MLB Offseason Preview - Pittsburgh Pirates

Pittsburgh Pirates

National League	Central Division
78-83	25.0 GB of Division Lead
Manager: Clint Hurdle	GM: Neal Huntington
AAA Affiliate Indianapolis Indians	AA Affiliate Altoona Curve

2016 Rankings

Hitting	AVG – 12th	OPS – 15th	Runs – 13th	HR – 26th	SB – 8th
Starting Pitching	ERA – 22nd	K/9 – 23rd	H/9 – 28th
Relief Pitching	ERA – 11th	K/9 – 23rd	H/9 – 19th

Top Hitters

POS.	Name	AVG	OBP	Slug	HR	RBIs	WAR	SB
LW	Starling Marte	.311	.362	.456	9	46	4.9	47
3B/SS	Jung-Ho Kang	.255	.354	.511	21	62	2.3	3
3B/1B	David Freese	.270	.352	.412	13	55	1.8

Top Pitchers

POS.	Name	G/GS	Record	ERA	IP/Saves	K	BB	ERA+	WAR
SP	Jameson Taillon	18 GS	5-4	3.38	104.0 IP	85	17	124	2.6
CP	Mark Melancon	45 G	1-1	1.51	30 saves	38	9	278	1.7
SP	Gerrit Cole	21 GS	7-10	3.88	116.0 IP	98	36	108	1.6

Trades That Occurred During Season

• Traded pitcher Jonathan Niese to the New York Mets for RP Antonio Bastardo
• Traded pitcher Francisco Liriano, catcher Reese McGuire, and outfielder Harold Ramirez to Toronto for pitcher Drew Hutchinson

Impending Free Agents

• SP Ivan Nova
• UT Sean Rodriguez
• Sp Ryan Vogelsong
• OF Matt Joyce
• RP Phil Coke

Top Prospects

POS.	Name	Level
SP	Tyler Glasnow	MLB
OF	Austin Meadows	AAA
1B/OF	Josh Bell	MLB
SS	Kevin Newman	AA
SP	Mitch Keller	A+

Team MVP

• Jung-Ho Kang - Starling Marte had the best season out of any of the Pirates hitters, but Kang was their most important player.  He missed the first month of the season recovering from MCL surgery and missed two weeks at the end of August, yet was still able to play a pivotal role in the Pirates lineup.  He finished third on the team in RBIs, hit over 20 home runs, and slugged over .500.  A successful second season for Kang further confirmed that the Pirates' decision to sign him was a good one.

Success/Failure

• Failure - The Pirates had aspirations of making the playoffs and set their sites on advancing through a round or two of the playoffs after making the playoffs each of the past three seasons. They failed to make the playoffs this season, finishing 25 games out of first place and were already 7.5 games out of first on June 1st.  The biggest reason that they missed the playoffs was that their pitching failed them, an area that has been their strong point in recent seasons. Their lineup also did not have enough power, with 24 home runs pacing the team, and the former MVP and leader of the team, Andrew McCutchen was bad this season.  He only batted .256, only drove in 79 runs, and struck out 143 times, a career high.  The Pirates don't have enough depth to their lineup for McCutchen to have an off year and the team to still have success.  The Pirates also only dealt Mark Melancon, despite knowing that they were out of contention by the trade deadline.

Offseason Outlook

• The good news for the Pirates is that 2016 was probably just a blip in the radar and they'll rebound for 2017 and be a playoff team again.  Over the offseason, they have to add starting pitchers to a rotation that will return Gerrit Cole, Jameson Taillon, Tyler Glasnow, and maybe Jeff Locke, all relatively young pitchers.  They'll need a veteran presence at the back end of the rotation to help eat some of the innings that will be left over due to the young arms.  After losing all-star closer Mark Melancon, the Pirates will also need to add a piece or two to the bullpen, as reliever Tony Watson struggled in the closer role after Melancon was dealt.  Elite closers Aroldis Chapman and Kenley Jansen will be available this offseason and maybe the Pirates will finally spend money on a free agent and acquire one of them, which would secure their bullpen.  In their lineup, they need a power bat, either by signing a player or developing Josh Bell into more of a power hitter, since he has been a contact hitter who has struck out very little thus far in his career. There are options on the free agent market for the team to pursue who could play first base, including Mitch Moreland and Mike Napoli, although Napoli may be costly and the Pirates don't like to spend money.  The team also needs to determine who Josh Harrison and Gerrit Cole are after Harrison had his second consecutive down year after batting .315 two years ago and Cole had a down year after having a Cy Young caliber season last year. Cole has the talent to be an ace but has struggled to develop the talent into reality.  Perhaps a route for the Pirates to pursue would be to trade one or both of Harrison or Cole, and there have been rumors of trading Cole recently.  The Pirates have the pitching to overcome the loss of Cole and he would get them a great return since he is controllable through the 2019 season.  I think that Pittsburgh should also consider dealing Andrew McCutchen, who will be a free agent after next season. The issue is that trading him this offseason would be trading him at his lowest point so maybe waiting until next season and seeing if he can rebound is the better option.  The team has options behind Cutch to put in the outfield, including Austin Meadows who is a top-25 prospect in all of baseball.  The good news for the team is that they still have one of baseball's best farm systems despite calling up prospects in recent seasons so there will be more talent to draw upon in the future. 

*All stats and information come from baseball-reference.com, fangraphs.com, rosterresource.com, baseballamerica.com, and spotrac.com