How are the Pirates still in this mess in Year 5?

Ben Cherington. Derek Shelton. Year 5.

The Pittsburgh Pirates, fresh off a 2-4 home stand that likely just cemented their status as trade deadline sellers, are headed down a familiar road: mediocrity.

Ben Cherington acquired a plethora of free agents this offseason that theoretically would fill holes on the Pirates roster. The problem is that nearly every single free agent bombed.

Michael A. Taylor can’t hit his way out of a wet paper bag. Yasmani Grandal was likely about to ride into the sunset before the Pirates coughed up $2.5 million for his services, whatever those are. Martin Perez has been okay for what the Pirates need. Rowdy Tellez has been much better over the past month but was so bad to start the year, he was openly being boo’d at PNC Park.

Oh, yeah, there’s also Aroldis Chapman. The $10.5 million man who was not really a need in any way, shape, or form but still received money that could’ve went towards an actual bat in the lineup.

As a result of this LeBron James-esque flop, the Pirates sit at 42-47, a mile out of first place in a winnable National League Central and 4.5 games out of a wild card spot that they *somehow* are theoretically still a part of. But don’t kid yourself, this team does not have the makings of one primed to make a serious run.

Paul Skenes, Jared Jones, and Mitch Keller form a three-headed pitching monster as strong as any offering across Major League Baseball. Upper management has already said they’ll monitor the innings of Skenes and Jones. That is the Pirates subtle way of saying they’ll be shut down after some finite number of innings they’ll continue to insist doesn’t exist.

Jones just hit the IL with a lat injury. He’ll be down for two weeks in a no throw program and then will have to “ramp up”. If the Pirates fall out of contention far enough over the next month, we may not see another pitch from Jones until 2025.
Skenes is an All-Star. Keller should be joining him but there’s only so many spots available. Bryan Reynolds will be joining Skenes and rightfully so. An argument could even be made for Colin Holderman to join them but there’s plenty of relievers that are always deserving. He doesn’t have the star power behind his name but I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets his name called as an injury replacement soon enough. Nick Gonzales has become a bright spot in the lineup and taken a hold of the everyday job at second base.

These are the bright spots for the Pirates. There haven’t been many.

Consider that, after Sunday, the Pirates now have 17 blown saves on the season. Blown saves are going to happen but 17 of them? Half of those blown saves converted and the Pirates well above .500 and controlling their playoff destiny as the All-Star Break approaches. I hate living in the “What If?” category but asking a team to not blow a save in 19% of their first 89 games doesn’t feel like a lot to ask.

The fundamentals are lacking. It’s year five. Non-pitching prospects are scarce in the organization. It’s year five. The Pirates have a bottom-5 offense five years into a “rebuild”.

Ke’Bryan Hayes. Jack Suwinski. Henry Davis. Oneil Cruz. Each of these guys are supposed to be cornerstones for the franchise’s next playoff contender. They’ve all disappointed in their own way this season however Cruz has come around over the past three weeks or so to an extent the other guys haven’t quite found yet consistently.

With each passing day, frustration grows in the fan base. A 14-run performance on Friday night was followed by 12 total hits and four runs over the next two games combined.

Inconsistency. Mediocrity. Frustration. These are just three words to describe the Bucco’s in 2024. It’s year 5 for this regime and things don’t seem to be getting better anytime soon.
When is enough, enough? That’s only for Bob Nutting, Ben Cherington, and Derek Shelton to figure out. This, my friends, might be the scariest part of all of this.