Pittsburgh Pirates: Grading Ben Cherington's Off-Season Moves Thus Far

Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Ben Cherington has made a handful of different moves this off-season, but how do they grade out overall?

We are approaching the mid-way point of the 2023-2024 off-season. While it hasn’t been a glamorous winter for the Pittsburgh Pirates, they’ve at least made some moves. They started slowly, but once they got the TV deal done, they started to become more active. There’s still time to do more, and they certainly need to do more.

However, I want to go back and grade each of Ben Cherington’s moves thus far. The only trades or signings I will be looking at are ones where the Pirates acquired a player currently on the 40-man roster. So, any minor league signing, such as Gilberto Celestino or acquiring Billy McKinney, will not be included in today’s list.

Signing Ali Sanchez

The Pirates signed Ali Sanchez as one of the first moves of their off-season. At the time, it was a strange move. They signed a backup catcher to a minor league deal when they had Endy Rodriguez and Jason Delay on the roster and wanted to get Henry Davis more reps behind the dish in 2024. But it made more sense once Endy underwent Tommy John surgery.

Sanchez spent the entirety of the 2023 season with the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Triple-A team. He batted .311/.375/.495 with a .382 wOBA. However, don’t be fooled by these numbers. These were only slightly above average in the high-octane offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League where the league average triple-slash is .272/.369/.453. When adjusting for the rest of the league and other park factors, Sanchez came out to a wRC+ of 108.

One thing that Sanchez did do to a well above average level was limit strikeouts. His 15.% K% was significantly better than the league average rate of 21.8%. However, his 9.7% walk rate was well below the league average rate of 12.3%.

Although he has never been much of a hitter throughout the minor leagues, he’s always been regarded as a solid defensive backstop. Although there are no framing numbers, he only allowed two passed balls in 427.2 innings and caught 42% of would-be base stealers.

Sanchez has bounced around Triple-A with the St. Louis Cardinals, Detroit Tigers, and D-Backs. He hasn’t appeared in the bigs since 2021. His big league experience is fairly limited. He only has seven games and 14 plate appearances under his belt. He is expected to be the secondary backstop to Henry Davis. It probably won’t be an upgrade, nor will it likely be a downgrade from Jason Delay.

Grade: C

Acquiring Marco Gonzales

Starting pitching was (and still somewhat is) an issue the Pirates needed to resolve. The first big move they made to solidify the starting rotation was adding Marco Gonzales. Gonzales has had a winding road this off-season. He was originally salary dumped by the Seattle Mariners as they also sent Jarred Kelenic to the Atlanta Braves. The Braves, who have made a series of moves like this thus far in the off-season, then sent Gonzales and salary relief to the Pirates for a player to be named later.

Gonzales was limited to just 50 innings last year due to a nerve issue. He had a 5.22 ERA, 4.28 FIP, and 1.46 WHIP. However, as some have pointed out, these are inflated numbers. In his third to last start to the season, Gonzales allowed eight earned runs while pitching just 1.2 innings. This one outing accounts for less than 4% of his total IP but over a quarter of the ER allowed. Outside of this one game, Gonzales had just a 3.91 ERA, 1.30 WHIP and 3.86 FIP.

Those are pretty comparable numbers to what Gonzales had posted across the five previous seasons. From 2018 through 2022, the lefty owned a 3.94 ERA, 4.35 FIP, and 1.24 WHIP. He had just a 17.7% strikeout rate and 1.26 HR/9 but a strong 5.9% walk rate. Overall, these are some very solid numbers.

But Gonzales was a workhorse in this stretch. He had made 131 starts and pitched 765.2 innings. He was among the top 15 pitches in both stats. Gonzales was just one of eight pitchers who had thrown at least 750 innings and had an ERA under 4.00. He brings both durability and decent pitching to the Pirates.

This is exactly the kind of pitcher the Pirates needed. He is a fairly safe bet to make 30 starts and give them an average or better ERA. On top of that, the Pirates got a discount on Gonzales’ salary and only gave up a PTBNL. Gonzales is controlled through 2025 via a team option, giving them a second year of control.

Grade: A-

Signing Rowdy Tellez

The Pirates signed Rowdy Tellez to a one-year deal in hopes he could recapture his 2022/early 2023 production. The big first baseman got off to a fine start to the ‘23 campaign, batting 244/.332/.494 through April and May. This included a 12% walk rate, 23.9% strikeout rate, .347 wOBA, and 118 wRC+. Tellez had gone yard a dozen times up to this point, and his .250 isolated slugging percentage was the 17th-best in baseball up to this point.

