The process of building the Pittsburgh Pirates into a postseason contender appears to be a painstakingly long and difficult process, but general manager Ben Cherington said Sunday it doesn’t need to be a complicated one.
Speaking to reporters on a video conference call, Cherington said there’s a common thread to how “the vast majority” of recent playoff teams became contenders,and that’s how he plans to reverse the Pirates’ fortunes.
“Rewind two, three, four years, and there’s some common things happening in advance of those playoff seasons,” he said.
Cherington broke it down into three areas: Accumulating and developing talent, and adding to the major league product — when appropriate — through trades.
The Pirates began adding young prospects in the offseason by trading slugging first baseman Josh Bell and veteran starting pitchers Jameson Taillon and Joe Musgrove.
“When you watch the (2020) World Series, you look at how deep (the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays) are, how many really good players there are on both sides,” Cherington said. “It’s the last guy on the bench getting a pinch-hit at-bat, the 17th pitcher coming in in a critical situation.”
The second area is the process of players on the major league roster simply getting better, with results playing out when the games start to count in April.
“It’s incredibly important to us,” Cherington said of how the 2021 season evolves.
The last is adding back to the major league product through trades.
“Probably a simple way to think about it,” he said. “We have to build a really, really deep base of talent. We think we’ve done some work in the last year that puts us in a stronger position to win long-term.
“We’ve worked really hard in a lot of different areas of baseball operations in terms of process, how we evaluate players, how we think about players, how we help players improve.
“It’s up to us to explain that work and show that work over time to our fans so they get just as excited about it as we are and can come along with us on this ride.”
Cherington admits there is plenty more hard work ahead.
“We ought to embrace that. We shouldn’t run from it,” he said. “Nothing worth pursuing is ever easy. The better we do all that stuff, the faster we’ll get to that point where you’ll be asking me about trades in a different direction.
“We’ll be excited for that day. But we’re excited now.”
On other matters:
• Oneil Cruz, who was involved in fatal car crash last year in the Dominican Republic, is in Bradenton and ready to be a full participant, Cherington said.
Cruz is a shortstop prospect, but he will be tried at other positions this spring.
“We do believe Oneil is a shortstop. We know he cares about that,” Cherington said. “We also know players need to be exposed to other positions. I don’t know of many, if any, players at the major league level that at least didn’t get some exposure at another position as they got closer to the big leagues and often when they get to the big leagues.
“We just want to make sure we cover that with Oneil and with every player. You’ll see other players move around, too.”
• Cherington said veteran infielder Todd Frazier was signed to provide a right-handed backup at first and third base after trading Bell.
“We want to give Colin (Moran) an opportunity to work (at first base),” he said. “Ke’Bryan (Hayes) is going to play third base, but we’re going into a long season off a short season and he’s a young player. Nobody plays 162 games. (Frazier) is coming into camp, understanding no guarantees. But we’re excited to have him here.”
• Cherington said he’ll “keep the phone on” for possible trades. “There’s nothing on the horizon right now,” he said. But he added, “There are players who are here that I would expect teams have had and will continue to have interest in.”
• He said Gregory Polanco is having no issues with the wrist he broke playing winter ball. “He’s recovered. He’s cleared. We may just keep an eye on the total reps early to make sure he’s responding OK.”
• Pitcher Austin Davis had elbow soreness in the offseason and won’t appear in games at the start of spring training.
• Pitcher Jose Soriano, acquired in the Rule 5 Draft in December, is on track with his recovery from Tommy John surgery in February 2020.
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Jerry DiPaola is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jerry by email at jdipaola@triblive.com or via Twitter .
Categories: Pirates/MLB | Sports
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