How low can they go?
I wrote a month ago that the Pirates would not sink under .500 again. It might happen Monday night at whatever they call that sorry excuse for a ballpark in Sacramento.
I also jumped the gun writing that GM Ben Cherington had redeemed himself after ruining last season (and all his other ones).
To put it in baseball terms, I grabbed an early lead only to see the bullpen burst into flames. Sound familiar?
Injuries, ineptitude and a striking lack of organizational depth threaten to blow up a once-promising Pirates season. Are the problems fixable? You tell me.
Here are four of them …
• Cherington’s bullpen still stinks.
Let us consider the case of Wilbur Dotel. He was a nice story for a bit. But in June his ERA has expanded faster than Beaver Stadium. It’s at 19.29 this month, 5.89 overall, which is about what you’d expect for a guy who wasn’t even pitching well as a starter in the minors when the Pirates promoted him out of pure desperation.
Maybe it’s a good sign that Dennis Santana has held opponents’ scoreless in six of his past seven outings, but this team absolutely needs a hammer. Go get Aroldis Chapman, and radically overpay to do it. Nobody cares about 2027, let alone 2034
• Cherington’s big free-agent signing is an abject bust.
The sight of Marcell Ozuna, the $12 million man, wearing a warmup jacket and talking to Paul Skenes in the dugout Sunday was worth a million words. Or maybe just three: What a bust.
The Pirates are without two of their best offensive players — Konnor Griffin and Oneil Cruz — but Ozuna is so bad he’s not even usable. And if he only plays against lefties, he’ll likely never emerge from his slumber. He has one extra-base hit in a month.
Where’s Tommy Pham when you need him?
• Cherington’s top pick from 2021 — first overall in the draft — is hitting .131.
This is no longer viable, although the other catcher — Endy Rodriguez — has not thrown out a single base stealer. Davis is now a .173 career hitter. If he never played another game, he’d go down as one of the worst hitters of all-time.
After hitting a robust .120 in May, Davis is off to a .091 start in June. Does Cherington need to see the average go below .100 to send him down? I guess it pays to be Skenes’ personal catcher.
Where is Joey Bart when you need him?
• One of Cherington’s biggest signings forgot how to pitch.
Mitch Keller has a $77 million contract that runs through 2028. He also has a 5.14 ERA, including a Dotel-like 11.42 ERA in June. He has become the poster boy for an overrated rotation.
The Pirates should have traded Keller when they had the chance, although I’m guessing he wasn’t all that coveted by contenders, given his annual late-season swoons.
Could they get a bullpen arm? I’d be on the phone today.
I won’t include team defense and the never-ending stream of mindless challenges in this piece. We all urged the Pirates to sacrifice some defense for offense, and they did. You can’t be surprised.
The ABS debacle is strictly on manager Don Kelly, who apparently has not imposed any hard and fast rules, like maybe this one: DON’T CHALLENGE A REALLY CLOSE PITCH IN A SCORELESS GAME ON AN 0-1 COUNT WITH NOBODY ON IN THE THIRD INNING!
The Pirates are the worst team in the majors in challenges — combined offense and defense. That’s embarrassing.
I also won’t include Skenes in this conversation because he’s still very good — sitting at 14th in the majors in ERA (2.89). But he also hasn’t gotten into the seventh inning in a month. The Pirates need him to be great, as in all-time great. Especially now.
Is that fair?
Maybe not. But if it’s too much to expect Michael Jordan to be Michael Jordan, then maybe he’s not Michael Jordan.