End of the Season, and Beginning of the Off-Season: Part One
End of the Season, and Beginning of the Off-Season: Part One
A couch GM's viewpoint of the Pittsburgh Pirates and their assets
Once the 2024 World Series concludes, it’ll set off a flurry of moves that begins with activating players from the 60-day injured list and players officially becoming free agents. On the topic of free agents, I’ll keep it quick and painless with regard to the contentious dismissal of Rowdy Tellez. I don’t believe it matters or will matter to potential future targets.
The end.
Now that that is over and has been dealt with, I want to start with what I feel is the Pirates’ best possible use of their time in order to build a more competitive roster and organization.
If you listen to the weekly — on most occasions — podcast, you’ll know that I have personally already discussed this with Anthony, where the Pirates should utilize their MLB starting pitcher depth to their advantage.
If there is a pitcher to be deemed “untouchable,” that player should be Paul Skenes, with Jared Jones and Mitch Keller seemingly being safe unless management really wanted to spice things up. That would effectively leave two starting rotation spots open, with a litany of options.
The two 2025 rotational options who have the inside track would be Luis L. Ortiz (7-6, 135.2 IP, 3.32 ERA, 1.0 fWAR, 3.1 bWAR) and Bailey Falter (8-9, 142.1 IP, 4.43 ERA, 1.7 fWAR, 1.7 bWAR). Both are coming off of effective 130+ IP seasons. Ortiz isn’t a free agent till 2030, and Falter isn’t till 2029. Joining the mix, following Tommy John surgery, will be Johan Oviedo, who isn’t a free agent until 2028. So, right off the bat, you have a healthy RHP and LHP who are both controllable starters. Then, a returning RHP that had a quality 170+ IP in the 2023 season. Considering the likely desire to have an LH starter, Ortiz is the one left standing, while also the one with the most value of the three.
A second part of the equation involves the upper-level starting pitching depth. Mike Burrows made his MLB debut at the end of 2024 and was sent to the Arizona Fall League for more innings.
Then there are top 100 starters Bubba Chandler and Thomas Harrington, who both saw varying degrees of success between Double-A and Triple-A in 2024 while also (likely) being eligible for the Prospect Promotion Incentive. We shouldn’t forget about Braxton Ashcraft, who I wouldn’t be surprised to see moved to the bullpen for the sake of his arm’s health. These three — four if including Ashcraft — are largely important due to their proximity to the majors, and readiness to step onto a MLB mound.
The Pirates’ options include trading two of Ortiz, Falter, or Oviedo. Opening up a competition between the Triple-A starters (Chandler and Harrington being Prospect Promotion Incentive eligible), and whomever they Pirates sign in off-season. There is the possibility of trading Ortiz and then packaging one of the starting prospects in a deal to acquire a big-league capable bat. They could always deal multiple starting prospects, if the Pirates felt more comfortable with their starters who’ve shown success at the majors already. A positive of seeing the success in pitching development, is that there are other starters trending upwards, so that there won’t be a sense of a new hole created when dealing from an area of strength.
Hunter Barco’s season ended early due to a lower leg injury, but he should be a full go in 2025, likely kicking things back off in Altoona. Carlson Reed made easy work of Greensboro, so he could likely start off in Altoona. Anthony Solometo had a rough season but looked far better in his final month. Other names of note that could at least be in Double-A, or at least in the near future: Sean Sullivan, Alessandro Ercolani, Wilber Dotel, and Garrett McMillan.
I’m curious if Josh Hartle is a possible quick mover, and Derek Diamond could potentially open up in Altoona after joining Burrows and others in the Scottsdale Scorpions of the AFL. Long story short, the Pirates may not have half a dozen Bubba Chandler’s, but they have a strong collection of quantity and quality available in the upper minors.
Obviously, the next question would be, “Who do they target?” The quick and easy answer is bats. But that means this will have to be broken out into parts. First, so that this article doesn’t drag on too long. Second, I’ll need to look around a little more.
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I’ve said this Twitter a couple times b4 but Pirates fans just better enjoy Paul Skenes, hope the Pirates can win while he’s here and get the RIGHT prospect return when the time comes. Cause he’s GONE!!
And here’s the reasons:
1.The service clock is already ticking.
2.He’ll do well in arb years so combined with reason #1, the Pirates only really have two(2) per-arb years to leverage against him for a long term deal.
3.He’s not poor and signed a 9.2M signing if bonus just last year.
4.He’ll be a 500M player in Free Agency if he just waits a couple years and that prices the Pirates out(way out).
So in conclusion, he can just wait a couple years and go to LA(where’s he’s from) with his famous GF and be a 500M player and one of the top paid athletes in sports.
Or he can give a notoriously bad franchise an ungodly discount on a couple of his prime years and not be competitive during his prime(and lose awards for not being on a competitive team).
Hmmm, tough one!! Everyone and their mother better be telling the kid just to wait and not take the Pirates stupid low-ball contract extension. Again, just enjoy him and hope ………….. cause he gone!!
Reds hired Terry Francona lol
Dude grew up in New Brighton!