The Pittsburgh Pirates are at their lowest point of 2022 — 24 defeats, 16 victories — with just about 25% of the season gone.
Do the projection: The Pirates are on pace to lose 96 games, which is better than last season’s 101. But if you’re buried that deep, what does it matter?
General manager Ben Cherington is well aware there is plenty of work to do on both levels of the organization — the major-league club and the young talent he has accumulated and hopes to keep accumulating for the future.
Yet, while waiting for players’ maturation to take effect in an unspecified number of years, he said Sunday on his radio show on KDKA-FM, he is pleased with the decision-making on the major-league level.
“I’m really encouraged by the way we are making decisions in terms of who’s in the lineup, when the pitcher is in the game, when the pitcher’s out of the game, the strategy,” he said.
It’s clearly a pat on the back for manager Derek Shelton, whose 2 1/4 seasons as Clint Hurdle’s successor have yielded a 96-166 record. Not that the talent in Shelton’s arsenal indicates it should be better than that.
So, the front office is pleased with how the manager is deploying his people. But Shelton said he’d like to see better results from the deployment.
“We have to continue to try to put guys in good spots,” Shelton said Sunday after the 18-4 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals gave the Pirates a three-game losing streak.
“You can deploy all you want. I agree our deployment has been all right, but the big thing is execution. It doesn’t matter if we feel the deployment is in the right way. You still have to execute and that’s something that we’re still working on.”
Execution has been far from perfect for many reasons and on many levels:
—Near the top of the list is 2021 All-Star centerfielder Bryan Reynolds hitting 56 points under his .284 lifetime average with only nine RBIs. He has struck out 34 times in 37 games,and was 0 for 2 on Sunday, with a walk.
—Shelton is dealing with injuries to starting shortstop Kevin Newman (groin) and catcher Roberto Perez (hamstring), the latter for the rest of the season. Newman suffered a recent setback with his hamstring.
—Right field hasn’t produced the type of offensive production a corner outfield position demands. Jack Suwinski, who started the season in Double-A, and Diego Castillo are largely sharing the position, with Jake Marisnick and his reliable glove and arm unavailable after thumb surgery. While learning to play right field, Castillo (.235, two home runs, seven RBIs) has made 13 starts at shortstop, tied with Newman for the team lead in that department.
“He’s working on his reads and jumps (in right field),” Shelton said of Castillo. “With where we’re at with our roster only having three natural outfielders, he’s kind of learning on the fly.”
Suwinski is one of those three natural outfielders — Reynolds and Ben Gamel are the others — and he is third among Pirates with four home runs. But he’s hitting only .176.
—Shelton has been trying to piece together a starting rotation all season, but JT Brubaker, Bryse Wilson and Mitch Keller are a combined 1-12 with respective ERAs of 5.50, 7.53 and 6.37.
Asked if it’s been a challenge to build a roster this season, Shelton said, “It’s very challenging.”
“With where we’re at with — not only our 26 (-man roster), but with our 40 — and continuing to work through that, it’s something we knew coming in that we were going to have to do.
“And guys were going to get opportunities and the chance to perform.”
Cherington said he’s seen progress, but he added, “We certainly have a lot of work to do to get better, and that will never stop.”
