Defense is the most under-appreciated aspect of the game of baseball. It’s almost expected, to the point that it’s taken for granted.
The Pirates have two of the best defenders in the game on their current roster. Ke’Bryan Hayes won a Gold Glove last year, and is continuing his work as one of the best defensive third basemen this year. He ranks second in defensive runs saved, first in UZR/150, and second in each of the Statcast fielding metrics. Hayes is currently on pace for a second Gold Glove award in a row.
Michael A. Taylor won a Gold Glove in 2021, and is one of the best defensive center fielders this year. He ranks third in defensive runs saved, second in UZR/150, and top five in each of the Statcast measures.
Using defensive runs saved as a gospel, Hayes and Taylor have combined to save 18 runs this season. Out of the Pirates position players who have played 300+ innings on the field this year, only three other players have positive value. Jared Triolo has five defensive runs saved, while Yasmani Grandal and Connor Joe have two each. Nick Gonzales is even at zero.
If you look at that list, you’ll notice some of the worst hitters on the team.
The league average for wOBA and wRC+ are .294 and 87, respectively. Out of the positive defenders on the team, only Gonzales (.293/86) and Joe (.310/98) rank average or better offensively. Meanwhile, the two best defenders are well below average.
Hayes has a .264 wOBA and a 66 wRC+, while Taylor has a .256/61 split. Both players are having their worst offensive seasons of their careers. Hayes has a career .307/92, which would be above-average this year. In parts of five seasons, he’s never had an individual year where he’s been below-average at the plate, until now. Taylor has a career .292/80 split, which would rate just below league average. The defense has remained consistent with both throughout their careers.
On the other end of the Offense/Defense give-and-take, Oneil Cruz rates as one of the worst defenders in the game at shortstop. Out of 30 MLB shortstops with 400+ innings, Cruz ranks 29th in DRS (-8), 25th in UZR/150, and 24th/25th in the Statcast metrics. Cruz is also one of the best hitters on the Pirates this year. His wOBA (.322) and wRC+ (106) are both above-average, ranking second on the team.
Last night, Cruz cost the Pirates a win with his defense, with three errors that led to three runs in the 5-4 loss. In the same game, Taylor made an incredible leaping catch at the wall in left-center with a man on first, potentially saving a run, and at least preventing runners at second and third with one out. In Tuesday’s win, Hayes had a rare miscue on a difficult ball to field, leading to two runs. He also had a clutch play, fielding a difficult shot and starting a 5-4-3 double play to end an inning and prevent another run from scoring when the game was close. He eventually helped the offense pull away with the win, drawing two big walks, and stealing two bases.
There is much more forgiveness among fans for a guy like Cruz, versus guys like Hayes/Taylor. That’s not to say that people don’t react to the errors from Cruz. Those errors are generally forgiven due to the offense, much more than the lack of hitting from Hayes/Taylor are forgiven for their defense.
Cruz also follows a trend in the game at shortstop. Here are some of the other worst defenders in the game at shortstop: Elly De La Cruz, Trea Turner, Willy Adames, Paul DeJong, and Mookie Betts. All of those players rank above-average in wOBA and wRC+, with a few from that group being among the best hitters in the game.
Only DeJong ranks lower than Cruz offensively, while Adames is on the same level. De La Cruz, Turner, and Betts all rank among the top 30 hitters in the game, out of 190 qualified players at all positions. Cruz ranks 87th/96th among that qualified group.
I don’t think either split is acceptable, whether it’s the offense-only from Cruz, or the defense-only from Hayes/Taylor. You’d like to see fewer costly errors from Cruz, and more timely hits from Hayes/Taylor. At the least, Cruz needs to improve his hitting to justify the poor defense at an important position, getting up to the range of some of the best players in the game. Cruz gets the billing as one of the best in the game, due to his Statcast record-breaking hits. He doesn’t yet have the consistency to reach his potential as one of the best hitters in the game.
There are some encouraging trends lately. While Cruz has had a horrible month defensively, he had a .366 wOBA and a 136 wRC+ in July. That put him in the top 60 of 175 qualified hitters during the month. He’s providing more offense at the plate to counter the decrease in defense.
Taylor was actually better than Cruz in July. He had a .376 wOBA and a 143 wRC+. Nothing in his career, or this season, suggests that these results will be sustainable. The hope would be that he remains with a floor of average offensive production to go with his elite defense.
Hayes continued to struggle with below-average offense, though his defense has improved after also seeing rare early struggles in that area of his game. He’s dealt with a back issue this year, and you wonder how much that has impacted him on both sides of the ball. He’s not only producing his worst offensive season of his career, but his power has been non-existent. On the season, Hayes is above replacement level, but he needs to be hitting more to properly complement the defense. That would allow him to return to the 3 WAR seasons he’s had the last two years.
Defense should be more appreciated. While it’s frustrating to see a lack of production at the plate, it’s easy to see Hayes and Taylor saving runs on the field on a regular basis. While it’s fun watching Cruz hit shots to the river, he doesn’t do that nearly enough to justify all of the runs he allows on the field.
