BRADENTON, Fla. — The Pirates, it seems, have a problem with direction.
As part of our ongoing series of stories on the state of the team as the 2018 season approaches, Tim Williams wrote on Tuesday that despite the team’s trades of stars Gerrit Cole and Andrew McCutchen, the team remains in No Man’s Land.
That’s true. But even worse, they’ve been operating under the appearance of not having a plan at all. It isn’t clear to me what they were trying to accomplish with this offseason’s moves, and I follow the team closer than most.
General manager Neal Huntington has spoken about how his desire for transparency conflicts with his ability to execute moves that need to be made in the open market.
He makes a good point, but it’s not one that has endeared himself or his actions to Pirates fans.
Late night #Pirates Twitter poll:
Do you trust Neal Huntington to rebuild the Pirates?
— Alan Saunders (@ASaunders_PGH) January 16, 2018
It also doesn’t seem to be earning him many points in the clubhouse. From conversations I’ve had with players, they don’t seem to be any more enlightened on the subject matter than the rest of us.
With Huntington admitting that he’s not always upfront about his goals, it makes more sense to look at his actions. But even they are not clear.
Last season, the Pirates made the aggressive move to place Tyler Glasnow in the starting rotation and see what he could do with an extended run. Glasnow ended up bombing and posting a 7.69 ERA. But the fact that he was given 12 starts at the beginning of the year says a lot about how much the team was trying to win at that point. As in, not very much. No team that was trying their hardest to win in any given season would give 12 starts to a young, unproven pitcher, whose ERA kept steadily climbing as the Pirates stumbled through the first part of the year.
It doesn’t matter what Huntington said publicly, or what he said privately to the players. His actions were not that of a General Manager of a team that was trying to win at that moment. The Pirates had other options. They weren’t locked into Glasnow. They wanted to see if he could develop, perhaps some for 2017, but more with an eye to the future.
The Pirates were in last place and 6.5 games out of first when Glasnow was sent down on June 10. Then, the team got better. A week before the trade deadline, the Pirates were 2.5 games out of first place.
But at the trade deadline, the Pirates acted like a team that was trying to compete in 2018. The only player they traded was free-agent-to be Tony Watson, and they acquired George Kontos and Sean Rodriguez, who provided veteran options that would be most useful for a team that was trying to compete in 2018.
Then, the team traded Gerrit Cole and Andrew McCutchen in the offseason.
It’s been frustrating to cover, because I’ve had a hard time explaining moves that haven’t always made a ton of sense to me. It’s been frustrating for fans, who feel like the front office hasn’t been honest about its intentions.
But imagine for a moment playing for the team, and still being uncertain about the direction of the club. Imagine being a veteran like Josh Harrison and not knowing if the team has any intention of competing during the duration of his contract.
People want a plan. They can buy into a plan. Even if that plan involves losing in the short-term, a plan yields itself to hope, stability and trust.
The Pirates players that have complained publicly haven’t complained about the fact that Cole and McCutchen were traded. Freese said “it was time” and that he thought the front office was trying to win. Harrison said “there needs to be some type of communication to know that the plan is to win.”
The Pirates haven’t given the public any indication of what their true plan is right now. Their actions clearly belie their word at times. And the players aren’t getting any clearer of a picture.
Huntington said this week, “Obviously we’re missing something with the message.”
That’s a problem, and I believe that it’s certainly one that’s contributed to the level of angst in the clubhouse.
It could become a bigger problem in the future, when the Pirates approach this current group of young players with team-friendly contract extensions. The Pirates ability to compete depends on being able to sign those contracts. It doesn’t feel like they’re giving players a lot of reasons to want one right now.
