Pirates Podcast To Be Named Later – Ep. 1: They’re gonna spend?!

Pirates Podcast To Be Named Later – Ep. 1: They’re gonna spend?!

Hey guys, welcome to the Pirates podcast to be named later. The rebooted version uh of the Pirates podcast to be named later. My name is Chris Hack. Joining me as our Pirates beat writer at DK Pittsburgh Sports, Jose Negron. Uh Jose, we are going to talk baseball. Let’s let’s let’s introduce the show, what we’re going to be doing, how often we’re going to be doing it. Take take it away, Jose. What what what are we here to talk about? Yeah, I mean, we’re going to talk about the uh the Pirates off season. you know, we’re going to start off there and then get into uh as the off seasonason progresses, we’ll get into the the the regular season, spring training, everything that that kind of follows. Uh we’ll do this every Monday. Um not sure if it’ll be at 5:30 every week. We’ll try to adjust to our schedules. I mean, our schedules are pretty hectic with uh with you on Steelers and you know, me during the P the Pirate season’s pretty hectic, too. But uh Oh, and figure that out. with 162 games, I’m pretty sure I’m going to be end up uh end up covering a fair share of games. Uh so yeah, it just it is what it is. Uh that’s just the nature of the baseball season. Uh for those who don’t know anything about us, just so we can get that out of the way. Um uh I’m Chris Hock, Jose Negron to my be my that that way on that side of me. Um I guess if you’re watching it probably on my on my right. Um, we are both uh I mean Jose covers the the Pirates for uh DK Pittsburgh Sports. We both work for DK Pittsburgh Sports. Uh we have an app that you should download and I we can get to that later. But uh um but Jose covers the Pirates where where they go, he goes most of the time. Obviously, it’s 162 games plus all spring training. Can’t be there. No, that’s not fair for any human being. Doesn’t matter if they’re the Pirates or the Dodgers. Um but I tag in on Pirates whenever I can. We are both members of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Um, Jose, you know, gets to vote on the awards at the end of the season, you know, all this kind of stuff. So, we are we’re plugged in uh when it comes to understanding what’s going on with with the baseball team that plays on the North Shore at PNC Park. Uh, so hopefully you can take what we say is, you know, not just, you know, fanboys sitting in our basement, even though I am sitting in my basement. Uh, but we’re not just fanboys sitting in the basement just talking about this baseball team. We’re we’re legitimate reporters. We we cover the team. We go where they go. Uh that’s what we do at DK Pittsburgh Sports. 162 games. There’s going to be somebody from our outlet there at every single one of them. So that’s just the way it goes. Um so the big news for this baseball team, and we’ll start off with this, and we’ll get into all the free agency offseason stuff because that apparently has now become a topic of conversation. But before we get into any of this any of that, um the big news of the offseason really to me is still uh Paul Ske winning Sai Young. I mean which the third Sai Young winner in Pirates history. Um he unanimously was voted uh as the the winner in the in the National League for the Sai Young award. Um take us through I mean you covered Paul on a on a regular basis throughout this past season. take us through uh maybe outside of the numbers just why he deserved this kind of award and we’ll get into some of the things he said that night which is awesome stuff but just just alone why did Paul deserve this I award yeah I mean just the consistency that he showed you know throughout the season from his first start of the year to to his last I mean you know look this was a really bad season for this baseball team and every single time Paul Ske stepped on that mound He looked like the ace that you expect him to be and he’s evolved. He’s, you know, it’s crazy to say that he’s gotten better because his rookie season was so incredibly special. Um, but this is a guy who has continuously progressed, has gotten better, you know, with with every single and he’s he’s just so so focused and and oriented on his process, you know, like I’ve never been around a player and and obviously I’ve only been on this beat for for two years. Um, but I’ve I’ve never seen a player who’s just so um, you know, ingrained in his process and, you know, just I guess you could kind of maybe compare it to like look at the process that Sydney Crosby goes through like the the the routine, you know, like every day is is the same. And that’s what makes him so special. And I think that’s what’s what makes Paul SK so special is he has a routine. Every single day is is the same. And that’s why he’s able to put together such consistently special results uh on that mound. And and you look at what he was able to do last year, you know, finished third in Sai Young voting. And really the only thing that kept him from even winning the SI Young or maybe having a little bit more of a reason to win the SIO was because his season started on May 10th and he didn’t have the full slate of of starts throughout the whole year. So tough to pick him over Chris Sail or Zach Wheeler. This year he did exactly what he did last year, but he really took it to a whole another level with making