Pirates Have A BIG Infield Problem To Solve This Offseason

Last year, the Pirates called up their top prospect, Konnor Griffin, signed him to a franchise record contract, and have positioned him to be the face and leader of this team in the

not-so-distant future.

The infield runs through the shortstop position in general, and that is definitely the case in Pittsburgh.

Who he is surrounded by is a bit up in the air.

Good morning and welcome to Offbeat here on North Shore Nine presented by FanDuel.

My name is Alex Stumpf and this is a daily look at your Pittsburgh Pirates.

We are doing a positional by positional breakdown here this week.

We did the outfielders on Monday.

Today we are looking at the players in the dirt.

This is a group that has some upside.

It also has one giant question mark and let's just start off with the elephant in the room.

what happens in the likely event they do not keep Brandon Lowe.

Now I want to start off by saying, I am very pro keep Brandon Lowe.

And I get whatever contract he gets, whenever it comes towards the end of it, he is probably not going to match that production.

The thirty-five homers, ninety-six RBI that he hit this year, I fully recognize he's probably not going to be doing that two or three years from now.

But you know what?

This is a team that is so close and doesn't have a whole lot of years with this window open in my opinion.

Once Paul Skenes, Jared Jones, these guys are entering arbitration, that pitching court, and they're going to get expensive.

And there's a possibility they could just walk in free agency or be traded in the next couple years.

So it's very important, in my opinion, to win in twenty twenty seven period full stop.

And the easiest way to do that, in my opinion, is to keep Brandon Lowe, who was your best player last year, was a clubhouse leader, was universally beloved, the clubhouse wants him back.

It's a long list of reasons why Brandon Lowe would be the best player for this team to retain.

He's also the best left-handed hitter on this free agent market.

I am doubtful that he'll come back to Pittsburgh.

So if he doesn't come back, what does this infield look like?

you got Konnor Griffin, who spent a little more time on the injured list than he would have liked this year, but I still saw areas of growth.

I still saw areas where he got better in eighty games played.

He was still worth two point one war according to baseball reference.

So we're talking a guy who was nineteen twenty years old coming up to the majors and was immediately on like a three and a half four win pace.

You'll take that for this team to be competitive in twenty twenty seven.

They probably need Konnor Griffin to be an impact player and I think he could be an impact player.

He can take a step.

There's still areas he has to grow at.

Want to see him be able to handle left-handed fastballs in more.

Want to see him get a little more consistent with the glove.

Be able to use his tools like his legs a little more consistently.

But there's obviously so much immense talent here.

And I would expect him to be an impact player in twenty twenty seven.

You also got Ryan O'Hearn at first base, who was another one of those clubhouse leaders.

I would suspect he plays more first base in twenty twenty seven than he did before the quad injuries this year.

He's versatile, obviously use that versatility to put him in the outfield occasionally, but I would I would put him in the outfield once a week rather than have him out there five days a week like he was for the first couple of months

of the season.

That raises the question of what do you do with Spencer Horwitz?

He could play second in a pinch, but he absolutely shouldn't be the everyday second baseman.

And he had a really bad second half.

The first half, he was great.

The clubhouse, I remember the players saying in that video before the All-Star game, which hitter should be in the All-Star game?

And everyone was saying Brandon Lowe or Bryan Reynolds or Spencer Horwitz.

That showed how highly regarded he was in that clubhouse, how productive he was, how he was their best hitter in twenty twenty five, especially once he got back fully from the

injury.

His second half in twenty twenty five was great.

First half in twenty twenty six was great.

Second half of twenty twenty six was so bad that he finished with zero war.

It's an issue.

And if I'm divvying up playing time, he might be closer on the back end of the stick for me.

Because we have shown he has not consistently hit lefties in his career, even though he took really good strides in the first half of this season.

Second half, just nothing was going right offensively.

And it wasn't a matter of effort.

It wasn't a matter of really anything that seemed controllable.

I don't know if the concussion lingered.

I don't know if he was back fully healthy from anything.

It was just a rough year, a rough couple months at the end.

Nick Gonzales, we recently did an episode on him, how he fits in.

I could slot him in at either second base or third base.

I would probably prefer second base just based off of how Ralphie was defensively third base this year.

But he was a plus hitter, and he does come with some defensive versatility.

And last year, everyone's like, okay, they need a third baseman.

They trade for Brandon Lowe.

That obviously worked out brilliantly.

So you have to have that same level of, flexibility, open-mindedness, find ways to get this infield better.

Because other options from there get thin, in my opinion.

Jared Triolo had a bad offensive year.

We have seen him struggle coming out of the gate before, but then he usually figures it out and has a strong August, September.

He didn't this year.

And I don't know if that was more he was playing a lot more shortstop.

