GM Ben Cherington expects Pirates to be better, continues to search for improvements

TAMPA — The Pittsburgh Pirates entered the offseason with a laundry list of upgrades needed to improve on a 76-win, fourth-place finish in the NL Central, one that got even longer when a starting pitcher and catcher were lost to season-ending elbow surgeries.

With a dire need for starting pitching, a hole to fill at first base and inexperience at catcher, Pirates general manager Ben Cherington spent about $36 million in external moves, signing five free agents and swinging several trades.

Although fans view it as an uninspiring offseason, Cherington believes the Pirates are deeper — and better — than they were entering spring training last year. And he promised to continue searching for ways to improve the major-league roster, preferably but not necessarily by adding another starting pitcher.

“The first day of spring training is a transition on the calendar because our guys are on the field. That’s really important,” Cherington said Thursday afternoon at Grapefruit League media day at George Steinbrenner Field.

“But we need to keep finding ways to make the team better. I don’t think that specific to pitching. Anywhere on the roster.”

Cherington addressed the starting pitching by adding a pair of left-handers, Marco Gonzales in a trade with Atlanta, and Martin Perez on a free agent deal. Lefty-hitting slugger Rowdy Tellez was signed to address first base, at least in a platoon. Bringing back fan favorite Andrew McCutchen as designated hitter on another one-year contract was an easy decision, despite a partial tear in his left Achilles.

Signing seven-time All-Star closer Aroldis Chapman to a one-year, $10.5 million contract, however, signaled an about-face from the Pirates’ plans. After striking out in free agency and trades for another starting pitcher, Cherington said they decided to be opportunistic and sought an impact player instead of locking in on a certain position.

“We got to the point in the winter where we said, ‘OK, this is what’s happening in the market. We’re trying to get better. We have resources to do that,’ ” Cherington said. “We took a step back in January and said, ‘Let’s look more broadly: Who are the players we think could make the biggest impact on the team, regardless of position?’ That kind of narrowed us toward a group. Aroldis was one of a relatively small group of players. We initiated conversations with that group. That led to a deal with Aroldis. It was a little bit of a pivot based on what we were learning from the market, a little bit opportunistic. We’re just trying to make the team better. We want to be open-minded on ways to do that. ”

One of the main reasons Cherington believes the Pirates will improve is the return of shortstop Oneil Cruz from surgery to repair a fractured left ankle. Based on his 2022 rookie numbers, Cruz had projected a 30-home run, 100-RBI season as an everyday player. Even so, Cherington doesn’t want to set unrealistic expectations for the 25-year-old Cruz, who has played in only 98 career games in the majors, including nine last season.

“It’s a really talented player that, basically, we did not have the ability to deploy for almost the entire season,” Cherington said. “With respect to Oneil, we really want to give him every opportunity to come back into his game this spring. Not expecting him to be anybody but himself. He missed a lot of time. He’s coming off a major injury. We understand the game’s hard. He’s going to need some reps. He’s going to need to get back into game activity, get back into competition. We’re so excited he’ll have the opportunity to do that.”

Cherington also addressed the Pirates’ spring training plans for their pair of No. 1 overall draft picks, catcher Henry Davis (2021) and right-handed pitcher Paul Skenes (2023).

With Davis, Cherington said the Pirates are “fully committed to him catching,” and he will compete for a job opposite 12-year veteran Yasmani Grandal, who signed a one-year deal. Cherington emphasized that Davis started only 78 games and caught 672 1/3 innings at his natural position in the minors before moving to right field for the Pirates, where he also caught two innings.

“We believe in Henry Davis. I don’t recall being around too many players in my career who take their craft as seriously as Henry, who work as hard at his craft,” Cherington said. “Whatever is in front of him, whatever the goal is, he’s gonna go after it like not many people would. Over time, that just gives us a lot of confidence that he’s gonna figure out whatever it is he needs to figure out to be the player he’s capable of being in the big leagues.”

Skenes pitched only 6 2/3 innings at three levels of the minors last summer after tossing 122 2/3 innings in leading LSU to the College World Series championship, so Cherington said the Pirates are keeping a narrow focus on his inning and volume progression as he throws live bullpens and batting practice and appears in Grapefruit League games.

“If you go back and look at very highly drafted college pitchers who had gone on to exceptional careers, most of them had a good chunk of time in the minor leagues,” Cherington said. “We’ll see. We’re not putting any ceiling on it. We want to respect Paul Skenes and let him be Paul Skenes. Whatever the path is, it should be unique to him.”

Although Skenes is likely to start the season in the minors — he made two starts at Double-A Altoona last year — Cherington said he will “be in a competitive situation in spring training.”

“We don’t need to make any decisions right now,” Cherington said, “so we’re not going to.”

The emphasis on internal improvement comes with the Pirates counting on players making natural progression, whether that’s Mitch Keller and David Bednar repeating their All-Star form, outfielder Jack Suwinski building on a 26-homer season, young players building off promising rookie seasons or top prospects taking another step toward the majors.

For those reasons, Cherington believes the Pirates will be better.

“We have to keep working at that. We can’t take anything for granted,” Cherington said. “We’ll keep working at it both in terms of how do we help our current group take steps and put them in the position to perform, and we’ll also look to see if there are ways to continue to make the roster deeper and better with external additions. We do feel like we’re better. But the proof is in the pudding. We gotta go play and go do it on the field. We’re excited about that.”