Ben Cherington insists the Pirates are trying to win.

He also wants to use this shortened season to learn as much as possible about his new club.

And the Pirates general manager doesn’t feel those things are mutually exclusive.

“I think we need to do both — prepare and expect to win every day and also keep learning,” Cherington said Saturday. “Some of that’s learning about players but some of that’s learning how to get better internally, too, making the adjustments we need to get better.”

That attitude doesn’t seem to sit terribly well in Pittsburgh, where Pirates fans want something more black and white: Either compete for a championship, like the Steelers or Penguins, or just be transparent about the need for a full-scale rebuild.

Cherington has maintained that this is not that, a rebuild. His reasoning generally involves a more politically correct way of saying that there wasn’t actually anything here for him to tear down before building it back up. And if you think about that, he’s not wrong. It’s more a build than a rebuild.

But let’s also not trip over semantics. The Pirates have a prorated payroll of $24.6 million, according to spotrac.com, second-lowest in baseball ahead of only the Baltimore Orioles ($23.6 million). Fans would need to do some serious mental gymnastics to look at that and genuinely believe the Pirates are doing everything possible to put a winning product on the field.

At the same time, teams do win with less. Call it the Rays and A’s effect. They scout, develop, analyze and do a bunch of stuff that Cherington likes and values better than their peers. It’s been his directive here. But that sort of thing will also take time. A heck of a lot more than 15 games.

“I don’t like to see the record either. None of us do,” Cherington said. “None of us like the feeling after a loss. That’s why we work hard to make it better, because we don’t like that feeling. But we’ve learned a lot, and will continue to learn a lot.”

What has Cherington learned? Here’s what he outlined in his meeting with local reporters via Zoom:

— The starting pitching has met or exceeded expectations, Cherington said, specifically how starting pitchers have been able to execute their attack plan. The issue has been how things have fallen apart in the bullpen.

— The bullpen issues — five of their top six are either suspended, hurt or coming back from COVID-19 — have resulted in too many guys pitching out of position. Their depth issues have been exposed, as evidenced by poor Miguel Del Pozo pitching five times in 11 days.

“One of the challenges for this staff is when you start to have injuries, you start to ask more of guys than maybe you would normally, and that makes it harder to execute and perform the way they want to,” Cherington said. “I think working towards a more stable, healthier group is probably priority No. 1 short term.”

— Offensively, Cherington acknowledged it’s been a slow start for many of the Pirates’ best hitters, although he’s been encouraged the past couple days by seeing a pitching machine on the field — an indication guys are trying to do extra work hitting velocity and spin. The at-bats have been better of late, Cherington added.

But even though Cherington said he’s been encouraged by some surprise performances — Phillip Evans and Erik Gonzalez are the two of the bigger ones — he also wants to keep the sample size in perspective, remembering that it’s only been 15 games.

“Normally we wouldn’t even be evaluating yet,” Cherington said. “We wouldn’t even be trying. Usually you like to do that like at the 40-game mark or the 50-game mark.

“We need to evaluate, but we need to remind ourselves that this is a really small sample in context of a normal baseball season.”

That sort of thing figures to complicate business for Cherington at the trade deadline, which is Aug. 31. Roughly five weeks of games may cause more teams to think they’re buyers, especially when you factor in expanded playoffs.

It’s tough to see the Pirates in this category, although in a compressed season, things could also change with one or two hot weeks.

All of which means that it’s difficult for Cherington to predict whether he’ll be a buyer, seller or neither at the deadline. He also doesn’t have much of a sense for possible activity around the league.

“I really don’t know,” Cherington said. “All of us on this call are going to learn a lot in the days and weeks leading up to that.”

Cherington must root for some of the individual performances to improve so that date even matters.

After all, one potential trade piece, Jarrod Dyson, began Saturday’s game hitting .074. Dyson has speed, experience and a World Series ring, but nobody is going to want that batting average from someone who turns 36 on Aug. 15.

Derek Holland is another veteran who, with a strong start, might command some attention. But after two solid outings, the four home runs he allowed in the first inning Saturday represented a sizable step backward.

Chris Archer had season-ending surgery and, at age 31, is coming off a career-worst year, while Keone Kela is their closest thing to a trade chip, provided he’s able to return this week and pitch well enough to garner some positive attention.

Even Adam Frazier, a popular player at MLB’s Winter Meetings, couldn’t possibly net the Pirates much. He began Saturday’s game hitting just .170.

Add those concerns to the economic challenges baseball has incurred — they’ve been even tougher on small-market teams like the Pirates — and the trade deadline figures to be an important day: Either Cherington will find a way to help his team get better, or it’s going to be yet another difficult circumstance for him to encounter.

“It’s certainly possible that there’s a lot of activity because it is such a short runway and there are more teams potentially involved,” Cherington said. “There are also unknowns.

“We’ll do our part and control our part to be really well-prepared for our opportunities. I think we’ve got to stay open-minded. Clearly, there are things we need to get better at. We need to listen and learn and see where the opportunities are.”