With outfielders ailing, Pirates have Kevin Newman, Colin Moran take fly balls | TribLIVE.com
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With outfielders ailing, Pirates have Kevin Newman, Colin Moran take fly balls

Joe Rutter
| Thursday, April 4, 2019 5:59 p.m.
Christopher Horner | Tribune-Review
Pirates first baseman Colin Moran rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run during the eighthinning against the Cardinals Monday, April 1, 28, 2019, at PNC Park.

Infielder Kevin Newman got his chance to take fly balls Wednesday afternoon with the Pittsburgh Pirates low on healthy outfielders. Colin Moran followed suit Thursday before the series opener against the Cincinnati Reds.

Manager Clint Hurdle is leaving no stone unturned with outfielders Lonnie Chisenhall and Corey Dickerson on the injured list.

Hurdle is more confident about using Newman in a pinch over Moran because, well, he has taken one more day of practice this week.

“He’s done some work for two days,” Hurdle said Thursday. “Moran, we told this afternoon.”

Moran, though, has a tad more actual experience than Newman. He played four games in left field in 2017 at Triple-A Fresno when he was with the Houston Astros.

“That’s the great thing about players, they’ll tell you they are confident and ready to go play, and I might like to see a little something in the outfield before we go,” Hurdle said. “We’ve seen a lot of left fielders in the nine years I’ve been here. It’s so big (in left field at PNC Park) that you think you need another center fielder.

“You’ve seen a lot of guys who definitely are not another center fielder go play out there, so I think you want to honor it, be respectful of it. … Sometimes you need to roll the dice and see what happens.”

J.B. Shuck made his second consecutive start in left field, Dickerson’s position, on Thursday night. Entering the season, Shuck was considered the team’s fifth outfielder behind starters Starling Marte, Dickerson and Chisenhall and top backup Melky Cabrera.

Jason Martin could make his major-league debut as early as Friday. He was removed from Triple-A Indianapolis’ roster Thursday afternoon.

“Everybody plans for depth,” Hurdle said. “You find out if you really plan for depth when you have things happen – or how real the depth is. Setting up the depth, creating the depth, having the depth internally are all important things to have in place.

“If we have to go another outfielder deep, we have internal options. You also can look from your creative lens on what you can do with your active major-league roster to get somebody else in play that has some past experience to facilitate some help in the area of need.”


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