There’s a give-and-take with defense.
Cruz is a full-throttle type player, which works well at the plate for hitting power, but can lead to uncontrolled defense in the field. That was shown on Wednesday when he ran out to left field and cut off Bryan Reynolds to commit an error on a ball that should have been caught by Reynolds in his zone.
Hayes and Taylor are more reserved, which works well for consistent defensive production, but doesn’t lead to results at the plate, when they need to throttle up their approach with more aggressive swings. And in the case of Hayes, there might be an injury at play which is further limiting his ability to aggressively swing.
I personally value defense over offense. A run saved in the field means the offense needs to produce two fewer runs to win the game. Cruz would have needed four RBIs to counter his negative production in the field on Wednesday, while Taylor’s 0-for-4 at the plate was forgiven for the run he saved in the field.
For most people watching the game, the priority will go to offensive production, with defense continuing to be taken for granted.
Draft Signing Deadline
The Pirates have signed 19 of 21 picks from their 2024 MLB draft class, after signing first rounder Konnor Griffin, 11th rounder Jacob Bimbi, and 17th rounder Andrew Patrick. You can read about all of those signings from the signing updates yesterday:
I also recently participated in a story by Fletcher Keel at The Towel Rack, a Western Kentucky sports site, discussing the outlook for Bimbi, who was drafted out of WKU as a college senior. Bimbi received an over-slot bonus in the 11th round of $180,000, getting the final $30,000 of bonus pool money, in addition to the $150,000 maximum teams can spend on individual picks beyond the 10th round. Check out my thoughts on Bimbi, and how he compares to previous 11th rounders.
The Pirates have until 5:00 PM EST today to sign any remaining picks.
The two remaining un-signed picks are 16th round RHP Brian Curley from VCU and 20th round RHP Taylor Penn from Woodford County High school. Curley is a college sophomore and Penn has a commitment to Western Kentucky. I wouldn’t expect either to sign. The Pirates have zero dollars remaining in their bonus pool, so unless either player is looking to turn pro for the $150,000 maximum, they’ll be difficult signs at this point. Curley could return to the draft next year, while Penn could improve on his draft stock in three years with WKU.
The Draft Pick Signing tracker has been updated with all of the moves and bonus figures.
Carlson Reed Promoted
The Pirates have promoted RHP Carlson Reed to High-A Greensboro. Last year’s fourth round pick was the best pitcher for the Bradenton Marauders this year, with a 2.43 ERA and a 96:42 K/BB in 77.2 innings.
Drafted as a reliever out of West Virginia, the Pirates moved Reed to the starting rotation this year. He’s got a three-pitch mix of average-or-better offerings, led by a fastball that routinely hits 95 MPH.
The drawback to his game has been control, but he showed improvements as the season progressed. Reed walked 26 batters in 39.2 innings the first two months of the season. He improved to 16 walks in 38 innings over his final two months with Bradenton. He was consistent with his strikeout rate, with 47 in the first two months, and 49 in the final two months.
Now, Reed will get a chance to see what he can do in the final month of the season against better competition at the A-ball level. The Pirates recently traded RHP Patrick Reilly, who was taken in the fifth round last year. Reilly led the minor league system in strikeouts with 108, while posting a 3.38 ERA in 88 innings. Reed is second in the minor league system in strikeouts, and his presence was part of the depth that made it possible to flip Reilly for an upper-level hitting prospect.
Trade Deadline Recap
If you need to catch up on the trade deadline, here is my column breaking down the overall approach.
Here are the seven trades the Pirates made:
- Pirates Trade Two Prospects For Bryan De La Cruz
- Pirates Trade For Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Sending Charles McAdoo to Toronto
- Pirates Trade Martin Perez to the Padres
- Pirates Trade Patrick Reilly to Baltimore For Billy Cook in a Prospect-Only Deal
- Pirates Trade RHP Quinn Priester to the Red Sox For Infield Prospect Nick Yorke
- Williams: Now and Later — The Quinn Priester/Nick Yorke Trade
- Pirates Trade LHP Luis Peralta For LHP Jalen Beeks
- Pirates Trade For LHP Josh Walker
Top Prospect Update
Yesterday I released the Version 3.2 update to my Top 50 Pirates prospect rankings. The Pirates had five top 50 prospects on the move at the deadline, and two top 50 prospects coming back in return. The Tiered ranking system put the moves in perspective, showing how the Pirates didn’t lose anything from the top of their system, while only losing extreme risk high ceiling guys or low ceiling/high floor guys in the depth part of the system.
Version 4.0 of the rankings will be released in the next week, after I finish re-grading every player in the entire system.
Pirates Prospect Watch
Liover Peguero hit his third homer in a week. Indianapolis and Altoona both saw every hitter in the lineup get at least one hit. RHP Zander Mueth made his debut in Single-A for the Bradenton Marauders. Read about all of Thursday’s action in the latest Pirates Prospect Watch:
Pirates Prospect Watch: Liover Peguero Homers For the Third Time in a Week