what 32 starts I believe having a sub two erra. I mean, the same things that he was doing that made his rookie year so meaningful and and so historic, he was able to do this season. And um I wasn’t surprised anyone. I mean, it was pretty obvious he was the most deserving. He was unanimously voted. Yeah. Yeah. and and and and I was maybe a little surprised it was unanimous to be honest because Christopher Sanchez had a phenomenal season in his own right. I mean you look at you look at the the war leaders in Major League Baseball. I believe the only three that are ahead of Paul Ske were Aaron Judge, show Atani and Christopher Sanchez. So you know Sanchez I think was in my opinion probably worthy of a few first place votes. Um I did not vote for the Sai Young this year so I I would have probably gave it to Paul. You’re absolved of that. Yeah, I was absolved of that. I did vote for National League Manager of the Year this year. Um, and was did vote for Pat Murphy, which that was welld deserved uh for the season that he had in Milwaukee. But, um, yeah, I mean, I I think I was surprised maybe a little bit that Sanchez didn’t maybe get, you know, two or three first place votes, but not surprised at all that, you know, Paul won this award. It’s it’s incredibly deserving. I I I’ve covered both of Paul’s uh all-star starts. I’ve covered the All-Star game uh both uh both of in each of the past two years in the first one in uh Texas in Arlington, Texas and then last this past season in in Atlanta. And it’s not the only time I’ve been around skis. I’ve obviously been to a handful of games and covered those. Um, but the way he goes about even like being on the biggest stage and being around all of the other stars of the game, I mean, when when you’re talking biggest stage in baseball, obviously you think of World Series, you think of the postseason, but if you’re not there, what what’s the biggest stage? Well, it’s the All-Star game. You know, you’re you’re there and literally your peers are the best of the best in the game right now. And it doesn’t I mean he’s got Libby Dunn on his arm and there there’s just nothing that changes about the humility that he approaches uh the game with and just everything in general. I I think he’s a truly special athlete. not just because he’s built like an NFL tight end and and and pitches insanely well um but the just the fact that he he is also a genuinely good dude. Uh so it’s really cool to see and then to go on top of that to see him use the platform you know when when he gets voted uh to win the Sai Young and he uses that platform. A lot of guys would use that platform for you know whether it be they want to show humility which obviously obviously ends up kind of being this false humility thing. Oh well maybe I didn’t quite deserve. No, you deserved it dude. You were you were the best pitcher in baseball. But you know it wasn’t just about that. He actually used that platform to indirectly point the finger at the organization and say, “Listen, we’ve got to win.” Like, he used that platform to be like, “Listen, winning is the thing that matters.” Like this individual award, yeah, it’s great. It’s it’s great honor, blah blah blah, but winning is the thing that matters. and to hear all the different things he said that puts pressure on the Pirates organization to get something done about listen like these fans deserve something other than just one of their pitchers, you know, one of the pitchers that they cheer for winning an individual award. They deserve to have similar feelings to what we witnessed in 2013 with that wild card game or to witness the three seasons in a row where they make it to the postseason or to win 98 games again in a regular season. they deserve something like that and for him to use that platform I think just speaks to who Paul is and why he is so special. Yeah. I mean he’s a winner you know you look he he mentioned uh you know after winning the Sai Young he mentioned you know there was a time at Air Force where they weren’t winning you know at the air at the you naval academy and or sorry the at the air force and that’s all right the the naval academy will be will be a nice pass. Yeah. Yeah. So he uh they didn’t win at the at the Air Force. Then they win a conference championship and things kind of change. Mhm. Then he goes to LSU, wins a national championship. He’s the most outstanding player. You know, the winning just continues. And now he comes to Pittsburgh and he’s doing his part. There’s no doubt about that. I mean, he was 10 and 10. And I I got to give credit to the voters that, you know, they they looked at everything else aside from the record. I’m I’m not a big like record matters. like if if you have a sub two RA and you’re, you know, top five and strikeout pitching record doesn’t matter and all those, you know, statistics, that’s what matters to me. Um, and every single time he started a game, he did what he had to do. I remember Spencer Horowitz at the end of the season after Sk’s last start in Cincinnati, Spencer Horowitz even said like, listen, the record’s not indicative of what he did. That falls on the offense, that falls on defense, that falls on us. He’s like, he deserved better. And and I, you know, give credit to Spencer for being a guy who said that and a lot of the guys have said that, you know, that it’s it’s not fair to Paul that