North Shore Nine

The Pittsburgh Pirates are on their way to yet another disappointing season, after a good start. As 9/6 they sit at 15 games out of the NL Central Division as well as 10 game out of the Wild Card. With 22 games left there is a snowballs chance in hell the Pirates will do anything but fight for a Top 5 pick in the next draft. That being what it is, it is time for the Pirates to see what they have in the coffers. There are a number of players that are in the minors that will be rule 5 eligible this year, as well as a multitude of 60 day IL guys who will need to be reinstated in the offseason. This all points to a roster crunch that will soon be on the horizon. All of which points the need to see what they have with 20 or so games left and prepare for next season.

Players who could be internal options next year:

Billy Cook
Nick Yorke
Liover Peguero
Mike Burrows
Malcom Nunez

Cook was a trade deadline acquisition who need to be added to the 40-man if they want to protect him this offseason. There is no reason not to bring him up the Majors and start him the rest of the season giving him his 100 or so at bats and seeing what they have. Billy McKinney has been given his chance and is not in the long-term plans for the team. Send him back down and bring up Cook and see if he can do as his namesake suggests. (Since the writing of this article both of these things have occurred.) Yorke is in the same boat as Cook, a recent addition who will need to be protected this offseason. We know what Alika Williams can and cannot do, send him down. Let York get some work at 2B to give Nick Gonzales a rest, even at SS to see if he can handle that position, or in LF to give Reynolds a break from bad defense. He will likely not kill MLB pitching as he has AAA, but he needs to be given a first look to see what he can do. Peguero has been the black sheep of the infielders this year for the Pirates failing to get a call up at any point. But at this point bring him up and start him at short the rest of the year to put Isiah Kiner-Falefa back to the super utility role he excels at. The Pirate need to know if there is a place on this team moving forward for Peguero, while 20 or so games will not fully answer that it could go a long way to determining where he does or doesn’t fit. Mike Burrows might be the one player on this list a bit out of place. He is coming off a major injury and has only thrown roughly 40 innings so far since his return. However, he has done relatively well in AAA and it is important to see how he could fair against big league hitting. It makes much more sense to send to the AFL and test him out in the spring. Though there is also no reason not to give him a taste now to see what he could do. The issue however is there is no pitcher that is easily jettisoned from the roster at the moment, unless the Pirates want to already stop the Joey Wentz experiment. Last on the list is a player that will likely not be on the team for much longer in Nunez. The reasoning here is that he is having his best offensive season in AAA, in his third bite at the apple, and if they are throwing in the towel then why not. He would likely not do anything of note, but as a player they are clearly not high on it is worth it to see if there is anything to hope for or if it is time to move on. He can be a minor league free agent this offseason so if the Pirates wanted to take a look at him it is now or never. Though the same issue here is as was with Peguero, there is not one to send down if they bring him up, furthermore they would need to open a 40-man roster spot for him making the possibility of him on the Pirates even less likely.

All-in-all if the Pirates are throwing in the towel, which they sadly should. Then it is time to bring up a few players to give them a look. At this point a few more losses will only help them in the long run as it would greatly improve their draft position and draft budget. It would also likely cause a change in the managerial side of the organization, something a lot of fans are clamoring for at the moment. Which would make it a win-win for many, they would get to see some fresh faces and could guarantee the ushering in a few new ones this offseason. Which may make the juice worth the squeeze in the minds of many Pirates fans across the country.