On May 10th, the Pittsburgh Pirates called up infielder Nick Gonzales. The next day, they called up top pitching prospect Paul Skenes.
Two players don’t make a huge difference in a 162-game season played by a 26-man roster. However, the callups of Gonzales and Skenes represented a shift in the approach by the Pirates this season. That shift was the future arriving in the present.
Prior to the callup, Gonzales was batting .358/.431/.608 in 137 plate appearances in Triple-A. He’s since carried this new offense over to the big leagues, hitting .308/.360/.500 in his first 87 plate appearances this year. I wrote at the end of last week how his approach is finally living up to the lofty scouting reports when he was taken seventh overall in 2020.
Skenes was taken first overall last year, and I wrote a lot about him being the obvious choice for the Pirates around draft time. He’s lived up to the hype so far. In 27.1 innings in Triple-A, Skenes had an 0.99 ERA and a 45:8 K/BB ratio. He’s since put up a 2.45 ERA in 22 innings in the majors, with 30 strikeouts and five walks. The Pirates have a young ace at the big league level.
Gonzales and Skenes were two important additions. They were part of the rebuild by the Pirates under General Manager Ben Cherington. The hope with each is that the Pirates could build around them in the future to have a better shot at winning.
Now that they’re both on the team and performing, let’s look at the rest of the big league squad surrounding these first round picks.
The Pirates Before May 10th
For the rest of this article, I’m going to divide the Pirates into four groups: Offense, defense, starting pitching, and the bullpen. It’s difficult getting all of these facets of the game working together, even if you have the talent. Still, there are some areas where the Pirates lacked talent prior to the callups of Gonzales and Skenes.
The Hitting
The Pirates did not have a good offense prior to Gonzales arriving. They were batting .220/.301/.329 as a team, with all of those results ranking in the bottom-third of the majors. The .284 wOBA ranked 27th, and the 82 wRC+ ranked 26th. This was one of the worst offenses in the game.
Prior to the arrival of Gonzales, there were only six hitters who ranked above the team average, which was among the worst in the majors. Those hitters were:
- Connor Joe (.359 wOBA/133 wRC+, 124 PA)
- Joey Bart (.348/126, 49)
- Bryan Reynolds (.325/110, 168)
- Edward Olivares (.301/93, 88)
- Oneil Cruz (.300/93, 144)
- Ke’Bryan Hayes (.291/86, 149)
From that group, only Joe, Bart, and Reynolds looked like players who could upgrade an average offense. It wasn’t going to be difficult to upgrade this group with a performer from Triple-A. The Pirates were still hoping for upgrades from their current group.
The Defense
It’s difficult getting a team defensive metric. It’s also difficult to get splits. The Pirates rank 18th on the season in defensive runs saved (DRS), with +4. Their defensive runs ranked 28th in baseball. Among the Statcast metrics, they ranked 27th in outs above average (OAA), and 24th in fielding run value (FRV).
I’ll dive into the individual standouts in the defensive section below.
The Rotation
The Pirates have had a good rotation all year. In fact, that’s been the biggest surprise for me. The rotation looked like it could be a problem heading into the year. Their decision to allow Jared Jones an Opening Day roster spot helped. The success from Bailey Falter this year has also been a boost.
The Pirates ranked ninth in baseball with a 3.64 ERA from their starters through May 9th. Technically, Skenes arrived on the 11th, but the results are similar through May 10th, when Jones allowed two runs in six innings.
The FIP of the rotation ranked 19th, showing there was some expected drop-off to come. The biggest regression candidates at the time were Falter (4.34 ERA vs 4.91 FIP) and Quinn Priester (3.86 vs 6.86 in 21 IP). Adding Skenes to the mix has brought sustainable high-end performance from another starter.
The Relievers
The bullpen looked like it was going to be a strength of this team, led by David Bednar and Aroldis Chapman. That hasn’t been the case. The Pirates bullpen ranked 16th in the majors in ERA, with a 3.87 mark on May 9th. Their 3.57 FIP ranked 11th. At worst, this was an average group. The problem is that the struggles were coming from Bednar and Chapman, which makes upgrades more difficult.
After the games on May 9th, Bednar had a 9.69 ERA in 13 innings, with a 4.76 FIP. Chapman had a 4.50 ERA and a 4.06 FIP.
There’s not much you can do when your expected best performers aren’t performing.
The Pirates Since May 10th
When the Pirates called up Skenes, they already had a rotation that was performing well. This is the ideal scenario, where a team calls up a prospect because he forces his way onto a team, and not because the team has an urgent need.
Gonzales represented an urgent need. The Pirates didn’t call him up immediately, giving him plenty of time to show his consistent hitting in Triple-A. He’s carried that over to the majors, but most importantly, he replaced one of the worst hitting performers in Jared Triolo.
