Kovacevic: It's a fun, young rotation, and yet this front office will still throw away the 2023 season

Luis Ortiz wasn't bringing gas as much as he was an entire fuel refinery.

Second inning. Middle of the Chicago order. Eight straight strikes, three touching 99 mph, three others at 100. And, more significant, he was one strike away from baseball's seldom-seen immaculate inning, meaning nine pitches and nine official strikes.

Fun stuff, right?

No, not the Pirates' eventual 8-3 cutdown by the Cubs on this sunny Sunday afternoon at PNC Park, their 97th loss of the season, their ninth in the past 10 games and blah, blah, blah.

No, I'm talking about the fun of ... eh, just watching this one kid pitch. Or of watching Johan Oviedo dominate the previous night. Or of watching Roansy Contreras do that every other time out. Or of watching Mitch Keller and JT Brubaker, a bit older but neither too old for anyone's plans, blossom over the summer. 

So when Ortiz, the 23-year-old flamethrowing righty who'd ring up seven Ks while walking two and allowing one hit over 4 2/3 innings in his third start since being promoted from Class AAA Indianapolis a week ago, reared back for that ninth pitch of the inning to Chicago's P.J. Higgins, he summoned not only more triple-digit heat but also the poise and the sense of priority to steer slightly clear of the zone:

Fouled it off. Dang.

But man, he was fine with throwing a slider just off the plate at the potential expense of the immaculate inning -- there've been only six all season in Major League Baseball, and the Pirates haven't had once since Juan Nicasio's in 2016 -- if that's what it'd take to simply record the out.

"I wanted to attack the hitter," Ortiz would tell me later, through interpreter Mike Gonzalez. "But I didn't want to just give him something to hit."

And he was aware of what was happening?

"Yeah, for sure. But it wasn't bigger for me than the game."

It showed in that 10th pitch:

Owwwwwwwwww!

Like I said, fun stuff.

For the moment, anyway.

____________________

I won't take this projection for the starting pitching any further than I've done already, other than to offer praise where due.

Well, actually, Derek Shelton did that for me when I asked afterward how it's felt to preside over a rotation that's posted a 3.31 ERA over the past 28 games, trailing only the billion-dollar Dodgers' 3.17 in the same span:

"You start to think about how, when Ben came in and talked about acquiring guys, developing guys, and how we're starting to see it," Shelton began, referring to Ben Cherington. "Two of those guys, in Contreras and Oviedo, we acquired through trades. Ortiz is a guy we developed. Keller's turned into a guy we can rely on. And I think all that's exciting. Starting pitching's how you build."

No question.

But here's the rub: When does all this building emerge from beneath ground level?

Look, I'm not about to forecast greatness for this rotation, not collectively, not as individuals. That'd be idiotic. Besides, in the modern game, it'd take far more than these five starters to fill out the innings needed. 

But I'm plenty comfortable forecasting this: Ortiz won't open the 2023 season in Pittsburgh. He'll be buried in Indy for the obligatory two months and change, aimed at saving a few bucks in arbitration a couple years from now. 

What's more, even though this rotation's got a remarkably young average age of 24 years, four days, while also reasonably being seen as an equally big part of the present, not a pinky finger will be lifted toward contending in 2023. Meaning, of course, that it'll be an encore summer of Josh VanMeter, Manny Banuelos and the endless parade of waiver claims, and it'll come with zero additional emphasis on adding from the outside, especially not where it relates to spending.

I'm not guessing at this, either. I wish I was.

It'll be yet another punt. For Year 4 of this front office.

And if anyone cares to be convinced by more than my behind-the-scenes reporting on this subject, when Cherington was asked before the game on his weekly radio show how he might fortify the roster from the outside, he cited the example of Jose Quintana, a bargain signing who'd become a (successful) reclamation project here: "That's what we're trying to do in free agency, is find that match. Identify players that the Pirates believe can help them but also that we can help them."

Translation: On the cheap.

In Year 4.

That obviously points to Bob Nutting, in that there's no reason this payroll, which now stands at $60,806,690 by Major League Baseball's Labor Relations Department metrics, or $73,840,940 for Competitive Balance Tax purposes per Pirates Prospects' Ethan Hullihen, shouldn't be at $100 million for 2023. And I'm referring to rock bottom. Not since 2016 has payroll here hit $100 million, and MLB's revenues and revenue sharing have only ballooned since this.

This part's on the owner. But then, he is what he is, afraid even to follow in his own footsteps that saw the Pirates' three most profitable seasons of his ownership having been 2013-15, the three in which they made the playoffs.

A-ma-zing how that works, huh?

It's almost as if ... more fans equal more money!

Thing is, there's a baseball component in all this, too, in that Cherington and staff genuinely feel -- and I'm not guessing at this, either -- that they're just not there yet. They rave about the talent at Class AA Altoona, particularly the pitching, as if Quinn Priester and company will arrive as a combined cavalry on one blessed day in which the clouds part, the angels play their harps, and Ks rain down from the heavens.

Maybe they will. I'm not about to dump on Priester, certainly. Terrific arm. All kinds of smarts.

