PITTSBURGH — The Pirates suddenly have a lot of options at their disposal when it comes to the starting rotation. Holdovers Jon Niese, Francisco Liriano and Jeff Locke have been joined by youngsters Steven Brault, Tyler Glasnow and Chad Kuhl recently, and Gerrit Cole and Jameson Taillon are both slated to return shortly from injuries.
Over the break, general manager Neal Huntington and manager Clint Hurdle will hammer out some plans, but they first need to know the health of Cole and Taillon.
Cole made a five-inning rehab start with Triple-A Indianapolis Sunday, allowing two hits and no runs while striking out five. If Cole’s arm feels good, expect him to be in the first run through the rotation in the second half.
“We’ll see how he feels [Sunday],” Huntington said before the most recent outing. “We’ll see how he bounces back and in an ideal world, we’ll get him back out there as soon after the All-Star break as we can. But if needs another [rehab start], then we’ll get him another one.”
Taillon, on other hand, seems almost definitely ready to go both from what he told me earlier this weekend and what Huntington had to say.
“Jameson is doing great,” Huntington said. “We had planned, ideally, on giving him about ten days off around the All-Star break and bringing him back on the back end of the All-Star break. Then the opportunity presented itself to give him a longer down time. He’s feeling great and like Gerrit, likely to be back in the rotation somewhere in the back end after the All-Star break.”
So Taillon and the four veterans, then? Sounds easy enough. But Huntington wouldn’t commit to that, even before Niese blew up for five runs in 3.2 innings later Sunday afternoon.
“We’ve worked through it over the last couple of days,” he said. “The challenge is that we have the four-day All-Star break and we have the off day Monday. I think we have more off days the last two weeks of July than we had the first three months of the season. We’ll juggle some things around as a result. We need to see where Gerrit is today. We’ve lined out multiple scenarios, but nothing for public consumption.”
One option the Pirates have, between the break and the added days off, is to go with a four-man rotation for a little while. The Pirates won’t need a fifth starter coming out of the break until July 23, and then wouldn’t need one again until August 6. The Pirates could carry an extra reliever, piggyback starters or use the space to keep Josh Bell around for a little while longer.
It would seem that Cole, Liriano and Locke would definitely be locks for the rotation and Taillon a likely candidate. After Kuhl’s recent 2.1 inning start, a trip back to the minors wouldn’t seem out of place, and Huntington said that Glasnow still has some work to do, as well.
“There’s still some work there but the fastball plays at this level,” Huntington said about Glasnow. “In talking with him, it was the worst breaking ball he’s had in about two years. So he’s looking forward to getting a good one back again whether it’s his next start in Triple-A or the next start in the big leagues. He’s certainly a viable option for us going forward. Again, we’re piecing this rotation together based on health, based on off days and based on need.”
Huntington has said in the past that he thinks it’s a good plan of action to let pitchers process their first few starts and take some adjustments back to Triple-A to fine tune it. That’s something that all of the young starters could take advantage of.
“The young guys, as exciting as they’ve been, do remind us that there is a difference between Triple-A domination and success at the major-league level in a playoff environment,” he said. “It has been fun to see the energy, it’s been fun to see the abilities that these young players have brought forward. A really nice job by our scouting and development staffs.”
TRADE WINDS
With the Pirates recent surge in the standings, Huntington was asked if that has changed anything when it comes to his trade deadline outlook. He had a quick response: “It hasn’t.”
He did say, though, that some of the individual performances they’ve seen recently has changed the type of player he’s looking for.
“We’ve had some guys step forward that were scuffling,” he said. “The nice part is that bar is set high for someone that can come in here and make us better. We’ve got some guys that are doing some good things. Can we continue to do it consistently? Is there someone out there that can make us better? Sure. What’s the acquisition cost, what’s the opportunity cost? Time will tell if we are able to add as we have the last five years.”
CATCHING UP
The Pirates are getting some catching depth back. Francisco Cervelli and Elias Diaz are nearing returns, with Diaz doing “a nice job so far” on a rehab assignment and Cervelli likely to start the second half with one after taking his second straight BP session at PNC Park Sunday. Huntington has been impressed with Cervelli, whose rehab appears to be ahead of schedule.
“Really good on-field batting practice and the next is getting him to a condensed Spring Training,” Huntington said when asked of Cervelli’s next steps. “Getting him out, getting him some at-bats, and getting him back in here after a month off and get him ready to battle major-league pitchers. They’re in mid-season form and all of a sudden, he’s been down for a month now. The legs and the catching and the throwing, he’s been able to keep a lot of that, but to be able to really go battle major-league pitchers is not easy.”
Huntington also expects to take it easy with Cervelli’s workload when he first returns and may keep an extra catcher around.
“We’re going to have to protect him some, coming out, just from a physical standpoint. This is not a guy that we’ll run out there for 8 of 10 or 9 of 10, which is going to continue to make Chris Stewart’s progression or the decision between Kratz and Fryer an important one for us.”
PROSPECT NOTES
• Dovydas Neverauskas pitched a scoreless eighth inning while representing the Pirates at the All-Star Futures Game. It’s been a long road to prominence for the Lithuanian, and Huntington described the process that led him to be noticed and successful coming out of a non-traditional baseball market.
“It was identifying the traits that we talk about so often in the draft: a frame that we thought would turn into a strong body, the way the arm worked, the life to the fastball and getting to know the young man and knowing that there was some aptitude and some drive in there,” Huntington said. “It’s taken a bit of time because of the lack of baseball experience, but we believe the arm is going to continue to grow and develop and continued to get refined. He’s throwing more strikes. It’s a mid-90s arm, with a developing breaking ball and it will be a really fun story if he continues to grow and develop the way he is. He’s putting himself in position to be an option for us whether it’s this year or somewhere as we move forward.”
• Kevin Newman had his 17-game hitting streak snapped at Double-A Altoona Sunday, but the young shortstop is still hitting .333 and has impressed his coaches and development staff.
“He’s getting into his legs a little bit more and driving the ball,” Huntington said. “He’s done it in a way where he commands the zone and continues to keep the swing simple, using the middle of the field. To be in Double-A his first full season out and swinging the bat the way he is is great.”
