Pirates notebook: GM Ben Cherington still pursuing pitching, offensive depth in outfield

BRADENTON, Fla. — Once the lockout was lifted, the Pittsburgh Pirates were raring to go after available starting pitchers and offensive depth in the outfield.

Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said his baseball operations staff started working the phones Thursday evening in an attempt to add players to the competition for the starting rotation and in the outfield, where All-Star center fielder Bryan Reynolds is joined by Anthony Alford, Greg Allen and Ben Gamel.

“We’re confident we’ll be able to add to this team, both through free agency and trade throughout spring training, over the course of these next two or three weeks,” Cherington said Monday at LECOM Park. “We knew what we wanted to do. You can’t always execute, but we knew what we wanted.”

The Pirates have a full 40-man roster after claiming left-handed reliever Aaron Fletcher off waivers from Seattle on Sunday, but Cherington said he will continue searching for help in the three weeks before Opening Day on April 7 at the St. Louis Cardinals.

Going international

With an international draft still being negotiated between MLB and the players, Cherington said the Pirates “would support the draft” depending on how the policy is defined.

“It matters a lot,” Cherington said. “I think we believe, over time, a system that helps us govern the process of how players come into the system, in terms of how they’re selected and signed, what the process looks like, is good for the game, good for those players.

“My personal belief is the game is so native in such a huge part of the culture in those places that draft or no draft, it’s going to be strong. Baseball is not going away in those places, so if we can design a system that just makes it safer and more equitable and fair for players to come in the game, I think that should be a good thing for all of us and good for players. Again, like any other policy, until you see the details, it’s hard to know exactly how (it would work). Generally speaking, we would support the pursuit of figuring out a way to do that that is fair.”

Delayed arrivals

Cherington said two Pirates players will be late arrivals to spring training camp, as first baseman Yoshi Tsutsugo is in Japan and infielder Hoy Park tested positive for covid-19 in his native South Korea.

Cherington was optimistic that Tsutsugo was expected to make it to camp “within the week.” Park, however, has to go through the MLB protocol process of testing negative before he is cleared to travel.

When Tsutsugo signed a one-year, $4 million free agent contract with the Pirates in late November, Cherington said he expected him to play first base. The addition of the universal designated hitter doesn’t change those plans, though Cherington isn’t ruling out appearances as DH.

“We definitely still believe Yoshi will play a lot of first base,” Cherington said. “I think if the DH came in, which it has, then our interest would be just to add more offense somehow. More than one spot and have DH as a spot where different guys can go. Certainly possible Yoshi will get some days there, but so could others.”