BRADENTON, Fla. – There doesn’t look to be a lot of competition on the Pirates’ bench right now. We know that Chris Stewart will have the backup catching job, while David Freese and John Jaso will have spots on the bench. Adam Frazier has locked down a spot, and while the final position is technically up in the air, it could go to Alen Hanson due to his options situation.
If Jung Ho Kang isn’t ready to start the season, or an injury occurs, then there could be competition for a final spot. But right now the current bench has a question about whether the Pirates need a true backup at shortstop or in the outfield.
They have two players who can play shortstop. Alen Hanson and Adam Frazier both came up as shortstops in the lower levels. Frazier moved off the position in 2015 to be a super utility player. Hanson moved off the position the same year due to inconsistencies with his fielding. But the Pirates have had Hanson working at shortstop, and might be able to use him in a Sean Rodriguez type role, to provide a backup option when needed.
I asked Clint Hurdle yesterday if that would be the case, and whether he thought this bench would need a true backup shortstop.
“I don’t,” Hurdle said after some brief thought. “I think we need to find a guy that can play shortstop for the X amount of games that Jordy wouldn’t play shortstop. If you get in a situation where you lose your everyday shortstop, every team in the big leagues is going to be in trouble. We’ve got a guy who can really defend the ball at shortstop in our organization.”
The same question exists for the outfield. Frazier has been playing the position for two years. Hanson really started playing it more last year. John Jaso has been working in the outfield, and has played a few games there in his career. Jaso isn’t going to be a good fielder, and while Frazier and Hanson have a lot of range, you can tell they’re new to the position. But Hurdle said the current bench also doesn’t need a true fourth outfielder with the options they have.
“I think we’re going to continue to look for the best fits for our ball club to get us versatility, to give us options — running options, defensive options,” Hurdle said. “And I’m confident in our guys’ development patterns that they don’t have to be a true outfielder to go out and play a true outfield.”
I don’t want to say the bench is set, but if there are no injuries, I’d bet that those five guys listed above will be the Opening Day bench, with no true backup shortstop or outfielder.
Getting the Catchers Healthy Again
The Pirates had a lot of problems with the catching position last year. Francisco Cervelli, Chris Stewart, and Elias Diaz all went down with injuries, leaving them at one point with a combo of Erik Kratz and Eric Fryer in the majors. All three of the top catchers are now healthy again, which should put the Pirates in a much better situation this year.
The absence of those three strong defenders might have played a partial impact in the mid-summer struggles from the Pirates, especially losing Cervelli’s impact on the pitchers. Hurdle gave high praise to the Pirates’ starter.
“We believe he’s as good as there is in the game about bringing the best out of the pitcher, and making the guy on the mound feel like he’s the most important cat in the ballpark the night that he gets the ball,” Hurdle said.
Stewart isn’t much of a hitter, but has good defense and has been one of the most valuable backup catchers in the game in the past. He had a knee injury and had surgery last year. He’s now entering his age 35 season. The team is responding by easing his workload and putting him on a different schedule than others, which included a day off from work this week.
“There will be days with less activity, and days where we lighten up the workload for sure,” Hurdle said.
Despite that day off, Stewart didn’t really take a break, and stood in against Clay Holmes in a bullpen session. This didn’t go well, as Holmes hit Stewart with a pitch in the hip, sending him down.
The Pirates are also hoping for better health from Elias Diaz this year. Diaz had been the picture of health prior to 2016, but missed half a season with an elbow injury, the end of the season with a leg infection, and missed time this offseason with an oblique strain. Despite the injuries, the Pirates still see Diaz as a valuable member of the organization.
“We want to get him healthy,” Hurdle said. “We want to get him to continue catching, and carry a workload that’s significant. We like the player. We also like the young man. He is a guy that other organizations continue to ask us about. He’s not just a good player in our eyes. Other people watch. To have a catcher who can receive, who can call a game, who can throw, hit a little bit with some barrel, they’re hard to find and we’re glad we’ve got him.”
It would be rare for the Pirates to see the same level of injuries they saw last year, but it won’t be a surprise at all if there’s one injury among this group, leading to Diaz getting a shot in the big leagues at some point this year. With all three providing strong defense and good work with pitchers, they should give the pitching staff a boost that was absent last summer.
Other Notes
**Gerrit Cole only threw one inning of live BP yesterday, while every other starter threw two innings. Hurdle said afterward that this was planned ahead of time.
“No hiccups or setbacks. That’s what we expected for him the first time out,” Hurdle said.
**One of the fun parts of live BP is watching the matchups that take place. Live BP started yesterday, and the very first matchup was Gerrit Cole vs Andrew McCutchen. He also went up against David Freese and Starling Marte. On another field, Gregory Polanco went up against Ivan Nova and Felipe Rivero. Hurdle said that those matchups aren’t planned out, but it’s fun to see what comes out of certain fields.
“To watch Meadows have to face Watson on day one, you can’t draw that stuff up,” Hurdle said. “It’s not like we said ‘Let’s do this to Austin today.’ It’s going through the process, and it works itself out, and you see some of the things that happens. It’s fun.”
**On whether there were any surprises early in camp, Hurdle had an interesting note.
“Something happened to me yesterday that I didn’t have,” Hurdle said. “[Antonio] Bastardo might be one of the best bunters on our team. I didn’t have that! And he just kept smiling while he kept doing it. We kept adding velocity and he just kept doing it. He wasn’t with us last year. Maybe the Mets did some really good work with him.”
