Pirates GM wants to 'do more' for lineup by adding another starting pitcher, position player

Ben Cherington isn’t finished with his Christmas shopping.

The Pittsburgh Pirates general manager, who vowed to improve the major-league roster after back-to-back 100-loss seasons, said Wednesday that his wish list includes adding another starting pitcher and position player to the 40-man roster between now and the start of spring training.

“Don’t feel like it’s a ‘have to,’ but certainly want to do more,” Cherington told reporters on a video conference call. “Specifically, we would still like to add a starting pitcher. That market’s been strong, but we continue to stay engaged with some free agents and trade opportunities. Both of those can be hard to speculate, in terms of how likely it is to line up, but we would still like to add another starting pitcher to our group. We’d also like to add another position player, if we can. Another potential option for the lineup.”

Cherington has been busy over the past month, from signing free agents in first baseman/designated hitter Carlos Santana, starting right-handed pitcher Vince Velasquez and catcher Austin Hedges to trading for first baseman/DH Ji-Man Choi, righty reliever Dauri Moreta and outfielder/first baseman Connor Joe to claiming outfielder/third baseman Ryan Vilade off waivers and agreeing to a free-agent deal with lefty reliever Jarlin Garcia.

The Pirates have ticketed $17.375 million on four players in free agency so far this offseason and also have third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes ($10 million) and outfielders Miguel Andujar ($1.525 million) and Bryan Reynolds ($6.75 million) under contract for 2023, although Reynolds requested a trade earlier this month before the Winter Meetings.

With the Pirates projected to spend another $11.8 million in arbitration for Choi, starting pitchers Mitch Keller and JT Brubaker and relievers Robert Stephenson and Duane Underwood Jr., that could increase the payroll to $47.45 million for a dozen players.

The Pirates return projected starters in second baseman Rodolfo Castro, shortstop Oneil Cruz and Hayes in the infield with Reynolds and possibly Andujar and Jack Suwinski in the outfield. Where Hedges fills a need at catcher, Choi and Santana are expected to split duties between first base and DH and Joe has the versatility to platoon with them against left-handed pitching or play a corner outfield spot.

Cherington believes the additions will make the lineup more balanced and give manager Derek Shelton a better caliber of players from which to choose than last season, when several positions featured starters with batting averages hovering around or below the Mendoza Line.

“We want to continue to lengthen that out,” Cherington said. “We feel good, if the season started tomorrow, with our position player group. We’ve got 13 guys, assuming that’s what we start with. We feel good about putting together some combinations at different positions. But in a perfect world, we would we would still add to that group so we’ll stay engaged on that. It’s Wednesday of Christmas week, so I’m not predicting anything necessarily this week. It may spell out past the holidays.”

Cherington also wants to address the starting rotation, which doesn’t have a left-hander. He believes the Pirates will have a deeper lineup next season, given how many players made their major-league debuts last season, and the experience of the veterans brought in through trades and free agency.

“When we’re in spring training and moving into April, our group of players compared to a year ago will be one year further ahead in their maturation and development, so that’s one reason why I think we’re deeper,” Cherington said. “We’ve been able to add to the team and hope to continue to add to the team externally to get deeper. So I think we’re deeper, which we hope gives Shelty more options in terms of filling out the lineup and creating some more length in the lineup. I do think, as we all saw last year, there were too many days when we had a spot or more than one spot in the lineup that just wasn’t producing much. It’s just really hard to score runs and win games that way, so we’re trying to deepen it out in a way that makes sense for us.”