically, how they're coming back in terms of conditioning and strength,” Cherington said. “That shows up pretty clearly. And we did have games to watch and we got data from those games, so we're able to see swing decisions, contact information and for pitchers the pitch qualities. We can we can evaluate the defense subjectively. So, yeah, it's different. Definitely less information than normal, but we feel like we had enough information to make choices and a lot of guys we want to give opportunity to.”
Some of the players not listed on a roster above will stay in Bradenton, Fla. for extended spring training ahead of the Gulf Coast League season.
Many of the players who are skipping a level or are being placed aggressively -- including Gonzales, Priester and Swaggerty -- were part of the alternate site camp last season. Cherington doesn’t know exactly how that experience would compared to two or three months of a regular minor-league season, but said that it was still meaningful.
“You are facing upper-level, or in some cases even major league pitching, and you're being challenged every day with that,” Cherington said. “It's not the same as playing nine-inning games, of course, so I don't know how to make the equivalence. But I think it's meaningful experience.”
Cherington and his team also had to take into consideration that there are two fewer affiliates with the Pirates this year, as part of Major League Baseball’s contraction of the minor leagues. While short-season West Virginia and rookie-level Bristol mostly consisted of draft picks from that season, it did crunch rosters, especially at the lower levels.
“No question, at the lower levels, high-A on down, we’ve got a lot of guys (who) we want to get opportunity,” Cherington said. “So, those levels were probably the biggest challenges, just making sure we have spacing and as much opportunity for as many guys as we can.”
In the quest of giving players opportunities, it’s worth remembering that these rosters aren’t set in stone. If a player is at a level lower than expected, they could be on their way up soon.
“We've got to remind each other all the time that opening day gets a lot of attention and then the rosters are gonna change quickly after that, anyway,” Cherington said. “So most important is that guys are playing and improving, and there's always a chance to move up.”
MORE FROM CHERINGTON
• More on Swaggerty: He's impressed the front office this year and last, and Cherington said he was one of the alternate site's most consistent hitters.
"We feel like he's ready to take the challenge of playing Class AAA and excited to see him do that," he said. "Credit to him for working hard at it."
With the Pirates' outfield situation, both long- and short-term, very much in flux, Swaggerty could claim a role with a strong campaign.
"I think he continued to get better throughout spring training," Derek Shelton said before Saturday's game against the Cardinals. "He's got a good future ahead of him."
• Outfielder Brian Goodwin was not listed on Indianapolis’ opening day roster after he spent the month at the Pirates’ alternate site.
“We’re working through that situation with Brian," Cherington said. "I think we'll have resolution on that in the next couple days.”
Cherington had previously said that Goodwin had an opt-out in May, though he didn’t say when.
• The Pirates are still not at the 85% vaccination threshold which would ease restrictions and protocols for players and staff, though they are still "nudging" there after doing another round of vaccines over the past 10 days.
"I’m going to remain optimistic and our position has continued to be that we recommend it," Cherington said. "We are trying to share information as best we can and answer questions."
• It has been a frustrating start of the season for Mitch Keller, who has alternated between poor and good outings so far.
Cherington reaffirmed that he is an important part of this organization long-term, and that plenty of pitchers have struggled like he has at this point in their careers.
"Look, he’s frustrated by the inconsistency. He’s working hard. I really believe in what he’s working on. It‘s important that he continues to pitch. We feel good about the stuff he’s doing between starts, and I still feel good every time he goes out there. He wants to perform better. Of course we all want him to perform better. We’ll continue to pour into him to help him do that."
• Not a lot of definitive news on Ke'Bryan Hayes. He is conditioning and throwing, though Cherington couldn't confirm he was catching throws yet. He has yet to swing a bat.
He is expected to join the Pirates on their upcoming road trip, which starts Monday in San Diego.
• Cole Tucker is heading to Indianapolis after spending the past month at minor-league spring training rather than the alternate training site. He stayed down there for skill development, with Cherington saying it was mostly offensive.
"There are things that he really wanted to tighten up in terms of his movement patterns in his swing," Cherington said. "I think once we got out of big-league camp and sort of got out of the competitive situation where you have games and you’re trying to get on base, you’re trying to win a job. Once we got past that, we just felt like, in talking to Cole, that it was an opportunity for him to dive back into some work just to tighten that up. To his credit, he really worked hard at it."
Tucker will focus at shortstop, though Cherington didn't completely close the door on him playing a position besides the middle infield. That could potentially revive the Tucker outfield experiment.
"Probably not going to put him behind the plate, but he’s a good athlete with good ability, and I wouldn’t want to put any governor on what he’s capable of doing at the Major League level. And ultimately, again, we’ll balance the best that we can the needs of the team and the strengths of the individual."