But right here in Pittsburgh, there's four-fifths of a promising rotation right now. One that should, but won't, open 2023 as exactly that. And even if belief in Brubaker wavers, it's a group that could easily be augmented by ... hey, Quintana legit loved it here and will be a free agent again this winter. Plus another starter or two. 

The everyday eight's more complex, always, but tell me what I'm missing when I envision an outfield of Bryan Reynolds, Jack Suwinski and one of a handful of bona fide prospects, an infield of Ke'Bryan Hayes, Oneil Cruz and Rodolfo Castro, plus a first baseman and catcher. Out of the last two, two top-tier catching prospects, Endy Rodriguez and Henry Davis, aren't far away. And the first baseman ... I mean, that and the bench remain needs.

Could anyone at 115 Federal say with a straight face that an additional $30 million or $40 million wouldn't cover the return of Quintana, bringing back Roberto Perez as a stopgap behind the plate, a slugging first baseman, and a truckload of middle relief?

Imagine how little these people must think of anyone who follows this team to claim anything to the contrary.

If it's about delaying a payroll increase indefinitely, then sell the damned team.

If it's about waiting for bigger crowds to raise payroll, then go try and open a restaurant that serves worm-infested food accompanied by the promise that it'll be tasty once more of it's bought and digested.

If it's about bad acquisition, bad development, bad strategy ... then push the baseball-based plunger again. But for the right reason.

____________________

Losing takes its own toll. For me, the single-most defining trait of the Cherington/Shelton era's been how little outward anything's been shown through all ... this ... failure. And the worst part is, I don't see it as patience. I see it as acceptance. I see and hear process, process, process, but I also see nothing more than scant recognition of a sweep in Los Angeles.

This seems insane to have to type, but the process and the concept of winning can't ever be compartmentalized.

Maybe there are places where that approach flies. Pittsburgh ain't one of them. In our city, that just makes you a loser, which is how almost everyone sees the people running this operation. And good luck countering with solid evidence on their behalf.

Do me a favor and press play on this:

That's all 10 pitches of Ortiz's near-immaculate inning. I know it was the Cubs, but everything about his effort was brilliant. And he'd have lasted longer into the start, too, if not for the sloppiness behind him.

He lost this game.

No, really, once he'd walked Zach McKinstry in the fifth, he hit the 80-pitch limit that'd been set before the game by baseball operations, and Shelton's got no choice but to adhere. So on came Manny Bañuelos to serve up a five-pitch walk, then a meatball to Patrick Wisdom for a three-run bomb, and another waiver claim had made the defining imprint on a game.

Similarly, for the few veterans, there's Bryan Reynolds blasting his 26th home run, his second on the weekend, and half of them might as well have wound up in the Phantom Zone.

He lost this game, too.

They all lost. They're all losers. That's the feel. That's the repercussion of this six-month-long tryout camp.

That clubhouse was a morgue, unlike any I'd covered in quite some time in any sport. The faces were long. The strides dragged. No music. Barely a syllable spoken. Get showered, get dressed, and get gone.

And when I share this, it's the furthest from an indictment of the players. Or even Shelton, for that matter, since he's always got them putting in the effort. Rather, it's just reflective of all ... that ... losing. Of every exercise being a futile, fruitless one except for those that might improve the individual. It's every player for himself, almost as if by force.

When Cherington was hired and several times since, he's spoken of how development can't stop at the big leagues. But for this team, it does. Because winning's also a critical undercurrent -- no, over-current -- to getting better. It's not optional and, again, it can't be compartmentalized.

Can't build 'em up and beat 'em up at the same time.

JUSTIN BERL / GETTY

Oneil Cruz signs for a fan on appreciation day Sunday at PNC Park.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• Hayes made his first start since Wednesday, having been slowed again by lower back pain, and doubled to deep center in the fifth.

• 7-day concussion list: C Tyler Heineman

• 15-day injured list: RHP JT Brubaker (right arm inflammation), LHP Eric Stout (low back discomfort)

• 60-day injured list: Yerry De Los Santos (lat), OF Canaan Smith-Njigba (wrist), RHP Colin Holderman (right shoulder), RHP Blake Cederlind (elbow), RHP Max Kranick (elbow), C Roberto Pérez (hamstring)

THE LINEUPS

Shelton's card:

1. Ji Hwan Bae, CF
2. Bryan Reynolds, DH
3. Oneil Cruz, SS
4. Rodolfo Castro, 2B
5. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
6. Jack Suwinski, LF
7. Cal Mitchell, RF
8. Zack Collins,1B
9. Jason Delay, C

And for David Ross' Cubs:

1. Zack McKinstry, SS
2. Esteban Quiroz, 2B
3. Patrick Wisdom, 3B
4. Ian Happ, LF
5. Nico Hoerner, DH
6. Franmil Reyes,RF
7. P.J. Higgins, C
8. Alfonso Rivas, 1B
9. Michael Hermosillo, CF

THE SCHEDULE

Here come three more against the Reds, beginning Monday, 6:35 p.m., at PNC Park. Contreras (5-5, 3.68) will face righty Chase Anderson (2-3, 5.21). Alex Stumpf will have it.

THE CONTENT

Visit our team page for everything.