Tim Benz: Improved lineup depth a big help, but Pirates star hitters are still the key
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There has been a lot of conversation about how much the Pittsburgh Pirates’ lineup has been lengthened this year. It’s certainly a big reason why the franchise is off to an 8-2 start to open 2024.
The Pirates are fourth in Major League Baseball with 59 runs. The team’s on-base percentage of .352 is fifth, the club’s .266 batting average is sixth, and its collective OPS of .753 is seventh.
Last year, the Pirates were in the bottom third of the league in all those categories.
The additions of Michael A. Taylor (.429 batting average) and Rowdy Tellez (.387 OBP) have made the lineup deeper, as has Edward Olivares with his .458 slugging percentage. A hot start from second-year Pirate Connor Joe (.915 OPS) has certainly helped too.
“We are off to a great start,” Taylor said in advance of this weekend’s series win over the Baltimore Orioles. “We are coming in with a game plan. We are seeing guys one through nine put up competitive at-bats. That’s really wearing on pitchers. That’s a huge part of our success so far.”
But for as nice as those pieces are, what will truly make the difference between the Pirates being a team that flirts with .500, and one that actually contends for a playoff spot, is how their three most important hitters perform.
• Can Oneil Cruz stay healthy and consistently harness all of his elite talents?
• Can Ke’Bryan Hayes and Bryan Reynolds improve on their numbers from 2023 and go from decent to All-Star worthy?
For the most part, this year, that’s been happening. Cruz is hitting .333 with two home runs and an OPS of .864. His 14 hits are tied for fourth in the National League so far, although the strikeout-to-walk ratio is still a concern, as Cruz has only drawn two walks as opposed to 15 strikeouts.
Hayes is at .325, with a .417 on-base percentage (14th in the National League). Reynolds is only hitting .233, but he leads the roster with nine RBIs, eight walks and is tied for second on the team with Joe when it comes to total bases (17).
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For as nice as it has been to see the likes of Joe and Taylor be productive, the most crucial part of the complementary aspect of the Pirates’ lineup is to have the team’s most important (and highest-paid) hitters in top form to drive them in when they are on base.
“We are trying to get Bryan and Ke’Bryan to the plate as much as possible,” manager Derek Shelton said before Friday’s home opener. “Any functioning offense, that’s how you are going to do it. You are trying to get those (top/middle of the order) guys to the plate. As much as we can continue to roll by doing little things to get those guys to the plate, it’s vital to how our offense will function.”
Not to cross-pollinate our sports conversations, but it’s basically the same one that we always have about the Penguins. We can praise the bottom-six scoring and the blue line for chipping in as much as we want when things are going well. Or we can blame them for not helping enough when times are bad.
But as we are being reminded again this year, once the stars really turn it on, it’s the contributions of the front line players that dictate success or failure more than anything else.
Just look at how fortunes have turned around for that group once Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson have started to play better and consistently match the effort and results that Sidney Crosby has put forth for the vast majority of the season.
“Our lineup feels good and strong, one through nine,” Reynolds said during the Orioles series. “One through nine, we are producing. There is not much more we can ask for.”
In terms of where Reynolds wanted to get better from 2023 (a .263 batting average, 24 home runs, 84 RBIs and an OPS of .790), it’s not one specific aspect.
“I just needed to work on my consistency and timing and rhythm. Things like that. If I do that, then I’m going to get to everything else I want to get to,” Reynolds said.
Whatever success the Pirates are chasing is fragile. There is no guarantee that they build on the steps they took a year ago to get back to relevance this season. The variable of productivity from the depth pieces of the lineup is going to be just that — a variable.
Right now, it’s a variable that is working in the Pirates’ favor.
The production of Cruz, Hayes and Reynolds, though, has to be a constant. Well, as much of a constant as is allowed by the very nature of how baseball operates. After all, it is a sport rooted in failure at the plate more often than success.
Thus far it’s been good enough in April. But as we know from last year, good in April isn’t good enough for the standings come October.