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Pirates Depth Chart: The Outfield Edition

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Welcome to “Pirates Depth Chart”, a new daily series that reacts to the latest injury for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Every day, at least one Pirates player gets injured, leading to the question “Who will replace THIS guy?”

Pirates Depth Chart is brought to you by our new sponsor: Bubble Wrap.

Bubble Wrap: Use it on the starting rotation.

Okay, maybe this won’t be a daily feature. Hopefully it won’t continue to be a daily feature. In fact, it’s not really a feature at all. It’s just making light of the fact that this is my third article this week analyzing the team’s depth, and second one reacting to an injury.

The latest injury goes to Bryan Reynolds, who was removed with a quad injury last night. The move seemed more precautionary, and Clint Hurdle said after the game that he might only be out for a few days. The Pirates’ outfield, however, has been hammered with injuries, which makes those couple of days without Reynolds a tight situation.

First, let’s look at the depth chart.

The Starters

LF – Corey Dickerson (10-day IL)

CF – Starling Marte (10-day IL)

RF – Gregory Polanco (Just returned from IL)

The Depth

Lonnie Chisenhall (10-day IL, rehabbing)

Melky Cabrera (active)

JB Shuck (active)

Jason Martin (active)

Bryan Reynolds (D2D)

Pablo Reyes (active)

Kevin Newman? (10-day IL, rehabbing)

You Don’t Want to Know

Analysis

Right now the Pirates are down two starters, and their top depth option. The next five depth guys (Reynolds included) have been holding their own. Melky Cabrera is putting up starter quality numbers. Shuck, Martin, and Reynolds have been posting solid numbers off the bench (Reynolds actually has monster numbers, but in 12 plate appearances). Pablo Reyes has struggled offensively this year, after a big September debut last year.

The good news is that the depth has been producing, to the point where the Pirates aren’t seeing a huge loss in production. The bad news is that the Pirates are at the end of their depth, which means they will now need guys returning to replace the guys going out.

That could happen soon with Lonnie Chisenhall. The team is also experimenting with Kevin Newman in center field, starting him there in his first rehab appearance last night. That move signals two possibilities. One is that they’re preparing to have Cole Tucker up for good as the starter, even when Newman returns. The other is that Newman might take the spot currently held by Pablo Reyes as a super utility player, backing up the middle infield spots and all three outfield spots.

Beyond those guys, the next best option in the minors looks like Trayvon Robinson, a 31 year old outfielder who has been in indy ball since 2015, and who has returned to put up some strong numbers in Triple-A early in the season.

It’s impressive that the Pirates are on depth option number six, and converting Newman into depth option number seven, yet still not falling apart.

But we’re to the point now where they need to have more guys coming off the IL than going on the IL. They should be good with Reynolds missing a few days, and could be fine without him for an extended period if Chisenhall returns soon. But one more injury could be what finally tilts this situation to being a disaster.

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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