Pirates A to Z: Jack Suwinski showed power, ability to snap out of funks while shifting to CF
Share this post:
During the offseason, the Tribune-Review will offer Pirates A to Z, an alphabetical, player-by-player look at the 40-man roster.
Player: Jack Suwinski
Position: Outfielder
Bats: Left
Throws: Left
Age: 25
Height: 6-foot-2
Weight: 215 pounds
2023 MLB statistics: Batted .224/.339/.454 with 21 doubles, two triples, 26 home runs and 74 RBIs in 144 games.
Contract: Not eligible for arbitration until 2026.
Acquired: From the San Diego Padres, along with infielder Tucupita Marcano, in exchange for second baseman Adam Frazier in July 2021.
This past season: Following a rookie season with unsightly splits, Suwinski made a major switch in spring training. It wasn’t what was expected from the slugger.
After playing 56 games in left field and 38 in right in 2022, Suwinski moved to center field during Grapefruit League action. He replaced Bryan Reynolds, who returned to left. The initial returns weren’t pretty, as Suwinski struggled to deal with the glare of the sun and Gulf winds.
Suwinski started the season strong at the plate, however, batting .279 with a 1.011 OPS, six homers and 18 RBIs in his first 22 games as the Pirates raced out to the best record in the National League. In a three-game series sweep at Colorado, Suwinski hit three homers and had five RBIs.
Jack Suwinski hits a 461 ft moonshot at Coors ????????
(via @pirates)pic.twitter.com/18dHcEYpMJ
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) April 18, 2023
Perhaps his biggest play was a defensive gem against the Los Angeles Dodgers, when Suwinski leaped and reached over the left field wall for a twisting catch to rob Mookie Betts of a three-run homer with two outs in the sixth inning April 25 at PNC Park.
“Nothing crazy about it,” Suwinski said. “I just went up. It kind of got on the other side of me so I turned around. I felt the dirt under me, and I knew I was running out of room. So, good timing right there.
“You’re definitely tracking that and know how close you are and where you think the ball is going to end up, you getting to that position. I know as I’m running out of room, I have to either jump or it’s getting to that point. With enough time and space, knowing that I’m able to get there. … You always (think), ‘Did I really catch that?’ It all happens pretty fast, kind of fast and slow at the same time because you have taken a lot of reps doing things like that. It’s a pretty cool feeling.”
Give me the loot. ????
What a catch by Jack Suwinski! pic.twitter.com/JojX8cKApI
— MLB (@MLB) April 26, 2023
After disastrous home-away splits as a rookie, Suwinski thrived away from PNC Park. He slashed .364/.417/.909 with four homers and nine RBIs on a six-game road trip in late May, thanks to a pair of two-homer games at Seattle and San Francisco. But he also had 11 strikeouts in that stretch, a sign that there could be trouble ahead.
While he continued to hit homers — with five each in May, June and July — his batting average plummeted, as Suwinski went through some serious slumps. He repeated an 0-for-29 funk, which got him demoted to the minors a year earlier. This time, Suwinski had something to draw upon and worked with Pirates hitting coaches to find a way out.
“This is part of it, those ups and downs,” Suwinski said. “For me, that approach, that foundation is mostly mental. So obviously it’s a little bit harder going through a stretch like that because it’s a little tougher, a little more pressure and you get more stressed and frustrated. I think it comes back to some setup things and getting more comfortable when I do challenge work and prep work to be in the right position.
“It definitely helped. Just being able to work through it and relax and try to take it one step at a time and try not to let it unravel as one big thing. Just slow down and take it one at-bat at a time, one pitch at a time.”
This time, Suwinski’s response was nothing short of incredible. Over a 12-game stretch from June 27 until July 8, he batted .351/.510/.757 with three doubles, four home runs and 12 RBIs, including breaking up Milwaukee Brewers ace Corbin Burnes’ no-hit bid in the sixth inning with a two-run single on July 1.
