As of yesterday, I am no longer writing for Baseball America.
I’ve been having difficulties getting interviews from the Pittsburgh Pirates over the last month. My most recent story focus was going to be on Termarr Johnson. Last week, I sent an interview request to Greensboro.
Their response was asking me for a list of questions to pass along to Johnson. If you know anything about reporting, you’d know that this is a bush-league approach. It’s not how I operate, and thus I simply told them that I was writing a story about Johnson’s hitting this year, his development over the last two months, and his recent hitting streak.
After not getting a response for nearly a week, I emailed to follow up on the request. I was told that Johnson was not available for interviews at this time. When I asked why he wasn’t available, I was told “The team wants to prioritize more on the remaining games of the season right now.”
I clarified that “the team” was the Pittsburgh Pirates, but I received no such clarification of the individual making the call.
The reason given points to a development call. If the Pirates are blocking Johnson from media interviews to focus on his season, that’s not something which comes from the MLB media department. I emailed Pirates director of minor league operations John Baker, who responded:
“Interview requests for our players go through Brian Warecki and Patrick Kurish. They should be able to answer any questions you have on the organizations’ position on Termarr/interview. If he isn’t available for interviews there is nothing I can do.”
For clarification, the process I used to request an interview with Johnson was the same one I’ve used in the past. This is the process given to me by the department headlined by Warecki and Kurish. I went through this process for my Baseball America feature on Hunter Barco earlier this season. In that case, the interview was set up less than 24 hours after the request.
When I mentioned to Baker that it seemed like a development decision, due to the comment about the focus on the season, he simply asked who told me that information.
I contacted Warecki and Kurish, asking for clarification on why Johnson wasn’t available. That was August 12th. I also sent an email that day to Jack McMullen in Indianapolis to request an interview with Nick Yorke, since Johnson wasn’t going to be available. I also sent an email to Baseball America that evening, telling them about the situation, and how I was getting shut out by the Pirates. This isn’t the first report where this has happened. Last month, it took nine days to get a quote from Baker on Zander Mueth, with his request being that I email him questions, rather than a quick five minute phone call. In that case, due to the delays and a deadline, I settled for an email interview.
I didn’t hear from Warecki or Kurish, so I sent them a follow-up email a day later on the 13th.
On the 14th, I heard back from Baseball America, and they agreed it was probably best to make a change. I told them this was the right call, as I don’t want to hurt their publishing process. It’s unfortunate that some faction in the Pirates is dictating who covers their minor league system for such a prestigious outlet, simply by denying interview requests.
A few hours after posting on Twitter about leaving Baseball America, I finally received a response from Warecki. He claimed to be on vacation the last few days, though my emails were to both him and Kurish, with no response from either. Warecki responded:
“I was surprised by your original email about Temmar because that was never something directed from the Pirates, to my knowledge.”
I’ll add that I never heard back from McMullen in Indianapolis about the Yorke interview request.
I also don’t have an answer as to who decided Johnson was unavailable for interviews. Baker said it was Warecki’s department. Warecki said he had no knowledge. Greensboro said it was to focus on his season, which points to Baker’s department. The fact that I couldn’t hear back from Indianapolis for another player points to the system shutting me out.
This is something I’ve anticipated from this organization. The people running the baseball operations aren’t confident people. They’re the type of people who try to manipulate the information that gets out to an extreme level, and I’m one of the only reporters in the Pittsburgh media scene who carries his own agency and publishes a story that can’t be manipulated. I had been waiting for something like this to happen, where their answer to me was to simply block me out and make my job impossible.
Baseball America wasn’t a high paying job. It was a dream assignment, since the BA Prospect Handbooks were part of what inspired me to be a sports writer back in my college days. For years, I’d watch as the Baseball America contributors would write stories off my work on this site, and sometimes, plagiarize my quotes.
When J.J. Cooper contacted me in 2019 and asked me to be their writer, it was the easiest decision I made. I turned down other opportunities at the time, including with Baseball Prospectus. The most challenging aspect of the job was limiting my stories to a 350 word count. For example, this article is currently at 850 words. Through the editing help of Matt Eddy, I eventually got comfortable with that approach, and eventually became a better writer as a result.
I have nothing but appreciation for Baseball America, and they’re still going to be the industry standard for national prospect rankings on this site. I also couldn’t really grow from the job any longer, so it wasn’t difficult to tell them they should make a change. I’m actually looking forward to being able to speak freely going forward, without worrying about harming another outlet.
You can check out my story archives over at BA, with a subscription.
This site isn’t going anywhere. Live coverage and interviews haven’t been part of the game plan this year, and I’ll revisit that in the future. I’ll aim to have some behind the scenes conversations with Warecki and others to determine what happened here.
What I do know is that I was blocked out from multiple interview requests, given the runaround as to why, and all of this comes after I’ve been writing for the last few months the honest assessment that the Pirates are failing throughout their system, including their hitting development.
