The 2020 MLB season is going to be unlike any other in MLB history. Instead of a marathon, teams are now on a sprint for the playoffs. With only 60 games this season there is not much time to spare as every team looks to jump out of the gate fast. With new rules in place for the season, including the universal Designated Hitter, the Pittsburgh Pirates are going to have to develop new ways to win.
For the Pittsburgh Pirates, the shortened season can go one of two ways. It is either an opportunity for Ben Cherrington and his staff to show they have the pieces to be a competitive team or to see what they have for the future. Whatever path Cherrington and the Pirates decide to go, it will make for some exciting baseball this season.
The Pirates have some talented players on the current roster who are looking to be leaders this season. Guys like Josh Bell, Bryan Reynolds, and Joe Musgrove are looking to lead the team into the future. However, waiting on the horizon include the likes of Will Craig, Ke’Bryan Hayes, and Jared Oliva all waiting to be able to make an impact at the major league level. The Pirates saw their chances of making the playoffs increase from 0.3% to 13%, but is that enough to be competitive in 2020?
Starting Lineup
The starting nine for the Pittsburgh Pirates looks to be a solid group of guys this season. Five of the eight positions on the field are returning, and the Pirates will also be welcoming back another power threat to their lineup. Gregory Polanco will be back after back-to-back injury-shortened seasons in 2018 and 2019. While a lot of the questions surrounding this Pittsburgh Pirates team fall on the pitching side of things, there are a few key questions that need to be answered on the offensive side of the ball as well.
If the Pirates are going to be a playoff-caliber team in 2020, a lot of things are going to have to go right, and it will all depend on the development of some of their key players and how they will fit into this new-look lineup that all National League teams will have this year.
Young Stars Start to Shine
One of the positives to take away from the 2019 season was how well the younger Pittsburgh Pirates players performed. In total, nine different Pirates players made their MLB debuts last season. To go along with all these MLB debuts, the Pirates also had two guys in their first full seasons of Major League Baseball.
These players will also be key to the success of the Pirates as the calendar turns to 2020. Of the nine projected starters this season, three of them will be in their first-ever Opening Day lineup. How they develop as the season goes along might go a long way in telling how the team does this season.
Kevin Newman
Kevin Newman looked as though he would be playing in a backup infielder role throughout the season. However, Erik Gonzalez suffered a fractured collar bone on a collision in early May, and Newman was in as the starting shortstop. After a disastrous introduction to Major League Baseball in 2018, Newman found a home at the top of the Pirates starting in 2019.
He ended up slashing .308/.353/.446 while appearing in 130 games played and showed decent power with 12 home runs and 64 RBI. Newman doesn’t show as much patience as one would like to see from a leadoff hitter with a 5.6% walk rate, but he does make a lot of contact. His BABIP was .333 last season and he uses the gaps at PNC Park effectively with 38 extra-base hits. Newman is not a guy who is going to steal a lot of bases, but he has good speed at the top of the lineup.
Bryan Reynolds
At the time he was called up to the majors in 2019, not many people knew the name Bryan Reynolds. He was one of the pieces picked up in the Andrew McCutchen trade before the 2018 season and had success in the minors.
Reynolds ended up taking the League by storm with a .314 average, 16 home runs, and 68 RBI and was in the thick of the NL Rookie of the Year race. Reynolds essentially showed he could do it all, hitting for both average and power last season. His biggest asset is being able to find the gaps in PNC Park, picking up 57 extra-base hits last season. His 16 home runs were the most he has ever hit at any level of professional baseball, and he showed good raw power with a .503 slugging percentage.
It is yet to be seen whether or not he will be able to produce those same power numbers consistently, but he has shown an ability to hit the ball consistently. He never had a batting average below .300 in his professional career and has hit the ball well at every level.
The Pittsburgh Pirates DH Is ………..
One of the new rules implemented for 2020 was the designated hitter coming to the National League. This new rule presents both some advantages and disadvantages to the Pirates lineup. On one hand, no Pirate on the active roster has ever been a true designated hitter, and the Pirates don’t have a true power threat.
On the other hand, the designated hitter can take a guy like Colin Moran or Josh Bell, who are not so strong with the glove, off the field and bring on one of the Pirates rookies. It will be a revolving door at the DH position throughout the season, but some players are going to benefit more from it.