he has had a 10 and 10 record at the end of the season because he was very deserving of more. Um, but you know, this is a guy who is a winner. He wants to win at this level. He wants to win with this team, the team that drafted him. He’s really embraced the city and the fan base, you know, really has. It’s very evident that he wants to do it for this fan base and he wants to be a part of the team that brings winning baseball back to Pittsburgh. It’s been a decade since they made a playoff appearance and Paul Schmes wants to be a part of that. The pitching staff as a whole, not just Paul, is is good enough to be a playoff team like that. I mean, they all season long, it wasn’t the pitching that was the issue. It was the fact that their offense was the worst in Major League Baseball. And we’ve said it, I think you and I have had had the conversations, they don’t need to be that much better offensively to support this pitching staff, but you need to go out and you need to do things this off seasonason to complement this pitching staff. And I I give credit to Paul for, you know, he’s only in going into his third season, but he’s already feeling comfortable enough to speak how he feels. And he should he’s the best in all of baseball. He should be uh, you know, comfortable speaking his mind. and the guys that matter, the guys that make the decisions should be listening. Well, speaking of needing to get stuff done, um we have some stuff to talk about when it comes to this baseball team because there’s actually a lot of noise that we would normally not expect uh to be uh ever close to this team, but it’s there. And so we’re going to take a quick break and when we come back, uh, we’re gonna we’re going to try to tackle as much of that as we possibly can in the span of about maybe like 17 or 18 minutes. But, uh, it’s quite a bit to talk about when when it comes to this team. So, don’t go anywhere. We’ll be right back on the Pirates podcast to be named later right after this. At DK Pittsburgh Sports, we take pride in coverage that connects our city’s fans to their favorite teams. Now, that connection’s stronger than ever. Introducing our allnew state-of-the-art app. Find expert inside reporting and original podcasts. Check live fox scores. Track the latest stats. Cat it up with our community of thousands of fans all in one place. The new app from DK Pittsburgh Sports. Coverage that connects. Welcome back to the Pirates podcast. Be named later. Chris Hick, Jose Negron here uh from DK Pittsburgh Sports. Um, so the Pirates are in the in the headlines and they have been now for uh several days. It all started with a report from ESPN uh tying the Pirates to Josh Naylor uh first baseman uh for for the for the Mariners. Uh they apparently were willing to offer more than twice of their largest contract they’ve ever given uh to a free agent, which is three years, 39 million for Francisco Lariano. Um they are also apparently in on Kyle Schwarber, which I would expect all 30 major league clubs to be in on Kyle Kyle Schwarber, but uh they’re apparently in on that. To what extent? I don’t know. Uh there’s another report today uh from uh the New York Times on uh the Pirates possibly being intrigued in Jorge Palano and Ryan O’Harn. Uh there are multiple names that continue to be tied to the Pirates. Um and of course, of course, if you follow this franchise, if you’ve covered this franchise, you hear all that stuff and you just go, “Nah, all right, whatever.” But when you take into account that they’ve shed a lot of payroll, uh, they traded away David Bednar, they traded away Key Brian Hayes, they got Bailey Falter off the books. I mean, they they they they have freed up a good amount of money even for their standards. It’s like when you look at just what they spent last year and you look at what they have, you know, through projected arbitration contracts, through current guaranteed contracts, and then what all the pre-arbitration guys are going to make, they’ve got $26 million of room there between just what they have now and what they paid out last year. And then of course, you know, DK on on our app on DK Pittsburgh Sports reported in our Friday Insider last week that the Pirates are like giving the indication to people like close to the organization that they’re going to spend upwards of $110 million or at least up to that. Like it might not be exactly that. That would be another game changer because then you’re talking having between 50 and $60 million and that’s not even considering the possibility of trading Mitch Keller. So, Jose, what to make of all this? I mean, are are are we actually going to see the Pirates spend money? Are we going to see the Pirates actually land players that really really matter? And if there’s a way to do that even without bumping payroll up, is there a way to do that in which you can make the offense better while also still maintaining a really strong pitching staff? Yeah, I mean, I I think there’s a way to do it. And obviously, it’s, you know, it’s encouraging when you hear, okay, they’re willing to offer a significant amount of money for a multi-year deal to somebody, especially a a player of Josh Naylor’s caliber. Whether that did happen or that didn’t happen, there needs to be action rather than just, hey, we’re trying. Yeah. Hey, we’re close. Like, it can’t just be like you were you’re