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Pittsburgh Pirates: 3 Internal Moves That Need to Be Made to Help in NL Central Race
The Pittsburgh Pirates sit in first place and are currently the only NL Central team with a winning record. The front office needs to take advantage of the opportunity to hold on to that lead and win the division. Here are three moves the Pirates must make to win the NL Central.
1. Promote Henry Davis
One of the easiest moves the Pirate front office can do to imporve this team and help secure this division is promoting their star prospect, Henry Davis. The Pittsburgh Pirates have a black hole in their lineup every night becasue of Austin Hedges and Jason Delay. It feels like they are playing with only 24 outs each game because of how bad these two are offensively.
Hedges is currently slashing .183/.240/.252 with an OPS of .492. Even if he was the best defensive catcher in major league baseball, that would not be justifiable for how bad he is at the plate. Delay on the other hand had a very hot, but fluky start to the season. In April, he slashed .390/.435/.610 with 6 extra base hits. Since then he has only 6 hits in May and June combined and has struck out 16 times.
Davis has been one of the best players in the Pirate farm system so far this season. The former number one overall pick started the season out in Double-A Altoona where he slashed .284/.433/.547 with 10 home runs, 7 doubles, and 1 triple in 41 games. He walked 17.1% of the time and only struck out 18.7% of the time. On June 6th, Davis was promoted to Triple-A Indianapolis and has not slowed down. In 7 games, he is slashing .280/.419/.520 with 3 extra base hits including a monster home run.
Henry Davis with a mammoth home run 🚨
— Kody Duncan (@KodyDuncanPGH) June 14, 2023
pic.twitter.com/B0HmJRVQB8
Adding Davis to this lineup would fix a lot problems. He is a guy you can put in the top half of the order and move guys like Connor Joe or even Carlos Santana down to balance it out. If he continues to produce with Indianapolis, fans need to see Henry Davis with the Pirates next home stand against the Chicago Cubs.
2. Promote Carmen Mlodzinski
The bullpen has been awful as of late and needs some reinforcements. Luckily for the Pirates they have a guy waiting for the call. His name is Carmen Mlodzinski and he was been very impressive this season in Triple-A.
Mlodzinski has pitched 25.2 innings out of the bullpen this season and has an ERA of 3.16 striking out 31 batters. This equates to a 10.87 K/9 on the season. Opposing batters are only averaging .235 against him and in the last 10.2 innings, Mlodinski has only allowed 1 earned run while also striking out 14 batters. He is ready to get his chance and with how bad other have been in this bullpen, he deserves his shot.
By adding Mlodzinski to the bullpen, the Pirates can finally DFA Rob Zastryzny. Zastryzny has been so bad for the Pirates this season that its hard to even explain why he is still on the team. In 17 games, he has a 5.63 ERA with a 2.00 WHIP. No winning team would tolerate keeping a guy like that in thier bullpen especially when you have better options in your own system. We all know the bullpen has looked very bad as of late, but adding a hard throwing righty that can strikeout batters in crucial situations can really help out. Mlodzinski was drafted in the first round for a reason, he is 24-years-old and its time for him to prove he can make it in the big leagues.
Last night's dub featured some filth from Carmen Mlodzinski and @Cody_Bolton8 out of the bullpen. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/lhDuSvKC6B
— Indianapolis Indians (@indyindians) May 25, 2023
3. Promote Quinn Priester
Quinn Priester is one of the top pitching prospects that the Pittsburgh Pirates have in their system and he has been proving it these past 2 months in Triple-A. After a very rough month of April where he posted a 7.78 ERA in 5 starts, Priester has completely turned it around.
In May, he made 5 starts and had a combined 2.81 ERA in 25.2 innings pitched. He struck out 22 batters which is not a lot, but Priester is considered more of a ground ball pitcher, so this makes sense. He has produced a ground ball 52.5% of the time this season. So far in June, Priester has made 3 starts where is had a combined 2.55 ERA in 17.2 innings pitched. He has 15 strikouts this month and has held opponent batting averages to just .239. His next start needs to be against the Chicago Cubs at Home in PNC Park.
Quinn Priester has put up some nice outing these past two months:
— Kody Duncan (@KodyDuncanPGH) June 14, 2023
May: (4-0) 2.81ERA
June: (2-0) 2.55ERA
pic.twitter.com/kk8DA1SwAn
By promoting Priester, I think it could help in more than just one way. If Osvaldo Bido continues to pitch well, the Pirates could either leave him in the rotation and move Luis Ortiz to the bullpen or vise versa and move Bido to the pen and keep Ortiz in the rotation. Either way, this will give more options to Derek Shelton when calling on arms in late game situations.
Bido made his first major league start for the Pirates on Wednesday and showed he could get guys out in crucial moments. He pitched 4 innings only allowing 1 run with 6 strike outs. That kind of arm is welcome even if moved to the bullpen. With these 3 moves and possibly even adding another piece during the deadline, it would greatly increase the Pittsburgh Pirates chances on winning this weak division. They have never won the NL Central, why not go for it now?
5 College Arms to Watch in the Draft. dark. Next. 5 college arms