Pittsburgh Pirates: Tyler Glasnow Takes a Shot at Former Coaches

The Pittsburgh Pirates made a trade back in 2018 that has, and will continue to, haunt the organization.  One player that was a part of the deal spoke up about his time in Pittsburgh.

If there was one moment that would define the reason former General Manager Neal Huntington lost his job it would be because of the Chris Archer trade.  The trade was made at the 2018 trade deadline and immediately sent excitement through the Pittsburgh Pirates organization and fan base.  The team finally made a legit, buying move.

The thought process was that Archer would come here and continue to out pitch his team-friendly contract as he did for years in Tampa Bay.  While he was struggling for the Rays, many thought a change of scenery would help him get back on track, especially with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Ray Searage, who had helped out so many struggling veterans in the past.

Instead, it quickly turned into one of the most lopsided trades of the decade.  The Bucs gave up a former first-round pick and all-star caliber outfielder in Austin Meadows, 2019 CY Young contender Tyler Glasnow, and their first-round pick from 2017 in Shane Baz.  Three pieces the struggling Pittsburgh Pirates could use right now, and three pieces that likely cost Neal Huntington his job.

The rest is history.  All Pittsburgh Pirates fans know how this whole trade has played out over the last season and a half.  Neal Huntington deserved to lose his job over it and so did the former coaching staff who did not utilize the talent correctly.  In fact, this sounds like exactly the case according to Tyler Glasnow.  Glasnow sat down with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazettes’ beat writer Jason Mackey.  Before yesterday’s Spring Training game, Mackey asked Glasnow about the difference in his time in Pittsburgh versus in Tampa Bay.  Here is some of what the former Bucco told Mackey:

The biggest thing that Pittsburgh Pirates fans have heard in regards to the new regime is how much they are “up with the times.”  It was made public that the previous regime fell behind the curve and wanted to keep trying to use the philosophy that worked for them in the earlier part of the decade.  Meanwhile, teams all across baseball were having success by embracing the new way to evaluate players and help them reach their potential.

Tyler Glasnow was a top 15 prospect in baseball and viewed as one of the best, if not the best, right-handed pitching prospects in the game.  He was blowing hitters away at the minor league level with a high 90s fastball at a rate that not many prospects do.  He came up and looked nothing like the prospect that fans were told about.  He threw in the mid-90s, could pitch down in the zone, and frankly looked unconfident.

As it turns out it’s because he wasn’t “allowed” to pitch the way that would make him most successful.  The team continued to preach their groundball, quick outs approach; the two-seam fastball approach that worked for so many pitchers in the past.  The issue is the league changed and started to hammer two-seam fastballs (also two-seamers are harder to control than four-seamers).  This limited Glasnow from doing what he always did in the minors, blowing people away with his power stuff.

If one of the main reasons Neal Huntington was fired is because of the Chris Archer trade, then, by all means, Clint Hurdle and Ray Searage should have been fired for their lack of wasting talent like Glasnow.  This was the theme with this coaching staff, whether it be Gerrit Cole who went from a really good pitcher to an elite pitcher or Charlie Morton who had a career resurgence after leaving Pittsburgh.  Hopefully, new pitching coach Oscar Marin is able to help the Bucs pitchers make strides in pitching to their full potential instead of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.