With so much of the Pirates’ future success riding on the talent they produce in the minors, the main question was how would they advance their prospects through the system after there wasn’t a minor-league season last year.
At the beginning of the year, there were some aggressive placements with some of their top prospects. Nick Gonzales and Quinn Priester skipped Low-A Bradenton and went straight to Class High-A Greensboro this season. Travis Swaggerty blew past Altoona and went to Indianapolis. They even did it again Thursday night by making Henry Davis’ first stop in pro ball be Greensboro rather than Bradenton.
But once the season got started, those top young players mostly stayed put. Of the players featured in Baseball America’s midseason top 30 Pirates prospect update, the only players to appear in a game above their original placement are Miguel Yajure (No. 16), Rodolfo Castro (No. 23), Max Kranick (No. 25) and Matthew Fraizer (No. 26).
In Yajure and Castro’s case, holes at the major league level facilitated their promotions. Kranick was a quick call up, while Fraizer just got his promotion on August 5 after crushing 20 home runs and posting a .979 OPS.
Injuries to a handful of players like Oneil Cruz, Roansy Contreras, Liover Peguero, Swaggerty and Gonzales have potentially slowed down promotions, but for the most part, the Pirates have been stingy, even as they have posted good results at their current level.
Those numbers aren’t everything, though.
“Performance is one aspect, and probably the most public facing of a player’s progression and development, but there’s a lot of other things that go into it,” assistant general manager Steve Sanders was telling me. “Part of that is opportunity. Where there are innings and opportunities to play every day. Part of that is environment. Part of it is rapport with staff and relationships with players and staff. Those are the things that Bake [director of coaching and player development John Baker] and the player development group look at very closely on a daily basis.”
Sanders came to the Pirates from the Blue Jays alongside Ben Cherington in the winter of 2019. With the Blue Jays, they helped build and develop one of the best young cores in baseball. The goal is to replicate that with the Pirates, but it’s not going to be the same process.
So the lack of promotions this year isn’t by design. There isn’t an overarching design for when these players are going to get promoted.
“It looks different for everybody,” Sanders said. “It isn’t a preset timing thing or an organizational strategy as much as it is being disciplined and thinking long and hard about what’s best for a player’s development long term.”
So is there a chance these last five or six weeks are going to be much more eventful than the past few months?
“We’ll see,” Sanders said. “We’ve got another two months to go. I think you’ll see some guys move, if the opportunity’s right.”
MORE PIRATES
• Well, this first bullet was originally supposed to be about how I heard Davis might bypass Bradenton and go straight to High-A Greensboro to start his pro playing career, but the Pirates ruined that surprise Thursday evening by promoting the first overall draft pick to the Grasshoppers. That same source also said that the Pirates’ other top draft picks -- including left-hander Anthony Solometo, outfielder Lonnie White Jr. and shortstop/right-handed pitcher Bubba Chandler -- should not be too far behind in making their pro ball debuts. Details are still being sorted out amongst the front office -- attribute that to the change in the minor league structure and the different timeline of being pushed back a month -- but a number of the Pirates’ top draft picks should get into games outside of the Florida Complex League before the year is through. -- Stumpf
• With Erik González off the roster, Cole Tucker bouncing around as a utility player again in Indianapolis and Kevin Newman below replacement level, it seems safe to call this year’s shortstop competition a dud. What happens next year though? Do the Pirates consider non-tendering Newman rather than take him through arbitration? Is Tucker still in the team’s plans after barely being used in the majors this year? What about newcomers Hoy Park and Tucupita Marcano? All four are possibilities for next year’s shortstop, but don’t forget the Pirates still believe Cruz can play the position too, and he should be major league ready next season. Considering he hasn’t played a regular season game in the outfield yet and shortstop is open again next year, he may get his chance to prove he can play the position in the majors after all. -- Stumpf
STEELERS
• There's been a lot of talk about T.J. Watt's contract status and what's happening right now -- or not happening -- at training camp. But what Watt is doing is not a "holdout." A holdout suggests that he is not in camp and not working. That's 100 percent false. Watt is with the team. He's going to meetings every day. He's even working on the field. He's drenched in sweat at the end of every practice. He's just not doing any 11-on-11 work, the same as Stephon Tuitt has throughout this camp. And the team also has been very thoughtful on how it's used some other veteran players, as well. This, however, is a new thing you're seeing around the league. The new CBA that went into effect before the start of last year mandates that players be fined $50,000 for skipping out on mandatory practices. And, unlike the old CBA, which also allowed for fines for such things, it doesn't allow teams to then waive the fines if and when the player signs a new deal, which often happened. The fines have to be paid. That's why Aaron Rodgers, despite his obvious displeasure with the Packers, didn't skip out on the start of training camp. It's why DeShaun Watson is currently with the Texans right now. Is that the only reason Watt is in camp with the Steelers? We'll likely never know. But you can't call it a "holdout." -- Dale Lolley in Philadelphia
• By now, you've already heard the duo of Max Starks and Craig Wofley doing the color commentary on the Steelers' preseason games. Soon, you'll also hear Starks and Wolfley in the locker room, as well. Starks has been tapped to replace -- if you really can -- Tunch Ilkin on the daily radio show, "In the Locker Room with Tunch and Wolf" that is heard on ESPN-970 from 10 a.m. to noon during the season with Wolfley. The twist will be that Starks will continue to do the show from his home in Phoenix. -- Lolley
• According to the web site Over The Cap, of the 90 players in camp for the Steelers this year, 67 percent who count less than $1 million against their salary cap this season. That is the seventh-highest total in the NFL. The Steelers also have 19.1-percent of their roster who count between $1 million and $2.5 million against the cap. That ranks tied for 13th in the NFL. The Steelers are 10th in players who count more than $10 million against the cap with 4.3 percent of the roster falling into that category. Where the Steelers are ahead of -- or behind the curve, depending on your point of view, is with their middle class. They are dead last in the NFL in terms of players who count $5 to $10 million against their cap at just 2.1 percent. That's where GM Kevin Colbert's statement a couple of weeks ago that the Steelers believe they have depth, it's just unproven depth, comes into play. They're not spending money on veteran backups right now. -- Lolley
• In addition to letting slip that Watt was not partaking in 11-on-11 drills last weekend, defensive coordinator Keith Butler also let the cat out of the bag on a troubling piece of news regarding the death of Tuitt's brother, Richard Bartlett III, who was killed in a hit-and-run incident in Georgia. "You know what happened to him: his mom and all that stuff," Butler said. "You think if your mom saw her son get killed in front of her eyes, what kind of mess is that? How do you dadgum deal with that? I don’t know how you deal with that." That Tuitt's family is struggling with this is beyond understandable. No parent wants to outlive their children, let alone see one killed right in front of her. -- Lolley
PENGUINS
Beat writer Dave Molinari is on vacation this week.