PITTSBURGH — The news that Andrew McCutchen had signed with the Pirates was incredible and predictably and rightfully was received with open arms and enthusiasm from fans and observers of all shapes and sizes and from all corners of Pirates nation.
McCutchen is the most popular Pirates player probably since Willie Stargell played. He is the most important Pirates player since Barry Bonds. He helped lead the Pirates renaissance as they put 20 years of losing in their rearview mirrors and clinched playoff berths three years in a row from 2013-15.
He was not only the best player on those teams, but he was the biggest fan favorite, the team leader, the most respected and most requested player during that era, as well. He is also a champion in the community and just someone that was always very easy to root for.
And now he is back home and back in the Pirates uniform to perhaps end his career where it began.
The Pirates also signed high-level international prospects Jun-Seok Shim and Raymond Mola. Both are ranked among the top 26 international prospects in this year’s pool.
They also added veterans Carlos Santana and Rich Hill this offseason. Both are going to be immediate upgrades at their respective positions, or so we are told.
It sounds like a brilliant offseason. It sounds like all of the prospects in the system are doing well in their respective winter programs and the 40-man roster is bursting with potential.
Wonderful.
Now go win games.
I’m sorry to be that guy, but I can’t imagine I am the only one who is tired of reading about how great the Pirates offseason has been, how many more prospects are signed, how the FIP or WHIP or some cherry-picked nonsensical statistic suggests a 42-year old pitcher is going to find the fountain of youth ...
Enough is enough.
The Pirates need to get into the business of winning baseball games this year. They need to enter this year with expectations and the whole crew from Ben Cherington to Derek Shelton to all of the front-office assistants, scouts, assistant coaches and instructors need to be judged by how well they do that.
We are now entering Year 4 of the Cherington era, and there needs to be tangible results. There needs to be a big jump in wins, and there needs to be a legitimate core of players emerge that make it clear the rebuilding plan is on track to produce winning baseball for the next few years.
I am not sure what that number — the number of wins — is supposed to be, but it can’t be 60 or even 70 and needs to get somewhere in the neighborhood of 82. And it has to be a consistent and steady season where the Pirates are playing competitive baseball night in and night out.
I’m not saying they need to make the playoffs or even have a winning record necessarily, but this can’t be another season where we are told to celebrate all of the small victories and progress. I don’t want to hear, “We lost 100 games, but Johnny Superstar got better down the stretch and is ready for a breakout!” or “Hey, Joe Jabolonsky was raking at Altoona and he is ready to take his act to Indy!”
Those things were fine the first year or two when the club was stripped down and rebuilt but not now, not going into Year 4. Baseball is a slow build. That’s especially true for a small-market team like the Pirates, but the corner has to have been turned by now and the on-field product has to improve.
“But Paul, but Paul, they did improve last year!” is what some of the biggest apologists claim and say they improved in ways that are less tangible to winning and losing games. Some of the young players got better. Some are ahead of schedule, even.
Give me a break, will you please?
They lost 101 games in 2021 and only lost 100 in 2020, so technically, I suppose they did improve by a whole one game! They were still bad far more than they were good, had way too many games that weren’t competitive and had way too many laughable gaffes and mistakes to ever give themselves a chance to improve in the win/loss column.
It is wonderful McCutchen is back. It is wonderful they signed some great international prospects. It is tremendous they brought in a couple of veterans to fill holes.
All of that is great, and all of it will be meaningless if they don’t win games this year. The rebuilding years were different and storylines were acceptable in lieu of winning.
Nobody expected the Pirates to win in 2020 and 2021, and while there was an expectation of some tangible improvement in 2022, most people understood there would be some growing pains and perhaps a lot of losses.
Storylines aren’t good enough this year. Neither is progress of prospects and minor league system rankings or Baseball America prospect lists. We bought all of that stuff the last couple of years while Cherington and company arrived, settled in and began the process of rebuilding.
We bought it then. We aren’t buying it anymore. The only measure of success for the Pirates this year is how they fare in the win-loss column.