I don't know if that was keeping him away from third base, whatever the case may be.

But right now, if you were just doing an opening day roster of players who were under contract for twenty twenty seven, he is probably your third baseman at the moment.

I think you could shoot higher.

Same goes for like Jacob Gonzalez would probably be the next guy on that list who I personally I don't know.

I can't count on Jacob Gonzalez for next year.

He came out of the gate.

He had two home runs in his first six games.

And I get this is a little bit of stat gerrymandering, but after those first half dozen games, he slashed.

I don't care what the rest of the stats are.

If two twenty eight is your OBP, that is a tough sell.

And that's over two months.

That's a decent sized chunk of playing time.

He was worth a negative zero point five war.

Not really.

thinking too highly of him.

I would have him as an up-down guy.

Going to be interesting to see how the Pirates approach it.

Besides that, it looks like a lot of up-down guys, whether it's Ronny Simon, who did show a little something at the end of the year.

I think he could be a big leaguer, but I wouldn't count on him being anything more than a utility player.

And that's, of course, assuming he can go back to playing in the dirt after pretty much playing exclusively outfield.

tyler Callihan someone who i like the swing but boy did he falter fast and never really push his way back up to the major leagues Nick Yorke you wonder how many of these guys are going to be non-tender candidates they could be

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Whenever I look at other options in the system, Deuce Gorson is someone that organization is high on.

I think he could be a utility player.

Murph Gray was probably their best hitting prospect this year.

force his way onto top one hundred prospect lists.

I'm really high on him.

I think he is going to be a good big league player and he plays third base, but I cannot go into twenty twenty seven with him penciled into being the third baseman.

He hasn't taken a triple A at bat.

I still think there's hitting development to be done in the minor leagues.

Incredible season for him.

over-thirty homers, his slash line, the three-hundred, four-hundred, five-hundred, all north in all three categories.

There's a lot I like about this game.

I think he'll be a good player in the future, but honestly, in twenty-twenty-seven for me, he is depth.

If someone gets hurt at third base in June, it's like, okay, call him up.

The same way that they did with Esmerlyn Valdez.

And the way that Valdez proved himself, boy, that, me and a lot of him taking advantage of the opportunity, helping the ball club.

But you didn't go into the year thinking that Valdez was going to be the fourth outfielder.

the opportunity presents itself and he takes hold of it great roll from there but just in general no i'm not counting on him for much in twenty twenty seven

i look at the trade markets the free agent markets and it's thin after Lowe. Lowe is so obviously the big prize here And maybe you could think, okay, Luis Urias, even though that's not the type of hitter

this club needs, I think Jazz Chisholm would be overpaid.

It gets thin from there real quick.

Like, do you go J.P.

Crawford?

Do you think maybe they've had interest in Edmundo Sosa from the Phillies for a while?

I wouldn't be shocked if they, kick the tires there.

Alec Bohm is someone that they were connected to this winter.

Obviously hasn't ever really put it all together at the major league level.

Like he's fine, but he hasn't been great.

And for a right-handed third baseman who has never hit, twenty homers in a season, I...

I don't know.

I don't think that really plays well at PNC Park.

You can look at the trade market.

You can look at other ways.

But I look at this team, and there's such a clear and present need.

If you can add only one player this winter, for me, it's Brandon Lowe.

And if you can't get him and you can only add one position, it's third base or second base.

Get that extra infielder in the system somehow.

You can do that a variety of ways.

I just don't see a lot of clear ways here.

at least on the free agent market, at least in terms of internal options.

Like, yeah, I would love to say, yeah, this is the year Termarr Johnson takes off.

But after that injury and how he was hitting in AAA beforehand, I don't know if you can count on him, being part of the twenty twenty seven plans.

There are a lot of questions like that.

Where I.

Don't know what the future holds for a lot of people in this organization.

And I don't see a lot of impact players for twenty twenty seven internally.

I think they need to go external some way.

Maybe you float.

If you float a pitcher, if you float some prospects, I think you'll get some bites.

I don't know what in a perfect world, it would probably be another, who is the closest thing to Brandon out there, who is someone who swings left handed, who can.

hit home runs, or maybe doesn't have to be a lefty.

Maybe this is the way you get more right-handed, that you are able to combat those left-handed starting pitchers.

There are different ways that you can go about it, but I don't know how you go into twenty twenty seven without making a significant infield move and feel good about your chances.

There probably is a way if you add bullpen, if you add another outfielder, if you, there's a way to make it work.

But adding to the infield really seems like the most obvious way to improve this team for twenty twenty seven.

And again, the best way to do that, in my opinion, would be retaining the best player from twenty twenty six.

Thank you so much for listening to Offbeat here on North Shore Nine presented by FanDuel.

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We'll talk again tomorrow.

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