Pittsburgh Pirates: Three Things to Watch in May

With the calendar now flipped to May here are three things to watch with the Pittsburgh Pirates this month

Due to the lockout causing the season to start late and rain outs, the Pittsburgh Pirates have only played 24 games thus far. In these 24 games Derek Shelton’s club owns a 10-14 record, which puts them in third place in the National League Central.

Looking ahead to the rest of the month of May what are some things to be watching with the Pittsburgh Pirates? There certainly is work to be done this month and questions to be answered about the club moving forward.

How will the middle infield shakeout

Shortstop Kevin Newman will likely miss the majority of the month with his groin injury. In his absence the middle infield as consisted of Cole Tucker, Diego Castillo, and Josh VanMeter. The question now becomes if two of these three can lock down regular roles with Newman still out?

VanMeter has been playing on a near daily basis at second base. While some will have an issue with it’s not the worst idea in the world to give VanMeter an extended look. He has always hit well in the minors, and during his MLB stints has had above average hard hit rates and exit velocity. With Newman out it does not hurt to give VanMeter a look to see if he can be a consist contributor at the major league level or not.

The bigger issue has been the lack of commitment to letting Castillo play every day. While Castillo is hitting for just a .233/.254/.300 slash line to go with a wRC+ of 60, he has been burnt some by a batting average on balls in play (BAbip) of just .265. Castillo’s 42% hard hit rate is 7% higher than MLB average and his average exit velocity of 88.9 MPH is above MLB average.

If Castillo continues to do what he has done at the plate the hits will start to come. His expected slugging percentage is .427 while his expected batting average is .270. Both big improvements over his current results. Castillo has also showed very soft hands defensively in the middle infield having played both a strong second base and shortstop.

Castillo is also just 24-years-old. Right now there is no reason for him not to be playing every day as he could have a future with the Pittsburgh Pirates as a utility infielder or perhaps even more. Let the kid play.