Tellez then fell into a major slump in June, registering just an 18 wRC+ in the sixth month of the season. He made it just four days into July before landing on the injured list with a forearm injury. Although Tellez was expected to return sometime soon after the All-Star break, he would miss another month after hurting his finger while shagging flyballs, causing him to get stitches.

However, even after returning in late August, Tellez couldn’t get things back on track before the end of the season. Tellez had shown a lot of promise at the start of the year, and his 11% barrel rate was well above average. However, Tellez struggled to find his swing with the injury, and while his 91.1 MPH exit velocity is similar to his 2022 mark, his barrel rate dropped to just 6.3%.

Even though it was unlikely the Pirates would land someone like Rhys Hoskins and that they’d likely settle for a platoon guy to play with Joe, even this seems like a bit of a letdown. Plus, he typically grades out as a below-average defensive first baseman. But I still believe that Tellez will rebound. What we saw from him at the start of the year is the real Tellez, in my opinion.  But the bigger issue is that it feels like the team is just kicking the can further down the road at first base. They haven't had a good and consistent player at the position since Kevin Young.

Grade: D+

Signing Andrew McCutchen

The Pirates signed Andrew McCutchen last off-season to a one-year deal at $5 million, and he signed the exact same deal this off-season. Cutch will return next season as the team’s primary designated hitter, and hopefully, he will stay healthy the entire season.

In 473 plate appearances, Cutch batted .256/.378/.397 with a .345 wOBA and 115 wRC+. His 21.1% strikeout rate was above average, but his 15.9% walk rate is the best of his career. He didn’t hit for much power, as he went yard just a dozen times with a .141 isolated slugging percentage. However, he could up that next season.

Up through June, he had a .168 isolated slugging percentage. But an elbow injury in early July hampered his power, and he had just a .096 ISO for the rest of the season. It was mainly because he couldn’t lift the ball. His 89.6 MPH exit velocity and 44.6% hard-hit rate were both above average, with the latter being a career-high.

Signing McCutchen was a when not an if move. When Cutch hit free agency, it’s a bit of a surprise it didn’t happen earlier in the off-season. But because it was so predictable, I feel like I can’t give it too high of a grade. C is what I consider average, but I think this is at least somewhere above average. 

Grade: B

Signing Martín Pérez

Martín Pérez had a career year in 2022, posting an ERA below 3.00 and making the All-Star game. While it seemed somewhat fluky of a season, Perez’s 2023 season was well below expectations. Perez made 20 starts to open this season, working to a mere 4.98 ERA, 5.30 FIP, and 1.52 WHIP. Perez’s 14.4% strikeout rate was a significant drop from 2022 (20.6%), while his home run rate of 1.50 and 8.6% walk rate were relatively similar to last season.

Perez was then moved to the bullpen, where he pitched significantly better, working to a 2.70 ERA, 3.98 FIP, and 1.02 WHIP. Perez’s strikeout rate (18.5%) and walk rate (6.2%) both moved in the right direction. He also significantly cut his home run rate down to just 0.81. The veteran southpaw became better at limiting hard contact with his opponent's exit velocity and barrel rate falling 89.4 MPH and 7.9% from to 87.3 MPH and 5.3%.

The end to Perez’s season was promising, but granted, he worked as a long reliever instead of a starting pitcher. However, there were some other noteworthy aspects of this stretch that could carry into next season. Perez started to use his sinker much more frequently, a pitch that had +8 run value this year. Meanwhile, he used his cutter less, which had a -13 RV. 

The Pirates should focus on getting Perez to use his curveball, fastball, and slider more frequently as well. His change-up and cutter are, quite honestly, where nearly all of his struggles resonate. These two pitches are responsible for nearly 60% of the total hits and about 48% of the total home runs he gave up this year.

This seems like a very Ben Cherington move. They have done pretty well with turning around veteran lefties like this during BC’s tenure. However, I think there were better options for around $8 million. Wade Miley signed for a guaranteed $8.5 million and I doubt that Ryu will sign for any more than that. But given how well Perez pitched down the stretch and some of the adjustments he made, I think he could rebound. Maybe not to his 2022 peak, but some sort of a middle ground between ‘22 and the start of 2023.

Grade: C-