DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: Where/how to upgrade?

DK’s Daily Shot of Pirates: Where/how to upgrade?

[Music] [Applause] Hey everybody, it’s the day before the World Series, which in Pittsburgh means it’s just some other day in October, but we’re going to talk ball anyway. Good morning to you. Good Thursday morning. I’m Dan Kawaj of DK Pittsburgh Sports. This is Daily Shot of Pirates. It comes your way bright and early every weekday. If you’re into football andor hockey, I also offer daily shots of Steelers and Penguins. The same place that you found this. There won’t be a more prominent baseball related question that’s posed anywhere related to the Pirates all winter long. Then this, how are they going to address the hitting satisfactory? Now, I can’t even really guess as to what it would mean to improve the offense to the degree that the Pirates could make the playoffs in 2026. I will pause for laughter. Okay, we done. That’s not me. That was Travis Williams. Travis Williams was the one who brought up at the really awkward Don Kelly’s extension. We’re keeping Ben Cherington press conference that couldn’t have fallen flatter onto its figurative face than it did. Travis was the one who said the goal is to make the playoffs. Mentioned the word playoffs several times. Enough to almost convince you that there could be repercussions for not making the playoffs. Well, if you’re going to make the playoffs, you got to be able to hit a heck of a lot better than this. meaning what the 2025 Pirates did. Because the 2025 Pirates had a 655 OPS, which would be bad if you were only comparing them to the next worst team in all of Major League Baseball. That would be the Guardians, who were 669, a full 14 points better than your dead last buckos. Even that pales to the difference between the Pirates hitting 117 home runs, also dead last, compared to the next to last Cardinals at 148. 31 more home runs. Look, if the Pirates next year hit 31 more home runs, they’d move up to 29th. There’s your daily reminder that they kept this GM. They they still employ him. Wait, what’s more, they’re entrusting him to improve this offense. And apparently, not according to me, but according to the team president who precides over the general manager, they’re supposed to make the playoffs. Well, this might or might not surprise you, but the two teams that are going to participate in this World Series, I am told, are the Dodgers and the Blue Jays. and they finished second and third in OPS in that order. Dodgers at 768, Blue Jays at 760. The only team with a higher OPS and almost is unfair is the Yankees because they play in that band box of theirs at 787. All of the other playoff teams, certainly the ones that advanced at least around are in the top 10 or 12. All of them. and that would be the Yankees and the Phillies, Mariners, and the Brewers and the Tigers. So, what you’d plausibly have to do to assure getting into the playoffs, but really to at least pretend you’re going to try to have some success in the playoffs is to be in the top dozen or so hitting teams. Now, I could stop this episode right here and say there’s no chance of that happening. Let’s just move on to the next segment. But I’m instead going to look at the starters, the everyday guys that the Pirates have around their diamond now and ask which of those ask you which of those can be upgraded in what form? How do you do that? And let’s operate on the very safe premise that the payroll is not going to go up. Okay, we’re going to we’re actually going to make an honest attempt to make this offense better. You ready? All right, we’re going to start behind the plate where there’s a combination of Henry Davis and Joey Bart. You can’t give up on Henry. Said that a million times. Number one overall pick. The embarrassment’s already bad enough. What are you going to do? Replace Bart with somebody? You still got to hit Henry. You still got to send Henry out there. So Henry either hits or he doesn’t. And nothing about the hitting instruction or the people doing it changed the philosophy. Nothing. Nothing changed. So, it’s just got to be a miracle that falls from the sky. At first base, you do have your low power platoon hitting first baseman, Spencer Horwitz, who had a nice finish as far as hitting a bunch of singles goes, had a few doubles, too, ended up with 11 home runs. That’s not going to cut it at that position. So, what you’d need to do is to have somebody else come in and be a platoon, a right-handed hitter. But here as well, you’re not going to spend money to get that. And there isn’t anyone internally that would move anybody’s needle. Second base, you’re sticking with Nick Gonzalez. Another first round pick. Every once in a while, looks like he’s a guy that’s just going to grab that position and stick by it for years. And then he ends up at 260 for a batting average, 299 for an OBP, which is not good. 661 for an OPS, which is not good. Five home runs. Not good. Especially when he does hit them, they look really convincing. 