Pittsburgh Pirates Spring Training preview: What I'm watching for

A look at what to watch for the Pirates 2024 Spring Training.

Pitchers and catchers report for the Pirates today, which makes it the official start of Spring Training. Games won’t start for another couple of weeks, but before we get to that point, here are some things I will be watching this Spring from the Pirates.

Rotation Battle

Barring a free agent or trade acquisition, the Pirates will head into camp with three of their five rotation spots locked up, with Mitch Keller, Martin Perez, and Marco Gonzales filling them.

That leaves up to two spots in the rotation up for grabs during Spring, potentially five players on the 40-man rotation fighting for it.

They have a couple of former top prospects - Roansy Contreras, Luis Ortiz, and Quinn Priester - all who had less-than-ideal 2023 seasons.

The Pirates seem pretty high on Bailey Falter, and although he likely works better out of the bullpen as a multi-inning guy, he could get a look in the rotation out of camp. His appearance bloated his ERA with the Pirates from high-3s to the mid-5s.

Jackson Wolf is the last player on the 40-man roster with starting experience, but he’s a long shot who made one appearance above Double-A (his major league debut with the Padres).

The Pirates had to string together their rotation at the end of last year, going with a lot of bullpen games down the stretch. If one, or even two, of these five don’t step up, it could be a rough start out the gate.

Sleeper rotation guys - Jared Jones and Sean Sullivan?

There’s likely little to no chance that either Jones or Sullivan makes the roster out of camp. We know why, so there is no reason to talk too much about it, but I will be watching these two players this Spring - mainly to see what kind of competition they face.

Sullivan was an interesting addition to the NRI list and could mean the Pirates want to get a closer look at him. I’m not saying he will rise the way Luis Ortiz did, but this is a bit of a reminder of back in 2022 when he wasn’t a well-known prospect and got an invite to Spring before closing the season out in Pittsburgh.

If you’ve read my work for a long enough time, you know I’m a big fan of Sullivan. He doesn’t have the most overpowering stuff, but he has excellent fastball command and can throw his secondaries off it.

I’m not saying he’s for sure getting a look this year, but a really good Spring for Sullivan can put him on the map.

I’ve been back and forth on Jones. I love his stuff (it’s hard not to), especially after seeing him in person last year, but I’m still not sure I want to say confidently he’s a starter in the future.

Based on the options the Pirates have in the upper levels, he might be the best option - even more than some players on the 40-man roster. In our top 25 article, I mentioned that he may be the most major league-ready pitcher the Pirates have in the minors.

Alex Stumpf mentioned on NS9 that Paul Skenes has yet to work on five days of rest, not counting last year when it was on a minimal sample size. So while the talent is there, a couple of month adjustment period wouldn’t hurt.

On the other hand, Jones has pitched 120+ innings in each of the last two innings on a five-day pitching schedule.

He won’t make the rotation out of camp, but he could complicate things for the Pirates.

Hunter Stratton

The bullpen should be a strength of the team, especially after adding Aroldis Chapman. There should be a couple of spots open still going iSpringring, and while it will be a more difficult hill to climb as an NRI, Stratton has the sneaky good stuff that could let him push to make the team.

I mentioned it in the Mailbag, he put up some solid metrics in his super small sample size in the majors. His chase rate was elite, and the whiff rate was respectable.

The cutter is a legitimate weapon against both righties and lefties and got a whiff rate of over 30% in minors and majors.

It’ll be about the control for Stratton, especially with the four-seam that lacks ideal shape and approach angle. Of the five hits he allowed with the fastball, two went for home runs, which shouldn’t be maintainable, but his expected slugging was still .663 (worse than his actual slugging).

He’s got some good stuff, and if the roster spot is open, he could grab it with the right Spring.

Oneil Cruz defense

We enter 2024 in a similar position that we did with Oneil Cruz that we did in 2023 - he may hold the key to just what level of success the Pirates can have.

It’s for slightly different reasons, as they were hoping that Cruz could build off his 2022 rookie season, where he hit 17 home runs and stole 10 bases in 87 games. He also struck out 34.9% of the time and was tied for the third-worst Outs Above Average (OAA) by a shortstop (-9).

Now, not only do we need to know if he’s made the adjustments at the plate to have prolonged success, but he will have to answer if he can handle a position that few thought he’d be able to stick at before breaking his ankle.

Reports have come back that he’s at 100% again, but you have to wonder what long-term mobility issues he may have.

Regardless of position, it’s always been his offense that has been his most exciting trait, but the Pirates don’t have many - if any - options behind him if he should truly struggle at the position.

While Spring isn’t the best place to evaluate some aspects of the game, I will be interested to see how Cruz looks when he plays short in games.