trying with Josh Naylor. You’re close with Josh Naylor. Well, guess what? Josh Taylor Naylor is going to wear a Seattle Mariners uniform for the next few years. Like, he’s not a Pittsburgh Pirate. Like, there there needs to be something that you do to make this team better. You can’t just say, “Hey, we’re going to try on on all of these, you know, top tier free agents and then end up signing one-year deals worth $4 million for guys that are same old stuff are are just waiting until the last minute to see, you know, what they can get, you know, like I mean, you look at the offseason signings that they had last year with, you know, Tommy Fam, Adam Frasier, like I I can’t exactly remember, but I I’m pretty sure those were late in the offseason deals like January, February. You know, they made one significant move at the at the winter uh meetings with trading for Spencer Horowitz. And listen, that was your most significant move though. That’s the thing. And then but that’s the thing is is it wasn’t a significant move, but for them that was it. And Spencer Horowitz is not the issue with this team, but he should not be one of your best hitters at all. No, he should be prime complimentary player. He should be a platoon platoon hitter at first base. That that that’s what he is. I mean, when when you look at and and DK and I have actually had conversations about this and and and it’s funny because when you look around the diamond and and you look at where can they realistically add because you can think, oh, they need help at first base, they need help at third base, they need help with the corner outfield. Okay, well, let’s take a real look at what they have and are they going to add players that are going to block other players that they want to be part of the future? I mean, you just got the catcher in the trade with the Yankees for for Bednar last year, Raphael Flores. Yeah, exactly. You got him and you got Henry Davis. And Henry Davis is I mean to say he’s tight with Paul Skins and Jared Jones is an understatement. That is way that’s the reason for him to have Yeah. significant role on this team for this. Yeah. Now Henry Davis has got a hit. I mean, and he doesn’t need to be I Well, no, actually, I would probably put a higher bar on Henry Davis because he was a first overall pick. But either way, he’s got to hit significantly better than what he’s hit uh so far. But again, but when you look at Flores and Davis at the catcher, okay, well, you’re not going to block anybody there. So, like when you look at like the Rangers non-tender Jonah Heim, to me that doesn’t make a lot of sense because while Jonah at one point was a really really good one of the best pitch framers in the game, really solid defensive catcher, uh has some pop at the bat, I look at that, I’m like, that could be a nice addition, but are you going to add a player like that to block either Davis or Flores? That doesn’t make a lot of sense, right? When you have Spencer Horitz and he’s one of your what two or three hitters that hit above league average last year, like I don’t want to necessarily take that completely away. You’re taking away one of your strengths. So maybe you add a right-handed bat at first base to kind of platoon with him. Yeah. So what options are there? You hear Ryan O’Harn. Well, Ryan O’Harn’s another left-handed hitter. So I don’t know about that. DH like too. Yeah. But see, but then there you go. Like Okay. Okay. So, DH is the spot where you where you can add because right now you don’t have a a full like unquestioned DH on the roster. Like unless you bring back Andrew McCutchen, you don’t have that guy. And that’s where a Kyle Schwarber comes in. You know, when you’re tied to Kyle Schwarber and I I am I am at the stage right now where if it’s me, I’m doing what I can to outbid everybody else on Kyle Schwarber. And it’s not it’s not and I I know that that sounds like a pipe dream. like Chris, this is a waste of breath. I get and it probably is because they’re not going to sign Kyle Schwarber, but I would. And the reason why because if you are willing to spend upwards of $110 million, you’ve got plenty of room to add him if to give him a $30 million a year contract. He’s a phenomenal clubhouse guy. He just hit 56 home runs for the for the Phillies. He’s a left-handed bat. He’s a DH. But again, it’s it’s the it’s the way he’s going to help set the culture because right now you have Paul Ske who’s already doing that. And then yeah, I I don’t know. I I mean, I I I would do that. But then again, second base, you have Nick Gonzalez shortstop. Connor Griffin eventually is going to take that take that on. Third base, right now you have Triola, but Triolo should be more of a super utility guy. So maybe you could upgrade at third base. You got Brian Reynolds in the outfield. You got O’Neal Cruz in the outfield. You need another outfield bat. It’s really just like two bats. Three? No, three bats is what you need to add. Yeah. Third base, corner outfield, and DH. Yeah. I mean, the way I look at it, too, is, you know, if even if you go out and you get two corner outfielders, I wouldn’t be opposed to moving Brian Reynolds to DH and just saying, “Brian, your fielding’s not good.” Because it’s not. Yeah. And focus on hitting. focus on getting back to the the level Brian. And listen, he’s he’s not in his 20s anymore. You know, he he’s