Meaningful baseball is back in Pittsburgh. Can the Pirates stay in the playoff hunt? (2024)

PITTSBURGH — The call would not stand, and everyone knew it. Andrew McCutchen had just slid across home plate trying to give the Pittsburgh Pirates their first lead Friday night. Home-plate umpire Ramon De Jesus pumped his fist. Out. McCutchen spread his arms wide. Safe. The crowd of 22,834 sided with Cutch. They chanted “Safe! Safe! Safe!” throughout the replay review. When the call was overturned, they erupted.

McCutchen stood at the dugout railing twirling a towel above his head. In the bullpen, David Bednar, the local kid turned All-Star closer, was reminded of the electricity he felt sitting in the stands back in high school and college when the Pirates rallied and PNC Park came alive.

One of the greatest players in Pirates history, McCutchen returned last year to a club coming off back-to-back 100-loss seasons. He didn’t know whether he’d experience another postseason run — like those he led in 2013, 2014 and 2015 — or even another playoff-like atmosphere in Pittsburgh. But that scene Friday night, the Pirates’ first home game after the trade deadline, was reminiscent of those better days last decade.

“I try not to think about the past too much because we’re not there anymore,” McCutchen, the 2013 NL MVP, said late that night at his locker. “But it feels good to have something to play for other than yourself. We’re in position right now to play some meaningful baseball. It’s nice, man, to have a crowd like that on a Friday in August.”

The Pirates seem to have taken the “meaningful step forward” owner Bob Nutting was expecting this season. They are 56-55 and remain in the thick of the National League wild-card race. They are baseball’s must-watch team every fifth day when rookie phenom Paul Skenes — All-Star starter, Cy Young contender, 22-year-old owner of a 1.99 ERA — takes the ball.

For the first time in Ben Cherington’s five-year tenure as general manager, the Pirates were trade-deadline buyers and entered August as a contender.

Playing meaningful baseball into the season’s stretch run is an important step, but it also intensifies scrutiny. The Pirates are in a brutal part of the schedule. Each opponent from July 19 to Aug. 18 currently holds a playoff spot or is ahead of Pittsburgh in the wild-card standings. Though the Pirates had a winning record, 8-7, against the Phillies, Cardinals, Astros and Diamondbacks, five losses — including three in the past four games — were by one run. Back breakers. After shortstop Oneil Cruz’s three errors gave away a game in Houston, the bullpen blew two leads against Arizona, spoiling McCutchen’s mad dash Friday and Skenes’ start Sunday.

Up next: Padres, Dodgers, Padres, Mariners. Important series, Skenes said, but “we’ve been playing some important series.”

The Pirates are long shots. They entered the week with 11.8 percent playoff odds. But when backed by a fanbase that’s had only three playoff teams in the past three decades, 11.8 percent feels … substantial. There’s a hunger there, a desperation fed by years of irrelevance, and last month, it made adding to the roster look like a moral imperative.

Cherington did not buy based on fan feedback alone, of course. He said the resolve the Pirates showed in the first half, recovering from a 10-23 nosedive in mid-May and climbing back to .500 by the All-Star break, “made it clear to me that we want to give ourselves every chance to stay in it.” But he also understood a GM’s actions — or inaction — at the trade deadline sends a signal not only to the clubhouse, but to fans.

“Unless your head is totally in the sand, you have to be aware that every situation is different, every city is different, and the history behind every team is different,” Cherington said. “We are who we are. We’re in Pittsburgh. We understand the challenges and the hard times and really respect that …”

Cherington was interrupted mid-sentence by Jalen Beeks, a rental reliever acquired from Colorado, who came to introduce himself. Then Cherington resumed the thought.

“You have to acknowledge that that’s true and that it’s a real thing, and then inside baseball operations stay disciplined — looking for things and making decisions that we think add to the Pirates’ chances of winning this year and going forward. You try to balance that as best you can.”

As Cherington spoke before Friday’s opener, he watched Konnor Griffin — the No. 9 overall pick in last month’s draft, an 18-year-old shortstop from Mississippi who signed for a reported $6.53 million — field ground balls and take batting practice with the big leaguers. Later that night, the Pirates would promote their top prospect, starter Bubba Chandler, to Triple-A Indianapolis, one step away from the majors.

It appears brighter days are on the horizon for the Pirates, and perhaps they have arrived sooner than anticipated. At the trade deadline, Cherington attempted to balance the present and future. His first moves last week were to bolster the bullpen with lefties Beeks and Josh Walker and then flip former top starting pitching prospect Quinn Priester to the Red Sox for second base/left field prospect Nick Yorke. The Pirates have several promising pitching prospects in the minors but are light on upper-level position players like Yorke.

The Pirates waited until the last hour before the trade deadline to address their clearest need — the lineup.

“It was getting down to the wire,” All-Star outfielder Bryan Reynolds said, with a smile. “I was getting a little stressed about it.”

Cherington landed Marlins outfielder Bryan De La Cruz and Blue Jays utility player Isiah Kiner-Falefa (a distant cousin of the late Hall of Famer and Pirates great Ralph Kiner). De La Cruz is under club control through 2027, and Kiner-Falefa is signed through next season. Cherington said the Pirates were “engaged” on rentals and were not opposed to trading for hitters approaching free agency. As prices jumped, though, the focus remained on strengthening the current roster without hindering the future; the Pirates traded away a few top-30 prospects but none from the top 10.

