Pittsburgh Pirates Mailbag: November 21, 2018

It’s time…it’s time…it’s, mailbag time!

Welcome back to the weekly Pittsburgh Pirates mailbag here at Rum Bunter.

Is Erik Gonzalez an everyday player? How far away from the Majors is Cole Tucker? Who might we see in right field on Opening Day? And more in this week’s mailbag! Thank you to everyone who participated by submitting questions. Now, let’s dive in!

Right now? No. Could this change? Potentially.

Neal Huntington has said Erik Gonzalez will compete for the Opening Day nod at shortstop. Defensively, he can certainly handle the position on a daily basis. His offense, however, is a different story.

In 275 career MLB plate appearances Gonzalez owns a .263/.292/.389 slash line, a .293 wOBA, and a wRC+ of 78. There is reason to believe he may be turning a corner offensively, though. After having an above league average exit velocity and hard contact rate in 2018 he got off to a hot start in the Dominican Winter Leauge as you can read about here.

Neither money nor time of control is a factor here. If a player spends the first three weeks of the season in the minor leagues, a team gets seven years of control over six. If they’re in the minors until after the Super 2 date, which is a floating date that typically falls around June 10th, they save money on said player.

What is keeping Cole Tucker in the minor leagues is that he is simply not MLB ready yet. Despite a strong finish to the season, Tucker was a slightly below average hitter at the Double-A level last season.  To his credit, along with the strong finish, he hit well in the AFL this year.

As everyone knows the Pirates need help at SS in 2019. They would love for Tucker to provide that help. But, he is not ready for that role yet.

Tucker will likely begin the 2019 season back at Double-A. He should, however, make it to Triple-A sooner rather than later. Barring a ton of injuries at the shortstop position, June 2020 would seem like a safe bet for when Tucker will arrive at the MLB level. He simply needs more ABs and reps in the minors right now.

That depends. If Opening Day was today, I’d have Adam Frazier in right field with Kevin Kramer at second base. Luckily, Opening Day is not today.

Between now and when the team travels to Cincinnati on 28th, they will address right field in some capacity. Free agents such as Adam Jones, Austin Jackson, Carlos Gonzalez, Gerardo Parra, and Jon Jay could be targets.

The best option for Opening Day right fielder is not currently in the Pirate organization. That, however, will change between now and then.

When it comes to development facilities, I am not certain. The Pirates have upgraded their facilities in Bradenton a lot in recent years, including a $600,000 renovation to LECOM Park last year. So, they are doing a good job of keeping up in the arm’s race there.

One area the Pirates excel is with their Latin America facilities. When Neal Huntington became GM in 2007 he immediately made this a priority. The Pirates already carry a strong brand name in Latin America due to Roberto Clemente, and their strong facilities only help.

That will do it for this week. If you have a question for the Pirate mailbag at any point this offseason, look for our Tweet each week asking for questions.