he is a grizzled vet at this point in his career and he I think would be more suited in a DH role where he can just focus on hitting the ball and just being a consistent bat that they have in that lineup. Um, if you go out, you know, and there’s all the the discussion about whether you trade Mitch Keller and in my mind it’s, and I don’t know if we were going to get to this at all, but I figured I’ i’d discuss it a little bit with you. Um, in my mind, it’s not, you don’t have to trade Mitch Keller because if you want him to be a pirate, he’ll be a pirate. You want them locked up. If there are other teammates who also want to keep Mitch Keller, I think that matters, too. Like if Paul SK like goes to Ben Sherington and says don’t trade Mitch Keller and then you turn around and trade Mitch Keller. Like it really is one of those situ Yeah. It’s it really is one of those situations where if Paul SK says to do something you kind of have to do it or if you know it’s going to piss him off like like that’s just where you’re at. You have a generational pitcher on your hands. Yeah. I I you have to take advantage and and and I I don’t know if it’s because the upcoming expiration of the CBA and that’s what’s really kicking the pirates in the pants to to do something to to be like listen you know we’re going to go in and we believe that there’s going to be a salary cap implemented you know whatever it is I I I don’t know I don’t know what the catalyst is for this at least posturing of we’re going to make some moves. Yeah. But we’re sitting here now granted we’re sitting here three days before Thanksgiving. There has not been a ton of action. And really really to this point, the the the biggest action of the ML MLB offseason so far has been either ressignings or trades like the one that just happened between the Rangers and Mets uh with Marqueus Simeon and Brandon NMO just straight up, you know, with some money retained by the by the Mets. Um outside of like that’s pro probably the biggest move of the offseason so far. So there’s still a long way to go and the fact that the Pirates are putting it out there that hey we’re going to make some moves. Okay. Well, that’s great. But I think like one the one thing that you I think even some within the organization don’t want like if this really was a situation in which Ben Sherington went to ESPN and he pretty much just tipped them off tipped them off on all this stuff. The last thing you want to do after that is not at anybody of significance because then it makes you look so much worse. We we talked about this and yeah, it it’s yeah, it’s if if he says nothing and nothing gets reported and it’s just people just look at it as okay, it’s a typical Pirates off season. Now you’re getting people’s hopes up. Now you’re you’re getting people encouraged that something is going to change. Like the Pirates never do this. The Pirates never say that they’re going to be in on these top tier free agents or show any indication of it. They’re showing an indication of it now. Now you have to like you can’t this you can’t go back on this now like you you need to make some significant moves even if it’s not a you know crazy Kyle Schwarber move you have to be shopping in the because I mean them going after Kyle Schwarber is them swimming in the deep end. Mhm. Even if they go after mid-tier to to kind of the upper tier of free agents, a Yuenio Suarez type of guy, that’s something that’s like, okay, well, you it’s not Kyle Schwarber, but we’re moving in a Oh, I mean, he still hit he hit a lot of home runs last year and and apparently he was also very very wellliked uh in Seattle. Uh and talking about like in the clubhouse. So when you’re talking if if you don’t get a a Kyle Schwarber, but you can add a Yo Johanos Suarez and it’s still one of those guys who’s going to help set the culture in the clubhouse, but he’s also going to be able to bring some thump in the lineup as well, then yeah, that is somebody you got to look at and he’s not going to cost as much as Schwarber and he also probably shouldn’t be playing third base on a regular basis. No. Um maybe he is your DH or maybe, you know, I don’t know if it’s even I almost feel like any player can learn first base. I understand like you watch the movie Moneyball and Ron Washington, you know, the the Ron Washington in the movie. I I’ve actually spoken with the real Ron Washington. I don’t know if he actually said that. I don’t know. I I I have not asked him about that. Um the last time I actually spoke with Ron Washington, funny story. Um I was cover I was on the I used to be on the Rangers beat for those who don’t know. And um it was one series in which the the Braves were in Texas and they had just won the World Series and they had just gotten their rings and Ron Washington because of course he used to be the manager there almost managed them to to a World Series championship in 2011. Um he you know held court with you know some of the Rangers reporters and was showing off his his World Series ring with with the Braves. And so, uh, that’s the last time I spoke with with why. But either way, that that character in the in in Moneyballs, like it’s incredibly hard to play first base. I don’t think so because it feels like almost every single player eventually learns how to play first base at some point, you know, if they want to extend their