“It sent a message to the team: Hey, we’ve got faith,” leverage reliever Colin Holderman said. “And it sent a message to the fans: We’re going to try to go for it. All we need is a little backing. We’re ready to do it.”

Expecting the Pirates to overcome their long playoff odds requires belief the lineup will be markedly better with the addition of two hitters who historically have been below-average at bat. But who’s to say what’s sustainable for the next two months? If Joey Bart (.840 OPS) can rebound from bust to ‘Burgh favorite, if Rowdy Tellez (.894 OPS since the start of June) can turn boos into ovations, if Cruz (.954 OPS in his last 100 at-bats) can overcome his defense with his thunderous bat, maybe Kiner-Falefa (career-best .762 OPS) won’t cool off, either.

What makes all that believing feel remarkably reasonable is that the Pirates, after years of searching for impact starting pitching, now have one of the best rotations of any contender. The Athletic’s Eno Sarris rated Pittsburgh’s top three —Skenes, Mitch Keller and rookie Jared Jones, who’s currently on the injured list — fourth-best among contending teams, directly ahead of the Mariners, Orioles, Astros, Dodgers, Padres and Phillies.

Three starters are about all you need in October. If the Pirates can just make the dance, they’ll be a difficult out.

Skenes: 1.99 ERA, .942 WHIP, 11.2 K/9 in 86 innings
Keller: 3.20 ERA, 1.194 WHIP, 8 K/9 in 132 1/3 innings
Jones: 3.56 ERA, 1.110 WHIP, 9.7 K/9 in 91 innings

Three other starters — Bailey Falter, Marco Gonzales and Luis L. Ortiz — have sub-4 ERAs.

“You face us three or four times in a series, you’re going to get good arms,” Skenes said. “You’re not going to get any breaks for six or seven innings, hopefully. That’s definitely something we take pride in. Wanting to do that and being able to do that are two different things. We are able to do that at a very high level.”

Nothing lends legitimacy to a contender like a fearsome rotation. “That’s our strong suit,” Reynolds said. “Now we’ve just got to complement that.” Cherington concurred. While the rotation certainly was part of the calculus behind buying at the deadline, he said, “the really good teams, which is where we want to get, are just good everywhere. They’re deep everywhere. The teams that get deeper into October tend not to be built with super strength in one area more than others. As we’re making decisions over time and trying to improve, we feel really good about the pitching — and also some pitchers we still have coming — but just as much, it’s clear to me (that) we have to build a complete team to give ourselves the best chance.”

For now, the rotation is indeed a relative super strength. The Pirates rank 25th in bullpen ERA (4.35), and their hitters are 28th in OPS (.672). To this point in the season, the only positions at which Pittsburgh has gotten better than league-average production by OPS are shortstop (Cruz) and left field (Reynolds). At third base (Ke’Bryan Hayes), center field (mostly Jack Suwinski and Michael A. Taylor) and right field (assorted), the Pirates are more than 100 points below the league-average OPS for that position.

The team will have more opportunities to strengthen the lineup and bullpen this offseason. Whether Nutting will authorize significantly increased spending for Cherington to make further upgrades in free agency remains to be seen. The Pirates entered 2024 with the second-lowest payroll in the majors, according to FanGraphs, ahead of only the Athletics.

For the remainder of 2024, the Pirates will try to go as far as starting pitching takes them. Jones will begin a rehab assignment soon. Since the start of May, Keller has the second-best ERA (2.34) among all qualified major-league starters. Ahead of him is the NL Rookie of the Year runaway, Skenes.

Less than a year after he was drafted first overall, Skenes started the All-Star Game. Opposing hitters are batting below the Mendoza Line and striking out in almost a third of at-bats. Skenes averages 98.9 mph on the heater, and his splitter/sinker is one of the best pitches in the game.

“Stating the obvious: We took the right guy at one,” manager Derek Shelton said. “He’s a different animal.”

The looming question is how many innings Skenes will take on. He threw 122 2/3 innings last year, between LSU and the minors. Because the Pirates eased him in slowly at Triple A early this season, Skenes is still at only 113 1/3 innings in 2024. Skenes said he and the front office are “pretty well aligned” on his usage and pace. The Pirates could choose to skip or push back starts down the stretch, but they have not yet set a strict innings limit for Skenes.

“Trying to nail a specific innings total,” Cherington said, “I’m certainly not smart enough for that to be anything more than arbitrary. What’s going to guide us much more is: What’s happening in games? What’s happening between games? When and if we feel — and we might — like there’s a time when this is going to help this pitcher and this team stay stronger for the totality of the next two months and beyond — by backing off a pitch count one time or giving him an extra day, whatever combination of levers it is — then we’ll do the best we can to do that.

“We’re not going to stop competing. If anybody, position player or pitcher, is in a position where there’s no clear risk to competing, well, then I’m not sure it’s up to me to play God and say he shouldn’t be competing.”

Should the Pirates fall out of contention, dialing back Skenes’ workload will become much less controversial. Until then, the stretch run awaits in a reinvigorated city, and baseball’s newest ace wants the ball.

“The goal is to make a World Series and win a World Series,” Skenes said. “Whatever path we have to take to do that, I’m good with whatever they need from me.”

(Top photo of Andrew McCutchen: Justin Berl / Getty Images)