We’ve reached the half-way point of MLB’s season. By now, teams are starting to find out exactly who they are in a broad sense. The Pittsburgh Pirates, despite a 20-8 start, have fallen from grace and sit at 39-43 heading into play on Sunday. With half the season gone in the blink of an eye, it is time for the Pirates mid-season report card.
The positional groups will be assessed as follows: starting pitchers, bullpen, catchers, infielders, and outfielders. Each group will be a given a cumulative grade while diving deeper into individual studs and duds. At season’s end, we’ll compare how the groups graded out over a full season compared to the halfway point.
Just as in a normal baseball game, we’ll begin with the Pirates’ starting pitchers.
Pirates Mid-Season Report Card
Starting Pitchers
Grade: B-
As a group, the starting pitchers haven’t been a complete disaster. Mitch Keller is in the process of becoming a high-end starter for the Pirates. There’s a good chance he’ll be a Pirates representative at the all-star game. Had Keller’s season not started as well as it has, I’d probably lean more in the ‘C’-range for this group. Keller is able to drag it up a bit.
MLB reserves and pitchers for this year’s All-Star Game will be announced Sunday.
Cedar Rapids natives Mitch Keller and A.J. Puk have made compelling cases.
— Tommy Birch (@TommyBirch) June 29, 2023
The rest of the rotation has faired a bit better than they were expected to as a group. 43-year old Rich Hill is eating innings and doing so in an effective-enough manner with a 4.45 ERA. Johan Oviedo has been up-and-down but when he’s on, he is on.
Injuries and underperformance has plagued the Pirates so far as well. Roansy Contreras came into 2023 as a guy expected to take a jump in year two. The league has punched back hard at Contreras. After being hit-around on Saturday, Contreras’ ERA sits at 6.15 across 67 1/3 innings. Contreras was moved to the bullpen but it hasn’t yielded better results.
Vince Velasquez, an off-season signing, required TJ surgery. This combination has led to Luis Ortiz and Osvaldo Bido graduating to the major leagues. Ortiz entered the season as a top prospect in the Pirates’ organization. Bido is 28-years old and figured to be Triple-A rotation filler. He’s made a handful of starts and hasn’t looked too far out of place in the majors.
This is a group that has kept the Pirates in games despite the offenses’ struggles to put the ball in play on a consistent basis.
Bullpen
Grade: C-
Had mid-season come a month ago, this group might’ve scored very close to an ‘A’. However, they’ve been a large reason for the Pirates’ recent losing ways. Once the surprising strength of the roster has regressed to exactly what they were expected to be: underwhelming.
David Bednar, one of the league’s underrated closers, is nails when he is called upon. His 1.44 ERA is an indication of that. The bullpen’s ERA as a whole comes in at 4.30, good for 23rd in the entire league. It has been rough sledding.
Early in the season, any arm that had been called upon by manager Derek Shelton seemed to get outs. Now, they’ve all come unhinged. Colin Holderman locked down the eighth inning early in the season bridging the gap to Bednar. He’s since cooled. Dauri Moreta looked like a sneaky potential all-star before his season took a turn back to the Moreta of old in front of everyone’s eyes.
Without naming every last option to enter a game out of the bullpen, the point can still be made. The guys who were looking to be big parts of the Buccos’ backend of the bullpen are struggling as of late or on the injured list. If the Pirates plan to make any sort of mid-to-late-season push, the bullpen’s performance must start to trend towards it’s April version and not the one from the past month-and-a-half.
Catchers
Grade: D-
The only reason the Pirates’ duo of Austin Hedges and Jason Delay isn’t a complete failure is Delay’s solid average and Hedges’ pitch-framing. Outside of that, there aren’t many redeeming qualities of this tandem behind the dish for Pittsburgh.
Hedges joined the Pirates on a one-year, $5 million AAV deal in the off-season. The signing came with a lot of scrutiny as Pittsburgh had two near-MLB ready catching prospects. All along, Hedges was signed to be a stopgap that could work with the pitchers and boost their performance.
The pitching staff seems to value Hedges’ ability to call a game and help them out with borderline pitches. That’s good and all but how important is that compared to his .168 batting average on the season. What about the pedestrian .449 OPS? He’s got a -15.3 oWAR. That is legitimately impressive at the halfway point of the season.
Jack Suwinski, Austin Hedges, Rodolfo Castro, and Ji-Hwan Bae are now a combined 1 for their last 92.
