Hard To Predict If Pittsburgh Pirates Will Have Active Offseason

Ben Cherington has been very deliberate since being hired by the Pittsburgh Pirates last November.

The general manager has made only one notable trade, shipping center fielder Starling Marte to the Arizona Diamondbacks for two prospects in late January.

The most expensive free agent signed during Cherington’s first winter was outfielder Guillermo Heredia for one year and $1 million. Heredia was released after hitting .188 in eight games.

The only move Cherington made prior to the Aug. 31 trade dealing during the pandemic-affected truncated season was dealing center fielder Jarrod Dyson to the Chicago White Sox for international amateur free agent bonus pool money.

What makes Cherington’s inactivity rather perplexing to Pirates’ fans is that he has left the roster of a bad team basically intact for nearly a year.

The Pirates went 69-93 in 2019, prompting owner Bob Nutting to fire GM Neal Huntington along with team president Frank Coonelly and manager Clint Hurdle.

This year, the Pirates were even worse in the shortened 60-game season, finishing 19-41.

That .317 winning percentage was the fifth-worse in franchise history. The only Pirates’ team since the start of baseball’s modern era in 1900 to have a worse mark was the 1952 squad that went 42-112 for a .273 winning percentage.

The ’52 team was immortalized by catcher Joe Garagiola, who went on to spend many Saturday afternoon telling tales about that club on NBC’s old “Game of The Week” telecasts.

It seems unlikely anyone will ever build a career partially around telling stories about the 2020 Pirates

While 60 games is a short timeframe to evaluate a baseball team, one can’t help but wonder if Cherington isn’t ready to tear the roster apart and start all over again. It was that ugly of a season.

Cherington has not used the words rebuild or retool since joining the Pirates. In fact, he is quite vague when asked about the direction of the franchise.

Thus, it will be interesting to see how Cherington goes about his business this offseason.

The Pirates traditionally have one of the five-lowest payrolls in the major leagues under owner Bob Nutting. That certainly will not change this winter following a season in which a lack of fans means teams lost out on revenue from tickets, concessions sales and parking.

With that in mind, roster subtractions figure to outnumber additions.

The Pirates figure to let right-hander Chris Archer become a free agent rather than exercise his $11-million club option for 2021 after he missed the season recovering from thoracic outlet syndrome.

The other potential free agent, left-hander Derek Holland, is also unlikely to return after posting a 6.86 ERA in 12 games.

The Pirates have a whopping 12 players eligible for salary arbitration and there is no chance of them going through with hearings with that many potential cases.

It seems unlikely that closer Keone Kela will be tendered a contract after being limited to three innings this year because of an elbow injury. Right-handers Michael Feliz and Nick Tropeano also figure to be on the non-tender list along with backup catchers Luke Maile and John Ryan Murpby.

That would leave seven potential hearings with right-handers Chad Kuhl, Joe Musgrove, Jameson Taillon and Trevor Williams, first baseman Josh Bell, second baseman Adam Frazier and infielder Erik Gonzalez.

Williams, too, could be in danger of being nontendered following a season in which he led the major leagues in losses while going 2-8 with a 6.18 ERA in 11 starts.

Musgrove, Bell and Frazier look like the prime trade candidates if, as expected, the Pirates look to get younger. They are some of the few Pirates players with any trade value, though each is coming off a subpar season.

With Cherington keeping his plans so close to the vest, it’s impossible to know what the Pirates’ roster might look like on opening day in 2021.

A .317 winning percentage suggests there should be a lot of new faces. Conversely, Cherington’s relatively brief history with the Pirates suggests it could be pretty much status quo.

Stay tuned.