Jack Suwinski breaks up Corbin Burnes' no-hitter and shutout, knocking the Brewers win probability down to 99.3% from 99.7% lol. Win the series tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/2rHKMd5XDx
— Platinum Ke’Bryan (@PlatinumKey13) July 1, 2023
Suwinski went 2 for 3 with a solo homer and two walks in a 9-7 comeback win at the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 4, rallying the Pirates to a three-run fourth inning with a 442-foot leadoff home run to right-center that generated a career-best 114.7-mph exit velocity.
Suwinski’s growth was evident in his improved home-away splits, as he slashed .240/.359/.5725 with 17 homers and 43 RBIs in road games after batting .112 with three homers and seven RBIs away from PNC Park last year. Where Suwinski struggled was against left-handed pitching. The lefty hitter batted .232 with 16 doubles, 24 homers and 60 RBIs against righties but hit .200 with five doubles, two homers and 14 RBIs against lefties.
Even so, he slowly earned Pirates manager Derek Shelton’s trust as the season wore on.
“It’s a little bit of confidence, just making sure that you stay in there,” Shelton said. “I think we’ve seen that. We’ve seen him stay in there and just get the ball up. When he gets the ball up, he’s able to take good swings off lefties.”
But, after becoming the fastest player in franchise history to reach 40 career home runs, Suwinski was awful in August, batting .130 while going a month between home runs. Where he had 19 homers and 48 RBIs in 80 games in the first half of the season, Suwinski had only seven homers and 26 RBIs over his final 64 games.
“Remembering the good stuff definitely helps get you through times like this,” Suwinski said. “Anyone would want to continue to produce for the team and help in whatever way they can, which is what I want to do. It’s a good thing to remember when you’re going through times like that, that you’re OK, that you’ve done it.”
Suwinski worked with Pirates hitting coaches Andy Haines and Christian Marrero to diagnose his problem areas while he sat out a pair of games against the St. Louis Cardinals. They spent time working on Suwinski’s posture, focusing on getting him into a good position at the plate. They challenged him to compete in the batter’s box by putting him in game situations and mixing batting practice against the left-handed Marrero and a velocity machine on the field and in the batting cage in hopes of fixing his funk.
Suwinski finished strong, slashing .289/.359/.489 with four doubles, four homers and 18 RBIs over the final month, and led the Pirates in home runs, OPS and OPS+ (115), finished second to Reynolds in RBIs and slugging percentage and tied for second in on-base percentage.
Suwinski also led Pirates hitters in strikeouts (172) by a wide margin, with a strikeout rate (32.2%) that ranked in MLB’s bottom fifth percentile. He balanced that with a chase rate (18.2%) in the 96th percentile, by drawing walks at a 14% rate and a 15.7% barrel percentage, which both ranked in the 94th percentile.
JACK SUWINSKI WITH THE DIVING CATCH
This is why he's in the 82nd percentile of all of MLB in Outs Above Average pic.twitter.com/IyXviEFmSV
— Platinum Ke’Bryan (@PlatinumKey13) August 13, 2023
The future: Shelton gave Suwinski a vote of confidence before the penultimate game of the season, signaling that he has earned a spot in the starting lineup heading into the 2024 season.
But where? Suwinski spent most of the season in center, recording minus-10 defensive runs saved in 931 1/3 innings. He was much better in left (2 DRS in 85 2/3 innings) and right (minus-1 in 96 innings).
“I’m not sure which of the places he’s gonna play out there,” Shelton said of Suwinski, “but he’s established himself in the outfield.”
Shelton also noted that Suwinski, whose batting average dipped as low as .202 in late August, made improvements late in the season to raise it to respectability.
“We haven’t talked about it a lot, but Jack’s made significant strides over the (final) two and a half weeks,” Shelton said. “He was teetering in the .200s and even below. His at-bats have been better versus lefties and with the power and the walks, so I think he’s solidified himself in one of those outfield spots.”