Where do the Pirates go after up-and-down first half?

This story was excerpted from Justice delos Santos’ Pirates Beat publication. To learn the complete publication, click on here. And subscribe to get it repeatedly in your inbox.

There’s a plethora of adjectives that can be utilized to explain the Pirates’ first half. Boring isn’t certainly one of them.

There was a 20-9 begin adopted by a 21-40 skid. There was Andrew McCutchen getting his 2,000th career hit and Henry Davis making his Major League debut. There was Mitch Keller making his first All-Star crew and David Bednar making it for the second yr in a row. And, if you happen to embody the All-Star break, there was the Pirates selecting LSU pitcher Paul Skenes with the primary total choose.

The second half can have its personal headlines. Oneil Cruz is on observe to return from his fractured fibula. The Commerce Deadline will present some roster shuffling. Earlier than all of that, let’s assessment the half:

What we have discovered: They’ve taken a step ahead, however nonetheless have steps to take

The Pirates are on tempo to have a greater document than final season, albeit marginally, and are doing so regardless of a litany of accidents, each prolonged and season-ending.

In current weeks, they’ve referred to as up prospects Davis, Nick Gonzales and Jared Triolo. Endy Rodríguez and Quinn Priester may not be far-off from making their debuts, too. That mentioned, the Pirates aren’t fairly prepared for postseason competition.

Keller loved a profession yr final season, and the query coming into this season was whether or not he may take one other step ahead. On the All-Star break, that reply is a powerful sure. Keller is on tempo for career-bests all throughout the board, and after headlining the Pirates’ rotation for the final three and a half months, he was rewarded with the primary All-Star collection of his profession.

Commerce Deadline Technique: Promote

On the finish of April, the Pirates have been on tempo to grow to be consumers on the Commerce Deadline for the primary time in a number of years. Given how the final 2 1/2 months have gone, the Pirates is likely to be best-served to make use of a well-known technique: commerce the crew’s veterans on expiring contracts.

That record contains Wealthy Hill, Carlos Santana and Austin Hedges. McCutchen has been included in commerce rumors as effectively, however he emphasised his need to stay in Pittsburgh.

Prospect to Watch: RHP Jared Jones (No. 10 for Pirates)

There’s a robust chance the Pirates will promote right-hander Priester, the No. 4 prospect of their group, someday through the second half, however Jones’ short-term future is extra up within the air. Jones earned a promotion from Double-A Altoona to Triple-A Indianapolis in mid-June, and though he’s initially struggled on the larger stage (5.12 ERA), he completed the primary half with 4 innings of one-run ball with seven strikeouts.

The Pirates’ beginning depth has taken a success, shedding JT Brubaker, Vince Velasquez and Mike Burrows, the group’s No. 9 prospectto season-ending accidents. If Jones can string collectively a run of excellent begins, it’s attainable he’ll attain Pittsburgh earlier than the top of the season.

Pirates’ Draft headlined by pitching

As talked about above, the Pirates elected to take Skenes, the right-hander out of LSU who has been dubbed a generational expertise, with the primary total choose within the 2023 MLB Draft. There have been rumblings that the Pirates would take somebody not named Paul Skenes or Dylan Crews, however ultimately, Pittsburgh didn’t get cute with its choice and rolled with arguably the perfect collegiate pitcher in additional than a decade.

“In attending to know Paul, what you perceive is that, from his background, you’d anticipate self-discipline and work ethic and a service-oriented teammate — all these stuff you type of anticipate,” basic supervisor Ben Cherington mentioned. “However what you additionally find out about Paul, as you get to know him, is that he’s acquired this thirst for getting higher. [He’s] not solely prepared, however desires to tackle the problem, whether or not that was going to Air Power Academy out of highschool or transferring to the [Southeast Conference] for his Draft yr. No matter’s subsequent, he’s going to need it.”

Skenes is much from the one pitcher who might be becoming a member of the group. Of the 21 picks the Pirates made, 14 have been pitchers. On Day 2, specifically, the Pirates used seven of their eight picks on pitchers. Of these 14 picks, just one, right-hander Zander Meuth, wasn’t a collegiate pitcher.

The enchantment of a lot of the pitchers the Pirates chosen doesn’t reside within the surface-level statistics. Many of the pitchers Pittsburgh picked had profession collegiate ERAs that start with fours, fives and even sixes. What the Pirates are betting on is projectability, instruments and traits the group values.

“We had an opportunity to spend so much of time with these gamers on the subject, across the subject, off the sector, attending to study who they’re and what they’ve been uncovered to, what the upside is in other places,” senior director of novice scouting Joe DelliCarri mentioned after Day 2. “We consider this assortment positively has some distinctive alternatives in some completely different areas to reap the benefits of progress and large gaps in progress that we predict we are able to faucet into with our coaches and participant growth.”

On the flip facet of going heavy on pitching, the Pirates did not choose a major outfielder. The one different time this millennium that Pittsburgh hasn’t chosen an outfielder was the abbreviated 2020 Draft, which was solely 5 rounds. DelliCarri mentioned the crew did not deliberately keep away from outfielders, including that among the infielders the group chosen may play outfield as a secondary or tertiary place.