Josh Bell
The one true power threat when looking up and down the Pittsburgh Pirates lineup is first baseman Josh Bell. He had a breakout season last year, hitting .277 with a career-high 37 home runs and 116 RBI. Bell took harsh criticism from some scouts before the 2019 season, and he used that as motivation for a breakout year. As he headed into the month of June he was already at 18 home runs, one away from his career high, and 41 extra-base hits. He was on pace for 112 total that season, which put him on pace to break the single-season extra-base hit record of 119 set by Babe Ruth.
He finished the year with a .569 slugging percentage and belted 37 home runs to go along with 37 doubles. Defensively, Bell has not been the strongest glove, posting a .988 fielding percentage last season while committing 13 errors. If he is moved to the Designated Hitter spot, it would allow him to focus on his offensive numbers while allowing a guy like Jose Osuna or Will Craig to get some reps at first base.
Colin Moran
There has been no hiding the fact that third base has been a defensive liability the last two seasons. Colin Moran has been the starter at the position and posted fielding percentages of .962 and .938, respectively. He doesn’t have the range that most third basemen have, and that makes some plays that are routine for some more difficult for Moran. However, offensively he has been a pretty strong presence in the lineup.
He hit .277 for the second year in a row and hit 13 home runs while driving in 80 RBI. While his home run power wasn’t that impressive, he set a new career high with 30 doubles during the season. He also came through in the clutch finishing second on the team with a .316 average with runners in scoring position. Moving Moran to DH would allow him to work on developing his power while giving him more opportunities to drive in runners in the middle of the Pirates lineup.
The Pittsburgh Pirates Starting Rotation
One of the biggest questions for the Pirates in 2020 is how their starting rotation is going to perform. They are already without two of their top starters, Jameson Taillon and Chris Archer, and are relying on several young guys. As it sits now, the starting five projects to be Joe Musgrove, Mitch Keller, Trevor Williams, Derek Holland, and Steven Brault or Chad Kuhl.
Overall, the Pirates pitching staff as a whole ended up underperforming in 2019, posting a team ERA of 5.18. The starters were not much better, as the guy with the lowest ERA — 4.19 — was Dario Agrazal, who is no longer on the team. All five starters are looking for a bounce-back season, and they are going to need some of their young guys to step up and lead the staff if they want to be successful.
Joe Musgrove
With Taillon and Archer out, Joe Musgrove will be counted on to step in as the ace of the Pirates for the 2020 season. Musgrove had the best season of his professional career last year, going 11-12 with a 4.44 ERA in 170 1/3 innings. Musgrove set new career highs in innings pitched, strikeouts (157), and wins (11) that season.
He had his share of ups and downs throughout the season and made a tweak to his mechanics at the end. As a result, he had his best month in September, where he posted a 2.25 ERA over three starts. Musgrove will be counted on to be both the vocal leader and statistical leader. He has both the passion and talent to back it up.
Mitch Keller
Mitch Keller made his much-anticipated major league debut in 2019, but things didn’t go as expected. He made 11 starts last season and went 1-5 with a 7.13 ERA in what was an up-and-down season for the rookie. His MLB debut was a good telling of how the rest of his season would go. He made his debut on May 27th, 2019 against the Cincinnati Reds and gave up six earned runs on seven hits over four innings.
However, all six of those runs allowed came in the first inning, and he ended up throwing three scoreless innings while allowing one hit the rest of the night. He had rough stretches through May, June, and July and finally put it all together in September. Over four starts that month, Musgrove posted a season-best 4.32 ERA and turned in two quality starts at the end of the year, pitching to a 2.70 ERA in 10 innings.
Outlook
With the 2020 season being only 60 games, anything can happen. The Pittsburgh Pirates are middle-of-the-road when it comes to the strength of schedule as they will be taking on both the National League and American League Central. While the NL Central brings its own set of challenges, the AL Central might provide the Pirates with an opportunity for success.
The last time the Pirates played the AL Central was in 2018, and they ended up going 15-5 in their 20 games. They have an all-time winning record against every AL Central team except the Detroit Tigers, whom they have gone 32-40 against in 72 games. If the Pirates can have success against the AL Central again in 2020, that is going to help their chances of having a winning record.
However, they have a stretch where they play seven of nine games against the dreaded Milwaukee Brewers in late August, whom they went just 4-16 against. Look for the Pittsburgh Pirates to finish with anywhere from 23 to 25 wins. They should have success against the AL Central, but the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, and Milwaukee Brewers are going to provide stiff competition throughout the season.
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