With the Spring Training schedule finally coming to a close, the long marathon of a regular season is set to begin on Thursday against the Cincinnati Reds.
As we close the books on Grapefruit League play, here are some final observations when it comes to the 2023 Spring season.
JT Brubaker, And The Importance Of Depth
I’ve already mentioned it once, and I will probably say it again this season, but with the baseball schedule being a marathon, depth is absolutely critical if you are going to get through all 162 games.
One of the standouts this spring was JT Brubaker, especially the amount of strikeouts he was getting. There was some hard hit balls still, yes, but it looked like the stuff was really starting to come together.
JT Brubaker in Spring:
17.1 Innings
26 Strikeouts
3 Walks
1.10 WHIP pic.twitter.com/HxHgKYgfIt— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) March 21, 2023
Unfortunately news came out that he would start the year on the Injured List due to elbow and forearm discomfort, which is always a scary reason to miss time for a pitcher. Hopefully it is a precautionary thing to make sure he can make it through the entire major league season.
It also highlights the importance of depth, especially on the pitching side. There were a lot that were upset about Johan Oviedo, and to an extent Luis Ortiz, potentially not making the major league roster, especially because it was a direct result of Vince Velasquez being signed.
The Pirates did the right thing in that, even if it doesn’t work out for Velasquez. There was no way they would only need the five original starters, and it gave some added development time for Oviedo and Ortiz, among others, who still have a few things they could have ironed out before taking on a full-time major league rotation spot.
Jack Suwinski Needs To Leave Spring Results In Florida
Spring Training is fun in the sense that we haven’t seen baseball in a few months, and a lot of the players are coming in with something new they’ve been working on and we get to see it for the first time.
Jack Suwinski came into camp with a new batting stance, but got a lot of the same results in the game. The 19-home runs were nice last year, and seems to be a big reason why his roster spot was basically secured, but weren’t really backed up by a lot of analytics. He also had a growing strikeout concern to the point he finished the season with a 30.6% strikeout rate.
Even going to Indianapolis didn’t do much, because he struck out 37.7% of the time there too. That’s carried over into spring, with him striking out 23-times in 50-plate appearances. Maybe spring stats don’t mean much, but I’d be more willing to buy into a swing and miss issue that was existent the previous year, over someone who is flashing more than their usual amount of power.
He’s a strong defender, although some of that value gets lost playing center. Despite the strikeouts, he still was able to hit plenty over the fence.
I’m just not sure hitting a home run and then looking lost over the next couple of days will be enough to keep his job going into the season.
Bullpen Still Has Question Marks
The bullpen has plenty of options to go with this upcoming season, but you would have liked to see someone step up and really grab ahold of a late inning role going into the season.
Jarlin Garcia would have been one of them, but there’s no time table when he will return. Jose Hernandez has shown flashes, but might need to be sheltered a bit early on in the season as he grows his sea-legs.
He may have started the spring on the outside looking in, but Dauri Moreta has really looked good this spring, and even if he doesn’t make the club originally, he could be one of the first options.
Pitching may be the side of things where stats may mean the least, shorter outings and small sample sizes mainly why, but there was just so much hard contact allowed throughout sprint.
For the sake of not burning out David Bednar for the second straight year, hopefully the results were due on the bullpen working on something new or something they’ve previously struggled with.
Final Thoughts
Some more rapid fire thoughts as spring closes up;
— Catching is the one position maybe where defense still beats out offensive production. That defense has to grade out high enough to make up for that drop off though, and not sure at this moment it is.
— Travis Swaggerty not making the roster had to be a gut punch for a lot of people, especially with the lack of a ‘true’ center fielder on the current roster. Between his performance in spring, along with his better-than-it-looks 2022 in Indianapolis, I get the feeling we see him sooner than later, and could still be among the plate appearances leaders on the team by the end of the season.
— Health seems like the last obstacle for Ke’Bryan Hayes, and if he stays healthy, and keeps pulling the ball the way he’s been in spring, this could be the season for him.