career or anything. So maybe figured it out. Yeah, maybe maybe Johannes Suarez is the next guy who can learn how to play first base. I don’t know. But um yeah, so either way that you it’s one of those signings where if you can bring him in, you’ll figure out a place to put him. Yeah. I mean, if you if you put him at first, you put him at DH like, you know, the way I look at it is, you know, Connor Griffin should be given every opportunity to go over start short. you can maybe handle Jared Triolo at third for a time if you if you are bringing in a Yeno Suarez and you say, “Hey, you know, your time at third’s probably up, but we’ll put you at first. We’ll put you at DH.” You know, those spots. So, I mean, there there are different things that could make this team better. And they just have to go out and do it. They have to like Paul Ske is is telling you, listen, we can be a playoff team. We’re not far away. we’re not really not like it when it comes to this pitching staff. Um so you just got to go out and you got you gotta make make things happen like talk is cheap. Go do it. Uh Suarez did play first base. Uh uh he has played a I I don’t see the exact number uh here, but he did play uh a little bit of first base over the past couple of seasons. So it’s not it’s not the moon to him to use another Moneyball line. If if you want to, you know, platoon him at first with Horowitz when he’s not playing first, have him at DH. you know, have him. Yeah. Even if he plays a little bit of third, if you sign him to a contract, he’s going to be in the lineup every day. It’s it’s Oh, yeah. Right. I’m I’m just saying like, you know, when when Horowitz is in the lineup, all right, let’s just move them around. You know, let them just focus on hitting, whatever the case may be. But hey, yeah, go after those those that middle to upper tier of of guys. Even if you’re not going to get a Schwarber or a nailer, I I I think I think everybody I think everybody should remain skeptical. Yeah. That the Pirates are going to do anything because this is it. This is one of those organizations where it it it really is I’ll believe it whenever I see it. like that’s just that’s just where where they are when it comes to oh we’re going to I mean we we heard conversations in the past of we’re going to make a push, we’re going to try to make the playoffs and that like I remember like going into last off season and not that they were like posturing of a way like like they were like we’re going to go all in to try to win in 25 but there was definitely signals being sent out that they’re going to be trying the effort is going to go up and what they did in the offseason. Like I said, you you talked about Spencer Horwitz being their major move. That’s not a major move, right? That’s that’s something that should be like a blip on the radar when it comes to offseason moves. And that’s nothing against Spencer Horowitz, but that’s not a move that a contender makes. He he should not be one of your better hitters on on any team. Like, you know, he is a a solid piece. He is without question. I I I think that as the season went on and it was really, you know, with the injury and with the significance of the trade with, you know, oh, should they have traded Luis Ortiz? Should they have traded these prospects? They did trade Luis Ortiz, right? But but, you know, at at the time, you know, there there are some question marks, course. and you know the way he he handled himself you know even in the clubhouse talking with him after games and stuff you know you incredibly intelligent ball player a guy who can make an impact on a team but man you you there needs to be more like it it can’t be you know especially you look at guys like Brian Reynolds and O’Neal Cruz you can’t have them have the season that they just had you know your your better hitters have to there’s there has to be internal improvement yeah they always talk about internal improvement, how important it is. Um, and I get that there needs to be internal improvement, but you also need some external options that are going to strike some fear in opposing teams. Like you look at that lineup from this past year, there was no one that just like, well, and the and the thing like I look at like O’Neal Cruz for example, and I think like that’s a guy who needs somebody dangerous behind him. like he that’s just what he because there is no there’s no excuse or no reason for any pitcher at all to ever throw him a strike like ever. Um not only because Cruz has his own like issues when it comes to chasing pitches, but they’re like, why bother putting a a ball in the strike zone that he could possibly hit 122 miles an hour and possibly hit, you know, one of the buildings across the river? There’s there’s no there’s no point in me doing that whenever I know that I can just put him on first and just get the guy out who’s following him. Yeah. Like that’s when you need a Kyle Schwarber. That’s when you need a Johannio Suarez. That’s when you need like so many hitters that are available out there. A Jorge Palano. Anybody who’s out there right now, that’s when you need to be able to get one of these guys because there need like some of these guys also need some protection. like it really does feel like they’re isolated and there’s no support for them, whether it be the actual teaching that goes on when it comes to them