It was a year ago Friday that the Pirates fired manager Derek Shelton and spared general manager Ben Cherington. It was also a year ago Friday that I wrote a column suggesting Cherington was the worst GM in Pittsburgh sports history.
So … happy anniversary?
I don’t think I need to apologize for that column. It was true at the time. The Pirates were busily imploding in year six of the Cherington rebuild — as bad or worse than in year one — and wasting a second year of Paul Skenes.
In what turned out to be Shelton’s final game, they’d dropped to 12-26 with a 5-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. It was their seventh straight defeat.
Their historically inept lineup that day had 38-year-old Andrew McCutchen batting third, Joey Bart batting cleanup, Enmanuel “Exxon” Valdez batting fifth, Ke’Bryan “No Hit” Hayes batting sixth, Adam Frozen batting seventh, Tommy Fail batting eighth and Liover Peguero batting ninth. Alexander Canario and Matt Gorski sat poised on the bench.
Can you believe they got shut out?
I’m not going to use the tired line, “What a difference a year makes,” but I will say this: What a difference a year makes.
This has been The Year of Ben, and if he continues his hot streak by bolstering a potential playoff team as the season moves along, we’ll really be talking.
Can you think of an athlete, coach or executive in this town whose stature changed as dramatically as Cherington’s has in a matter of 365 days? Maybe former Pirates GM Neal Huntington in 2013? Thing is, that Pirates team had shown great promise in the previous two years. This one hadn’t.
So let me say this loud and clear: Ben Cherington deserves credit. It would appear he has done an excellent job of building this baseball team and a spectacular job in the draft of late.
That was never more evident than in the 1-0 win at Arizona on Wednesday night, a victory that raised the Pirates’ record to 20-17. That might not seem like much, but it is an 88-win pace.
Brandon Lowe, whom Cherington acquired in an offseason trade, accounted for the only run with a massive drive over the center-field wall. He has already hit half as many home runs (nine) as the Pirates’ entire starting infield accumulated last season.
Gregory Soto, whom Cherington signed to a one-year, $7.75 million deal, continued his spectacular season by recording the save, and Skenes pitched one of the more brilliant games of his career, allowing just two baserunners (and no walks) over eight masterful innings.
If you think Skenes was a no-brainer draft pick at No. 1 overall three years ago, think again. Just five days before that draft, an MLB.com panel of Jim Callis, Jonathan Mayo and Josh Jackson predicted with reason that LSU outfielder Dylan Crews had a 39% chance to be drafted first overall, above his teammate Skenes, who had a 29% chance.
They wrote the following: “The majority of teams would take Crews No. 1, and most teams also think the Pirates will.”
Never forget that Cherington — to put it mildly — made the right call there. It was nothing less than a franchise-changing and very likely job-saving call. Skenes is one of the greatest young pitchers in baseball history. Crews has a .211 career batting average and is currently in Triple-A (although he has heated up of late and still has a chance for a big career).
Where would the Pirates be if Cherington did what most thought he’d do?
He followed that by snagging Konnor Griffin with the ninth pick in 2024, which might turn out to be one of the greatest draft picks of all-time — one now signed to a long-term deal — and then took Seth Hernandez, a quickly rising ace, sixth overall last year (the Pirates pick fifth this year).
I asked Mayo last month if there’s a chance it will turn out that Cherington selected the best player in each of the last three drafts.
“Absolutely,” he said.
Combine that with the improved play from Nick Gonzales (seventh overall in 2020) and Cherington looks even better, despite the continuing offensive struggles of his other first-round picks, Henry Davis and Termarr Johnson.
It helped that Bob Nutting finally opened the checkbook, at least a crack, during the offseason. Cherington also brought in Ryan O’Hearn, who is off to an excellent start.
There’s still a long way to the finish line. We’ve seen how good starts can turn to fool’s gold, like the year the team started 20-9 and extended Shelton. But this looks sustainable, at least to the point of the Pirates playing better than .500 and contending for a playoff spot. Cherington should have a chance to do something impactful at the trade deadline.
Last season was unforgivable. Let’s be clear about that. But things have changed pretty dramatically around here over the past 365 days.
It has been The Year of Ben.