I have never in my life seen anything like that.
— Mike Nicastro (@MikedUpSports1) June 25, 2023
Delay isn’t as notable of a defensive catcher but he gets on base at a 33% clip which is the only thing preventing the catching position from being a complete black-hole. There is no doubt the Pirates should benefit from Endy Rodriguez‘s eventual promotion to the big leagues.
They’re in dire need of help at that spot. Hedges’ defensive contributions can’t be the deciding factor in getting him into the game on an everyday basis. They’ll be better off when Rodriguez gets promoted.
Infielders
Grade: C
The loss of Oneil Cruz is certainly taking a toll on the Pirates’ offense. He was expected to be a huge part of the heart of the order but was injured just a handful of games in the season. His natural power not being in the lineup undoubtedly hurts the Pirates.
Without him, the Pirates have had a rotation at shortstop led mostly by Tucupita Marcano. Marcano is a serviceable option but lacks the power and a strong arm to be the everyday answer for the Pirates. Rodolfo Castro and newly-promoted prospect Nick Gonzales have also pitched in at the spot.
Ke’Bryan Hayes continues to play Gold Glove-caliber at the hot corner but the hitting just hasn’t quite come around for him. Carlos Santana is the Pirates’ everyday first baseman and he’s recently caught fire. His overall numbers, however, lack the pizzaz you’d like from a first baseman.
A handful of others who have since been DFA or demoted to the minors have played as well. The above names have been handling the heaviest loads. None of them have stood out as having a special season but they haven’t been awful either. Thus, essentially making the grading of the infielders a relatively self-explanatory one.
Outfielders
Grade: B-
Even at 36-years old, Andrew McCutchen has turned back the clock. Maybe he isn’t NL MVP McCutchen anymore but he is playing some of the best ball he’s played in years. Pittsburgh has used him mostly as a DH to this point of the year attempting to keep him fresh. The other outfield options have been reliable and haven’t required him to move back into a fielding role.
Jack Suwinski spent the offseason refining his approach to be more selective at the plate. The early season results yielded some good results even thought he’s come back down to earth a bit as of late. Suwinski leads the Pirates with 17 home runs and, if healthy, could flirt with a 30-homer campaign.
Well Jack Suwinski has been hitting lefty’s very well these past few games.
That’s now 4 hits against a lefty in the past 3 games
— Kody Duncan (@KodyDuncanPGH) July 1, 2023
Bryan Reynolds signed the first nine-digit contract in Pirates’ history. He isn’t living up to the all-star status the Pirates would love out of him but he’s still providing quality baseball nonetheless.
Rookie Ji Hwan Bae has provided a handful of electric moments to go along with his fair share of rookie moments. Connor Joe has been a solid bench bat but nothing overly spectacular. 2021 first-overall pick Henry Davis has been electric in his first few weeks with the big club. Even minor league Rule-5 selection Josh Palacios has played some good ball for Pittsburgh. Palacios slots in as the lead-off hitter for the club on occasion.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Pirates’ top hitters are their outfielders which is evident in the position in the lineup.
Overall Pirates Report Card Grade
Grade: C-
It’s been a disappointing last two months after starting out the season as the National League’s hottest team. All good things come to an end and it seems that has happened for the Buccos. Likely to sell at the deadline, the familiarity is starting to set in and fans are simply hoping that a guy like McCutchen won’t be traded for a random prospect to kick the can down the road.
They sit four games under .500 and sit 4.5 games back in the NL Central. Theoretically, there is a road where they get hot again and push for the division title . It is a fairly winnable division. However, realistically, the Pirates will fade into obscurity and set their sights on truly competing in the next few seasons as their wave of highly-touted prospects continue to graduate to the big leagues as they’ll likely add one of LSU’s Dylan Crews or Paul Skenes in just a few days.
Photo Credit- Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Players Mentioned- Mitch Keller, Rich Hill, Johan Oviedo, Roansy Contreras, Vince Velasquez, Luis Ortiz, Osvaldo Bido, David Bednar, Colin Holderman, Dauri Moreta, Austin Hedges, Jason Delay, Endy Rodriguez, Oneil Cruz, Tucupita Marcano, Rodolfo Castro, Nick Gonzales, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Carlos Santana, Andrew McCutchen, Jack Suwinski, Bryan Reynolds, Ji-Hwan Bae, Connor Joe, Henry Davis, Josh Palacios
