In years past, a team solidly in last place, like the Pirates this season, would use September to flood their major league roster with minor-league players looking for an opportunity. The league allowed rosters to be expanded up to 40 players, and most teams would add 10 or so players to finish out the season.
That won’t be the case in 2021. This year -- and presumably moving forward in the upcoming new Collective Bargaining Agreement between the league and players association -- teams will only be allowed to add two more spots, expanding rosters to 28 players. That was the trade off for adding a 26th player for the rest of the regular season.
There are ways around that, of course. While September rosters are usually static, there can still be call ups, demotions and injuries. On several occasions this year, the Pirates have called up a pitcher for a spot start or a couple appearances just to get their feet wet and then optioned them back to the minors.
Could we see more of that next month?
“It’s possible. We haven't gotten all the way there,” Ben Cherington told reporters over Zoom Friday afternoon. “The 28 [man roster] obviously doesn't allow for as many call-ups. We also still have minor league baseball going on for a longer period of time, so you're not really giving up playing opportunity if the guy's not called up [because] there’s still games to play.”
So far, the Pirates have not had discussions about who could get a call up.
“You could all speculate probably as well as I could right now,” Cherington joked. “There’s nobody hidden that any of you aren’t aware of that we’re considering right now. It’s probably the guys that you’re already thinking about but, again, because we want to make sure that development needs are met and that it’s earned and that there’s only so much opportunity, not everyone will get an opportunity.”
The Class A and AA minor-league seasons were extended through mid-September this year after they were delayed to May. Class AAA Indianapolis will play through the end of the major league season on Oct. 3.
And since we’re speculating who could be called up, let’s limit it to players who are currently on the 40-man roster, but not the majors. That includes the rehabbing Miguel Yajure, Max Kranick, Shea Spitzbarth, Cole Tucker, Michael Chavis, Tucupita Marcano, Jared Oliva and Phillip Evans, all of whom have appeared in the majors this season.
There are a couple wild cards in Class AA Altoona though in Roansy Contreras and Oneil Cruz. Both are still rehabbing from forearm injuries, but both are on a trajectory that should have them return to game action before the end of the season.
The Pirates have already promoted Rodolfo Castro straight from Altoona -- twice, in fact -- and Kranick was called up after just three appearances with Indianapolis. There is precedent for skipping a level, even if it’s just for a cameo to wrap up the season.
“I think some people would argue that the difference between [Class] AA and AAA is smaller than the difference between AAA and the big leagues,” Cherington said. “[I] still think there's a difference but might be a smaller gap than between Triple A and the big leagues, so I think we're aware of that. It'll come back to case-by-case and there won't be any magic rule for [how long] you’ve got to be in AAA or AA. It’s going to come back to who we think has earned it, who we think furthers their development by coming up and playing, and who we have the opportunity to play.”
MORE FROM THE GENERAL MANAGER
• Pitcher workloads has been one of the main concerns for the Pirates, and basically every team, this season. With 115 games in the books, they have played almost twice as many games as last year, and virtually every pitcher in the organization has bypassed their 2020 innings total.
While we should start seeing pitchers across the league start to get shut down next month, the Pirates are going to try to avoid that.
"No matter how conservative we are – and we feel like we’ve been pretty conservative managing volume – we know we’re going to blow past where we were last year," Cherington said. "It just is what it is, and every team is dealing with that. We’d prefer to avoid the notion of a shutdown. We think there is something valuable about completing the season and the mindset that’s necessary to prepare yourself, prepare ourselves to compete, to pitch, to try to win right to the end of the schedule. And we’ll continue to do the best we can to be thoughtful of the volume we’re asking of guys to manage risk the best we can."
• On Thursday, the Pirates promoted first overall draft pick Henry Davis to Class High-A Greensboro, bypassing Bradenton entirely.
"He came to Pirate City pretty much ready to go from a playing standpoint. We weren't surprised by that," Cherington said. "He was pretty much in game shape and ready to compete from day one. That allowed him to get into games pretty quickly there. I think we had hoped that he would be in a position to get out and play games in a full-season [league], and he proved pretty quickly that he was."
Of course, many of the Pirates' top prospects are in Greensboro, including their three first-round picks from the last two seasons: Nick Gonzales, Carmen Mlodzinski and Quinn Priester. Davis recognized that a good chunk of the Pirates' future core is with that team, and he wanted to be a part of it.
"That he wants to be part of those relationships and recognize that, ‘Hey, these are guys that I aspire to play with and would love to get a head start on getting to know them.’ We wouldn’t want a decision only for that reason, but it’s a good thing to hear."
• During the call, Cherington was asked why Gregory Polanco was still receiving everyday reps in right field.
Here is his full answer:
"I think we have felt, and still feel to this point, that he's a really talented player that's still not that old and we think finally healthy. We think [he's] still capable of being a good major league player. We're not blind to the performance. He is, if you think about the last couple years for Gregory, whether it was injuries or the short season, up until this year, he just simply didn't play a lot of baseball for a while. So I think we've had some desire to give him every chance to play a lot of baseball and find himself again.
"Now that we're past the deadline, I think Shelty will continue to make out the lineups. We talk about playing time, and again, we want to use playing time as effectively as we can, but it's gotta be earned. We want it to be earned. We'll see where that lines out, and Gregory's part of that. He'll have to continue to earn it."
