Pittsburgh Pirates: Three Bold Predictions for 2020

Ke’Bryan Hayes will be the team’s starting third baseman

This is one that many fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates will be hoping comes to fruition. The past two seasons, Colin Moran has been the team’s primary third baseman. However, Moran has struggled during these two seasons.

Dating back to the start of the 2018 season Moran owns a .277/.331/.419 slash line with a 98 wRC+ and an 0.8 fWAR across 969 plate appearances in 293 games played. While hes been just below league average offensively, Moran has been a train wreck in the field. The past two seasons Moran has been responsible for -32 Defensive Runs Saved and -17 Outs Above Average.

It is time for the Ke’Bryan Hayes Era to begin in Pittsburgh.

Entering the spring, Hayes was already the team’s best defensive third baseman. Hell, after winning back-to-back minor league Gold Glove Awards, Hayes would already be one of the best defensive third basemen in all of Major League Baseball.

With Hayes’ defensive prowess, all it would take for him to be a massive upgrade over Moran is being average offensively. While he did struggle at times offensively at the Triple-A level last year, there is plenty of reason to believe he will take a step forward in 2020.

Last season, Hayes was among the best hitters in the minors in terms of exit velocity and hard contact rate. His problem was he hit too many balls on the ground. After spending the offseason working on fixing that, Hayes was among the team’s best hitters in Grapefruit League play.

With Hayes as a member of the team’s 60-man player pool, he has the opportunity to win a spot on the team’s Opening Day roster. Not only will that happen, he will do so as the team’s starting third baseman.

Joe Musgrove will lead Pirate starting pitchers in ERA… again

If you watched the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2019, then you know their pitching staff struggled. Jameson Taillon, who made just seven starts before having to undergo a second Tommy John Surgey, aside, righty Joe Musgrove led Pirate starting pitchers in ERA in 2019.

The problem is Musgrove’s ERA was 4.44. This, however, does not properly represent the season Musgrove had. Musgrove posted a 3.82 FIP, which was the second-lowest of his career, while his 31 starts, 170.1 innings pitched and 21.9% strikeout rate were all career highs.

Big Joe also finished the season strong. In his final seven starts, he posted a 3.57 ERA, 2.69 FIP, 4.2% walk rate, and a 25.4% strikeout rate to go with a 0.67 HR/9 in 40.1 innings of work. This helped push Musgrove to finishing the season with a career best 3.3 fWAR.

In 2020, Musgrove will once again lead the Pittsburgh Pirates in ERA. However, it will be better than his 4.44 ERA. It will be well below that, in fact, checking in at no worse than 3.50.

Musgrove’s Deserved Run Average, which determines how many runs a pitcher deserved to allow, was just 3.59 in 2019. He also leaned on his slider, which is his best pitch, more in his final seven starts. Doing that for a full season will help to improve Musgrove’s results in 2020 as he leads all Pirate starting pitchers in ERA for a second consecutive season.

The coronavirus will impact the Pittsburgh Pirates less than any other MLB team

Sadly, it is likely inevitable that every MLB team will be impacted by the coroanvirus this season. That said, the impact on the Pittsburgh Pirates may not be as severe as other teams.

At some point this season the Pittsburgh Pirates clubhouse will be hit with the coronavrius. More than likely that is a question of if not when. That said, from the get go back in the spring the Pirates seemed better prepared than most teams to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. As of last week, the Pirates still had zero positive coronavirus tests among their players and coaching staff.

During the original spring training back in February and March, right around the time the coronavirus pandemic was starting to take off, multiple national baseball writers commented on how well the Pirates were handling the virus. From daily deep cleaning of the LECOM Park and the team’s clubhouse in Bradenton, the Pirates were on top of this from the start.

In fact, back in March, Jon Heyman of the MLB Network even had this to say about the Pirates and their handling of the coronavirus:

The fact the Pirates were handling the coronavirus issues so well back in the spring, leads me to believe they have only gotten better at it. Due to this, the Pirates will be less impacted by the coronavirus than any other MLB team.

So, what are your opinions on these predictions? Agree? Disagree? Have ones of your own? Sound off in the comments below, and join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter (@rumbunter)!