For the Pirates, doing nothing can no longer be the answer

The Pirates need to be willing to try anything, to right a sinking ship of a season

Photo Credit: WTM

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

I’ll never proclaim to be a baseball expert. I’m just a guy who watches a lot of baseball, writes down what I see, and shares it with the world.

So, I will never pretend that I know more than those who actually make the decisions for an actual MLB organization.

But, man, it’s hard not to watch the Pirates blow another late lead and feel like we’ve been there before.

To an extent, I admire Ben Cherington's loyalty to those he has brought in. It’s the kind of thing I am sure is noted around the league. If they had cut bait with Rowdy Tellez when the fans were calling for it, without a clear-cut answer to replace him, no less, who knows how much worse things would be now.

There comes a time when you have to realize you’ve pulled on a door for so long before you try pushing to see if that works.

There is also an argument that we are way past that point with the 2024 Pirates, who look on the verge of a collapse on what was once a very promising season.

The arrival of Paul Skenes injected some much-needed life into this organization and fanbase, which is starving for a winning baseball team in Pittsburgh.

Opportunity after opportunity has come for Cherington to make some changes, yet he has stood still.

Now, I think there has to be a certain amount of patience when running a baseball team. It would be disastrous if any GM were as reactionary as most fanbases want them to be.

That being said, Cherington has to make some moves to spark this roster.

Call someone up.

Get rid of somebody.

Something.

Anything.

ANYTHING.

This year’s deadline favored the sellers, especially if you had a reliever or two to move.

The Pirates decided to be passive buyers, hanging on to some players that could have netted some strong returns.

This is fine; the emergence of Skenes and Jared Jones has forced open a window that perhaps the front office wasn’t expecting to have access to in 2024. There’s nothing wrong with trying to add and improve; it should be encouraged more.

The group they brought in didn’t seem like the type to move the needle unless they got some help around them.

Isiah Kiner-Falefa has been a fantastic addition so far. However, relying on a player having a career season so far out of the norm to be one of your better hitters isn’t the best recipe for success.

Sticking with a player who is clearly off in high-leverage situations while doubling down by admitting you are keeping him there, only for it to blow up in your face—again—

This isn’t a 21-year-old rookie trying to break through into the majors on a team building to the future. This is a 28-year-old reliever on a team supposedly fighting for a Wild Card spot.

There is an argument to be made that having Jared Triolo on the roster made sense despite the lack of hitting, as he is really the only other option at third base.

IKF can fill that role now. The Ji Hwan Bae experiment should have been solved before they found themselves in the Wild Card race.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have their top catching prospect, Daulton Rushing, playing left field in Triple-A right now, most likely to be an option down the stretch.

The Dodgers are willing to get creative and go with something/someone else if things don’t go how they want; there is no reason the Pirates shouldn’t be willing to do the same.

They did take the first steps in that, playing Nick Yorke in center field on Wednesday. It’s the first time in his professional career he’s played there. If they do, we will see how long it takes them to pull the trigger on that.

Billy Cook was also added to the organization during the deadline and has done nothing but hit since joining the system.

Are they the answer? It’s impossible to tell with them in Triple-A. But the answers in the majors now aren’t helping; they are, in fact, actually hurting the team’s chances of making the playoffs.

The Pirates made their bed at the deadline and now have to lie in it. Which means being willing to try whatever it takes to get things going. Doing nothing when you’ve already committed the first part of trying to win—not moving your tradeable assets at the deadline—is worse than admitting defeat and adding more talent to the system.

In the midst of the most grueling part of their schedule, complacency is easily a death sentence for the 2024 campaign.

Let’s face it: This team isn’t built to make the playoffs, especially compared to the other teams in the race. Thanks to their rotation, they could make noise once in, but the offense and bullpen are such a mess right now that it’s hard to think they can keep up.

That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t explore every option or be willing to try anything different.

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