learning how to become better hitters, but then also on a nightly basis with who’s around them in the lineup. Um there there needs to be more support there for sure. Oh man, it it’s it’s frustrating because again you can you can go to okay this is what they say and and again through our own internal calculations right now this team is at about at about 61 to 62 million. If they are really really serious in wanting to spend upwards of 110 million that is 50 million plus that you can spend. You can add Kyle Schwarber for $30 million a year and still have another 20 plus million to get two more bats. And and if you do more than enough money and if you do decide to to trade Mitch Keller, you’re gonna get a pretty good I mean you should, you know, I know how much you trust the general manager to make uh the right move when it comes to a player of Mitch Keller’s caliber, but if Keller has value in terms of a guy who’s going to give you 30 plus starts, 180 plus innings per year, you should get a proven hitter for a guy like that route. Well, and that’s when you look at like Boston’s situation with, you know, Abrau and Duran, like they’ve got to get they’ve got to offload one of their guys because they got they got a log jam. And you could like that could be a situation which you you offer Mitch Keller for that. But the the issue you run into with trading Mitch Keller is then while you’re very very like you have Paul Ske at the top of the rotation, that’s great. And then you have Braxton Ashcraft and you have Bubba Chandler and you know Johan Oviero and eventually Jared Jones even though you’ve brought it up before and I agree he probably should end up just converting to being a closer but either way whatever it is right now that’s where he would be pencled in. That’s a lot of young arms and you need a guy in that rotation that can literally take the ball of your fifth day and give you five or six innings just about every time he goes out there. And at the that’s what Mitch Keller can do no matter what. He’s probably not going to give you he’s not probably not going to be this like I understand he was an all-star one time but like he’s not going to be that guy all the time. But man with what he can provide there is a lot of value there. And even if you were to trade him away to get that bat, you’re still probably gonna have to spend about five to seven million to bring in another pitcher that can provide something similar to to be able to take the ball every fifth day. End up with between 130 to 150 innings at the end of the season. Like that’s what you need because you don’t want to have to be putting a ton on Ashcraft and Chandler specifically in terms of their workload as their young pitchers still building up to being major league starters. So they they they understand wanting to trade Mitch, you know, it offload it offloads salary, gives you even more ability to add a bat uh or to add bats, but then I I think you run into an issue where you start to run out of guys who can just log a bunch of innings because right now they’ve got like two and that’s skins and Keller, right? And and it’s it’s you you bring up a great point there because as good as this pitching staff is, as good as these young pitchers are, even you know, you look in the system, you know, guys that they just added to the 40man roster with Wilbur Dotell, Antoine Kelly having really special years uh down in Altuna and throughout the through the minor league system. A lot of guys that are still pretty unproven, you know, like Braxton Ashcraft, Mike Burrow’s got a decent amount of experience last year. Um these are also guys who have dealt with injuries in the past. Bubba. Yeah. ODO. I mean, every time he takes the ball and he pitches on a consistent basis, like there’s so much promise there, but like it’s just he’s got to stay healthy, right? Yeah. I mean, you have, you know, Tommy John that caused him to lose the entire 2024 season. Then he has a latch strain in spring training. This is a majority of this past season. He looked good when he came back, you know, um, obviously still issues with the walks. I mean, that’s kind of been him really throughout his career, but like he’s still a solid backend starter that you can rely on. Um, but, you know, there there’s the pitching depth is so important and it’s unique because a lot of teams around baseball strive to have what the Pirates have right now. Yeah. You know, because they they’re always looking for it. And you know, you during the offseason, you do have to trade from strength to get, you know, to improve in another area, but you got to make sure that you have enough faith in these young arms and that, you know, like you said, you’re going to have to spend 5 to seven million likely to get an arm like an Andrew Heeny type or a Joseé Canana type to be uh, you know, within that rotation and and battle and challenge these young kids during spring training. And and to to the Pirates credit, they have been able to find one of those guys just about every season. like they they don’t do a lot right, but that is one thing they actually have done pretty well. Uh now granted, Heene kind of fell off a cliff uh this season, but um you know that good signing at the time. Oh yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Uh first couple you saw him in Texas, right? Like you I mean No, he was he