Talking Baseball: Vol. 6

Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Ben Cherington and manager Derek Shelton look unprepared for the situation in front of them.

When the 2024 Major League Baseball season began expectations were understandably low for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

They were short on impact talent, the lineup was full of question marks, the starting rotation looked to be full of holes and it just seemed like it was set to be another frustrating year of little to no progress and no real definitive timeline on when things could reasonably change.

Sometimes, however, circumstances change. And when that happens you have to be willing to adapt your expectations and perhaps alter your approach.

That has been the case for the 2024 Pirates as the season has progressed.

The combination of the National League (and the National League Central) being a complete dumpster fire where they might only be three or four legitimately good teams in the league, as well as the emergence of a dominant starting rotation that might already be one of the best in baseball, has suddenly turned a mediocre Pirates team into something of a playoff contender.

Entering play on Friday they are just 1.5 games out of a Wild Card spot.

On any given day they can go from last place in the NL Central to second place.

They might not be great, or even particularly good, but the context of everything happening around them has kept them very much in it. And with the pitching staff they have they are going to have a chance to take two out of three games from almost any team they play. I can promise you, if this team somehow snuck into the playoffs and had Paul Skenes, Jared Jones and Mitch Keller available there might not be a team in the league that would be excited to play them in a short series.

This is also a league where the past two pennant winners won only 84 and 87 games during the regular season.

Crazier shit has happened.

The emergence of Skenes, Jones and Keller, as well as the state of the league around them, should have taken this season from a rebuilding year into a year where you try to make something happen.

This is no longer a punt situation.

But there is no indication — zero indication — from general manager Ben Cherington or manager Derek Shelton that suggests they are willing or able to take advantage of that. They are not prepared for this moment, and they look laughably out of place as people in positions of power.

The past week is a stellar example as to what I am talking about here, and it really comes down to two situations — Thursday’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals, and the very existence of relief pitcher Ben Heller on the Major League roster for one wasted week.