It’s concerning to me that a long-time credentialed reporter (Pirates Prospects for 16 seasons, Baseball America for 6) was shut out by the Pirates trying to do a story on the development of one of the biggest hitting prospects in the system, in a season where Pirates hitting development has obviously been an issue.
That should be concerning to anyone who cares about fair and accurate reporting of this organization.
Fair and accurate reporting will always be the focus at Pirates Prospects.
Pirates Drop in the System Rankings
MLB Pipeline was the latest to update their system rankings, dropping the Pittsburgh Pirates to 20th overall. This is the second set of rankings that have been released with the Pirates dropping on the lists. Baseball America previously had the Pirates ranked 27th.
Pipeline had the Pirates ranked 15th when Ben Cherington took over. Like the BA rankings, this is also the second outlet that has the Pirates minor league system worse after a five-year tank and rebuild.
The disclaimer is that Pipeline had some lofty ratings for the Pirates’ system the last few years. They were ranked second overall this time last year, and seventh overall in the 2022 midseason.
The 2022 midseason rankings included Henry Davis (20), Termarr Johnson (30), Quinn Priester (47), Liover Peguero (65), and Nick Gonzales (99) in the Pipeline top 100. It was described as “a very deep system, bolstered by trade acquisitions and some aggressive Drafts, especially [2021 and 2022].”
The 2023 midseason rankings included Paul Skenes (3), Termarr Johnson (23), Endy Rodriguez (42), Jared Jones (74), Anthony Solometo (89), and Quinn Priester (98) as top 100 guys. Skenes was doing a lot of heavy lifting for the number two overall ranking, but Pipeline felt “this remains one of the deeper systems in baseball with interesting bona fide prospects well beyond the Top 30.”
This year’s group has Bubba Chandler (41), Konnor Griffin (55), Termarr Johnson (84), and Braxton Ashcraft (96) as top 100 prospects. Pipeline noted that losing Skenes and Jones would deliver a hit, while also noting that the hitting has not progressed throughout the system.
Looking at the decline over the last few years, it’s hard to say the Pirates have benefitted from the top rankings.
Skenes and Jones lead the Major League rotation. Gonzales is the best second base option in Pittsburgh, but unproven over a full-season. Rodriguez is the best long-term catching option, but even more unproven than Gonzales. Davis has graduated, but is currently in Triple-A after struggling in the majors. Priester graduated, but he was also replaced in this year’s rankings by Nick Yorke.
Falling off the list were Peguero and Solometo, who both saw their stocks drop this year with poor performance. They’re both still young enough that you can hope for a rebound. Johnson also dropped from a top 30 prospect to 84th overall. The same age disclaimer applies here, and he’s been hitting better over the last two months. There’s a reason he was my first choice for what would have been by next Baseball America feature.
The Pirates went from having three prospects inside the top 50 over the last few years, to having one this year. Their highest ranked prospect in the past was in the top 20, and this year it’s Bubba Chandler at 41.
Simply put, these are disappointing results after five years of specifically tanking to build up the minor league system long-term. Especially since the graduated prospects have only produced two players who you can rely upon: Skenes and Jones.
Made to Order
The Major League Baseball Players Assocation announced they were suing the Pirates over the Sheetz patch that was added to the uniform this year.
According to Andrew Stockey of WTAE, the MLBPA said the team can’t use the image of three or more players in a marketing campaign for a uniform patch without a licensing agreement. The MLBPA demanded the Pirates halt the practice and pay monetary damages to the players.
Three hours after his report hit Twitter, Stockey received a statement from Senior Vice President of Communications, Brian Warecki:
“We were surprised by this complaint as we have been engaged in active discussions on this matter. We have since reached a verbal agreement and expect this complaint to be withdrawn.”
There’s a reason I posted about leaving Baseball America on Twitter. I didn’t get a response from Warecki until a few hours after those posts, and he was equally surprised. In this case, he claims that a verbal agreement has been reached since Stockey’s report.
The MLBPA and the Pirates don’t have a great history. The MLBPA has a years-old grievance against the Pirates, which they refuse to drop, regarding the Pirates’ low spending on MLB payroll. This was another case where the Pirates were looking to boost revenue, without a clear path to properly paying the players.
Pirates Prospect Watch
Michael Kennedy pitched five shutout innings for the Bradenton Marauders on Wednesday. I wrote about Kennedy earlier this year for Baseball America, in one of the few articles where I was given more than 350 words. Jhonny Severino hit a home run and a double in the same game. Indianapolis had Jared Jones on the mound, and strong hitting from Alika Williams, Henry Davis, Nick Yorke, and Liover Peguero. Read about all of Wednesday’s minor league action in the latest Pirates Prospect Watch.
Song of the Day
