Pittsburgh Pirates: Three Goals For The Bullpen In 2021

Our next list of examining three goals for each Pittsburgh Pirates position group this season is the bullpen, which has some very intriguging options coming up.

The Pittsburgh Pirates once had one of the best bullpens in baseball. Back in 2013-2015, they had shutdown guys like Jason Grilli, Mark Melancon and Tony Watson in the back end and a lot of depth that included the likes of the recently retired Jared Hughes, Justin Wilson, Arquimedes Caminero, Antonio Bastardo, Vin Mazzaro, Jeanmar Gomez and Bryan Morris.

The current Pirate bullpen has some question marks, but a bright future given the amount of young studs coming up through the system looking to find a place in the next Shark Tank. As we continue looking at every position and three goals, our next stop is in the bullpen. So let’s take a look at the first goal.

Goal 1: Find A Trade Partner For Richard Rodriguez And Chris Stratton

The Pittsburgh Pirates have essentially been willing to trade off any of their veteran players for the right price. One of their goals for this season needs to be to find a trade partner for both Chris Stratton and Richard Rodriguez.

The Pirates purchased Stratton’s contract from the Los Angeles Angles and he’s turned into a hidden gem for the Bucs. In the past two seasons Stratton has pitched 76.2 innings to the tune of a 3.76 ERA, 3.75 FIP and 1.36 WHIP. To go with his solid 8.5% walk rate, he’s struck out 26% of all the batters he’s faced.

Stratton had his best MLB season of his career in 2020. In 30 innings, he had a 3.90 ERA, 3.19 FIP and 1.3 WHIP. The ERA is a bit misleading as he gave up 3 runs in his final appearance of the season and going into that game, he had a 3.18 mark.

Stratton also had solid ERA estimators, all of which fell very close with each other. Stratton had an identical xFIP and SIERA at 3.50, 3.66 xERA and 3.42 DRA. While his walk rate was 9.9%, he put up a strikeout rate slightly north of 30% at 29.8% while having a 0.9 HR/9 and 46.8% ground ball rate. What Stratton lacks in velocity he makes up for in spin rate. Both his curveball and fastball were in the top 98th percentile of RPM in 2020.

Rodriguez bounces back from a rough 2019 season to post a 2.70 ERA, 2.85 FIP and 0.85 WHIP through 23.1 innings. Rodriguez put up his best single season striekout rate and walk rate of his career so far of 36.6% and 5.4%. He also had a strong 2.83 xFIP, 2.40 SIERA, 3.13 xERA and solid 3.57 DRA. Like Stratton, while Rodriguez’s fastball only sits around average in terms of velocity, he makes up for it in the spin he’s able to generate, sitting in the top 96th percentile of fastball RPM.

However, there is some concern with Rodriguez. For one, he only has a career ground ball rate of 40.1% and that’s right around where it was in 2020 (39.2%). What makes that potentially even worse is the fact he was in the bottom 3rd percentile of hard hit rate and in the bottom 1 percentile of exit velocity. He still managed a solid 1.16 HR/9 rate, but it’s still a potential worry.

Regardless of either Rodriguez’s or Stratton’s weaknesses, it’s made up by their cheap control for multiple years. Both have control through 2023 and both are making less than $2 million each in 2021.

Goal 2: Get The Young Arms Some Playing Time

The Pittsburgh Pirates have many top relief pitching prospects coming up through the system. The first is right-hander Nick Mears. Mears has a 70-grade fastball that can reach triple digits and an above average curveball. He’s also a strikeout machine with a 37.2% strikeout rate, but does struggle with control sometimes. Overall, he’s done well in the minors with a 3.02 ERA, 2.71 FIP and 1.01 WHIP in 50.2 innings of work.

The Pirates next best relief prospect is David Bednar. The Pittsburgh-native came over as part of the Joe Musgrove trade and has one of the more interesting pitch mixes among all of the Pirates’ pitchers. This pitch mix gives Bednar the potential to be a high-leverage situation reliever for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Bednar will throw your typical mid-to-upper-90s fastball which comes in with a 60-grade and his upper-70s curveball which also has a 60-grade, but he’ll also toss a splitter too. This third pitch is seen as a future 55-grade offering. Like Mears, Bednar has also been a strikeout king throughout his minor league career with a 33.0% rate. All told, he’s tossed a total of 219.2 innings in the minors, has a 2.70 ERA, 1.17 WHIP and 2.14 FIP.

Blake Cederlind was originally drafted in the 5th round of the 2016 draft as a starter, but made a transition to the bullpen and broke out in 2019 in the first season he was solely used out of the pen. He pitched 59.1 innings and put up a 2.28 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and 3.31 FIP. While he didn’t put up outstanding strikeout numbers with a21.9% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate, he allowed just 2 long balls. However, Cederlind has strikeout stuff with a 60-grade fastball that can reach triple digits and a slider that’s considered an average offering.

The Pittsburgh Pirates will also have a Rule 5 Draft pick in the bullpen. Luis Oviedo was selected with the 9th pick in the draft by the New York Mets from the Cleveland Indians. The Mets quickly dealt the right-hander to the Pittsburgh Pirates for cash.

Oviedo has mainly been a starter in the minors, but his stuff would play up in the pen. His fastball sits in the mid-to-upper 90 range and has hit 98. It’s a 60-grade offering that could see an uptick in velo out of the pen. He also uses a 60-grade curveball and 55-grade change-up to round out his repertoire. Oviedo hasn’t put up the greatest surface numbers in his professional career with a 4.66 ERA and 1.33 WHIP, but does have a good 3.14 FIP while having a sub-3 xFIP in 2016 and 2018.

Aside from those four, the Pirates should also make room for playing time for other young relief pitching prospects like lefties Blake Weiman and Braeden Ogle, Yerry De Los Santos and Shea Spitzbarth.

All four of Mears, Bednar, Cederlind and Oviedo are within the Pirates top 35 prospects and they could all be part of the Pirates next bullpen. All four also have very limited time in the big leagues. Oviedo hasn’t even played in the MLB, both Cederlind and Mears have less than 10 innings between the two and Bednar has the most, but still less than 20. The Pirates need to try and make as much playing time for their young relief prospects as possible.