30 RBI’s. And but you’re not going to let him go. You’re not going to say, “Hey, see you, Nick.” It’s not going to happen. At shortstop, this is going to be kind of a trick because whoever it is that I mentioned, somebody else can come back with and say, “All right, well, Connor Griffin’s going to be up.” Well, Griffin’s not gonna be up at the start of the season. And and here, too. That’s not me talking. Cherington was asked about that late in this past season and gave 700 different clues within his response to suggest that he would not want Griffin up to start. He’s never taken an at bat above the double A level. So, this would not match anything that’s been done with anybody, including Paul Ske for Griffin to just open up in Pittsburgh. Third base will be Jared Triolo because of the magical glove and the fact that he might have spared himself another trip to the miners with a nice offensive surge down the stretch. But he’s not going to hit either. He’s just not. And if he does, it won’t be what you need from that specific position. Nobody even knows who to be the left fielder. If Tommy Fam is brought back and he continues to hit the way that he did in the second half, then you’re going to have a continuation in the broadest sense of the 2025 Pirates. You’re not going to have something special happening there. And remember that what we’re looking for here is places for growth. Center field, I mean, O’Neal Cruz is a constant place for growth, but you can’t give up on him. He had 20 of your almost zero home runs. And whether this is plausible or not, he still comes with that, man, if only somebody could untap all of that feel. And he might be that way when he’s 30 for the simple reason that he can do things that other humans can’t do. However, from a team standpoint, a lot of other humans have an OPS higher than 676 in the majors. And that thanks to his 200 batting average. 2000 was what you got from him in 2025. I’ll repeat, he’s not going to get better. The same hitting instruction, the same people. We’re just running back with it. It’s all we’re doing here. Brian Reynolds, you can say the same thing about Yes. Does he hold down right field? Of course he does. Can you trade him? Can you give up on him? Can you move him somewhere? Um, you know, I’m not sure this is the time to do that. You don’t like to trade people at their lowest possible value, and that’s where he is as we are speaking. He was down in every category. 16 home runs for a guy that’s just been a lock for 20 to 25, 245 average, 318 OBP, 720 OPS. That’s That’s not who he’s been. So, do you move him just to move him? Well, even if you resolve to doing that, you’re not necessarily going to get a suitor. He costs a lot of money for a lot of years still. And then there’s Andrew McCutchen at DH. I’m not going over that again. Just did that a week ago. Cut. He gets to make this call. He is still almost two decades later this team’s most professional hitter. And you’re not moving him either. So, you tell me. Where’s it coming from? Where where is this upgrade going to come from? When we come back, J1Q. If you’re looking for a great dining experience, look no further than Northshore Tavern. Located directly across Federal Street from PNC Park, next door to Mike’s Beer Bar, Northshore Tavern is Pittsburgh’s home for steak on a stone. 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All across the board, but I’m going to lay it out for you, Connor, as much as is possible. And that’s not going to be easy because we have no idea what this labor agreement could look like, much less what it will look like. And for anybody to be making any kind of decisions, much less one of this scale off of that, man, it’s gambling. That’s what that is. That would be gambling. And where Schines is concerned, we don’t know if the Pirates would retain him at some massive discount in a cap system to start. You don’t know that Skins would still be pirates property. You really don’t. If the rules change to the extent that the players will only come back and agree to the salary cap system if they’re allowed to become free agents after, I don’t know, two or three years or something like that. You’re not forfeiting that if you’re skins. Your agent, unless he’s an idiot, isn’t advising you to forfeit that. I’m going to repeat something that I shared a couple of days ago. And that is that whenever the NHL went through its long, ugly stoppage that even cost them the awarding of the Stanley Cup one year. Everything was different. It was night and day in every way. And that included everybody flipping roles because what happens is the teams that are now spending a ton are the ones that have to really make an effort. There’s grandfathering of clauses and there’s all kinds of other ways. Everybody gets paid. Players all get paid, but you do have to do some moving of contracts if you’re those teams that are spending a ton. So, in the greatest irony of all, it’s teams like the Pirates and the Rays and the Marlins and the A’s who get to spend all the money. And you’re I mean, you’re not believing any of this already, but this happened. We lived through this as hockey people. And what’s more, you’re required to spend it. So, this isn’t one of those, oh yeah, they’ll all do it, but nothing won’t. He has no choice. There’s a range that gets established and this is what happened in the NHL and of course before that in the NFL that’s around $20 million. That’s it. That’s the ceiling and that’s the floor. It’s negligible space in there. That’s a small small range. So the Pirates might actually be best positioned to offer skins the most money. I know. I know. I appreciate the question. I appreciate everybody listening to Daily Shot of Pirates. So, we’re going to do another one of these tomorrow.

Where/how to upgrade Major League Baseball’s worst offense?

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