was after he was right after Yeah, they got mean he did pitch against the Rangers a good amount, right? when he was with the Angels and, you know, kind of with those. Oh, yeah. I definitely covered him before. He had he had always been he had never turned into like the the ace the Angels wanted him to be, but he still turned into a guy who again, one of those guys who could take the ball every fifth day. It’s one of those guys you love to have in the back of your rotation. You know, the number four, number five guy. It’s not always going to be great. He’s probably never going to throw a shut out, but he’s also probably going to like maybe only like twice all season long he’s going to get absolutely touch like just touched up completely. He’s going to give up seven or eight runs, but then there’s probably going to be the majority of the time where you know he’s going to end the season with erra in the low fours. But he gives you five or six innings just about every time he goes out there and that absolutely matters. Yeah. Yeah. I mean that that’s exa like exactly what you need from a guy like that. And even at the beginning of the season, first month and a half, two months, he was really strong. I mean, that start against the Yankees where he struck out 10 plus. I think he struck out Judge like three or four times, which Andrew Heene owns Aaron Judge, by the way, if you’ve ever looked at his numbers. Yeah, it’s unbelievable. That is That’s Aaron Judge’s kryptonite apparently is Andrew Heeney. But yeah, I mean, they they’ve been really good. Boston Red Sox need to look in that then. They they should. They honestly should. It would be a very lowrisk, highreward type of uh signing, I think, for the Red Sox. Um, all right. Well, we’re going to go ahead and wrap this up. Uh, listen, we have an entire off season to to go over all this stuff. We also, you know, I think we’re going to touch on it probably every now and then because in just over a year’s time, the collective bargaining agreement between uh Major League Baseball and the Players Union uh will be expiring. December 1st uh 2026 is when it does expire. I covered the lockout um for for a different outlet. um was really really tuned in on a lot of the stuff that was going on there and tensions were high then which is why the lockout happened which is why the lockout pushed uh I mean it really really flirted with losing games uh they ended up getting it done in time uh to not lose any games but that’s probably not going to be the case uh next time around there is a growing expectation that games will be missed in 2027 seven um as owners are continuously being thought to want to push for a salary cap. So, we will have that to touch on of course every now and then, but then of you know after Thanksgiving uh Jose will be down in Orlando for the winter meetings in a couple of weeks uh we’ll figure out what to do there. That that week’s episode might it might be like on a different day of the week or something. We’ll figure it out or maybe we’ll be able to figure it out. we’ll do it fromo Jose’s hotel room in Orlando, whatever it is. But either way, we’ll figure out what to do. But we’ll have plenty of time to discuss everything that’s going on with the offseason. And then, like I said, occasionally we’re going to start looking looking ahead toward uh the I think impending lockout um or at least work stoppage. Maybe the players figure out a way to strike beforehand. Who knows? This might be 1994 all over again. Either way, um, yes. And Ken Robertson says, “Please advertise times.” Yes, we will. Uh, we’re gonna try our our our hardest to try to stick to a time just like a a set time. So, you know, Mondays at 5:30 or whatever it is, you know, that’s when the show is going to be on. Um, this kind of came together kind of quickly and so we’re going to continue to to to figure this out as we go. It’s a work in progress. Yeah, it’s a work in progress, but we’ll we’ll get it figured out for you guys. But really appreciate you guys uh tuning in to this uh this rebooted uh this first episode of the Rebooted Pirates podcasting name later. Uh we’ll be back next week to talk more uh more of your uh more of your Pittsburgh Pirates. Maybe they’ll have made a move. Maybe Thanksgiving is the time uh to land to land Kyle Schwarb. I know. I know. Don’t you put that evil on me. Oh man. It’d be nice to It’d be nice to see them send make a move before the winter meeting. Send a message. Let’s, you know, but let’s let’s wait until after the holiday. Let’s let’s get it done. You can wait till Friday, Saturday, you know, Black Friday. Maybe maybe they uh maybe they find a way to to Black Friday shop and they end up getting one of these free agents on a on a massive discount. Do agents give discounts on Black Friday? That’s a good question. I mean, they should. I think that’s we I think we’d see probably a little more action on Friday for Major League Baseball if that was the case, but probably. All right, thank you guys for tuning in. We’ll catch you next time. See you later. See you guys.

In this episode of the Pirates Podcast To Be Named Later, Chris Halicke and José Negron of DK Pittsburgh Sports react to Paul Skenes winning the National League Cy Young award and discuss how/if the Pirates spend any money over the winter.

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