Pittsburgh Pirates: Three Things That Must Be Done After the All-Star Break

Endy Rodriguez and Henry Davis need to catch

This is a move that feels long overdue, but Austin Hedges and Jason Delay need to stop getting all the reps at catcher. It’s time for the Pirates to hand those reigns over highly touted prospects Endy Rodriguez and Henry Davis.

His pitch framing has been a huge plus, but Hedges is batting .179/.230/.232 on the season with a 26 wRC+. He leads the majors in catchers inferences with four, which more than a lot of catchers will have in their entire careers, and the throwing errors are starting to stack up.

As for Delay, his overall defense is poor. Especially controlling the opposing running game. Since May 1st, he is hitting for just a .167/.242/.200 slash line with a wRC+ of 25 and a 36% strikeout rate. Unplayably bad.

First and foremost, Rodriguez need promoted to the majors. Making room for him on the active roster is easy to do. He is already on the 40-man roster, and Delay can simply be optioned to Triple-A to make room for Rodriguez.

Davis has been in the majors for going on a month now but has primarily played right field. He has just 1 inning behind the dish in the majors thus far. Would he be a step back defensively from Hedges? Possibly. But he would be a massive offensive upgrade over both Hedges and Delay.

Keeping Hedges around as a third catcher to make sure Rodriguez and Davis can both play every day is fine. Also, in all honesty, there is a lot of valuable knowledge he can help to instill in the young catchers. Delay on the other hand, he can just completely go.

Moving forward, Rodriguez and Davis need to split the catching duties. On days Rodriguez is catching get Davis starts in right field/DH to keep his bat in the lineup, and have Rodrigues at first base/DH when Davis starts.

It’s time for the youth movement behind the plate. One of those two are your catcher of the future, it’s time to starting to figure out which one it is, while also working on finding the best position in the lineup for whoever is not behind the dish.

It's time to see what Quinn Priester can do

The 19th overall selection in the 2019 MLB Draft, Quinn Priester is a pitcher Pirate fans have been excited to see in the majors for quite some time. Priester is now at the Triple-A level and the Pirate starting rotation is in dire need of help.

Even though Priester has struggled to find consistency this season, it's time to see what he can do in the majors.

Priester currently owns a 4.36 ERA, 3.83 FIP, 0.62 HR/9, 9.5% walk rate, and a 22.7% strikeout rate in 86.2 innings pitched in 17 starts this season. Not poor numbers, but also not the numbers you would like to see at Triple-A from one of your top pitching prospects.

Now, there is some smoke that Priester could make his MLB debut next Tuesday at PNC Park against the Cleveland Guardians. However, at least as of this writing, there was no noteworthy or legitimate smoke.

On the season, Pirate starting pitchers rank 8th in the National League in ERA (4.50) and 7th in FIP (4.27). However, since June 5th Pirate starting pitchers own a woeful 5.09 ERA and 4.58 FIP. This has included Luis Ortiz struggling and being optioned to Triple-A. Osvaldo Bido proving why he had been a career minor leaguer, Johan Oviedo struggling, and Roansy Contreras completely imploding.

There are plenty of questions about how much more development, if any, Priester has left. At this point, the best step for development would be for him to start to log starts in the majors. It's time to start to find out what the Pirates have in Priester. Right now, Mitch Keller is the only starting pitcher locked into an Opening Day rotation spot for 2023, let's ee if Priester can join that discussion.

Jack Suwinski needs to be playing every day

There is a strong argument to be made that Jack Suwinski has been the best Pirate hitter so far this season. Suwinski is hitting for a .235/.360/.514 slash line with a 15.5% walk rate, 32.3% strikeout rate, and a 135 wRC+. He has hit a team-leading and career-high 19 home runs.

Suwinski walk rate is tied with McCutchen for the highest on the team among hitters with at least 100 plate appearances. His slugging percentage, .280 isolated slugging (ISO), 18.5% barrel rate, 53.8% hard-hit rate, and average exit velocity of 92.2 MPH all lead the squad as well.

There have been a lot of strides that have been made by Suwinski this season. However, there is a strong argument to be made that the biggest strides have been in what he does against left-handed pitching. Due to this, Suwinski needs to be playing every day to see if he can be more than a platoon hitter.

Against LHP this season Suwinski is hitting for a .234/.324/.359 slash line with an 89 wRC+ and an ISO of .125. Not great numbers by any means, but more than good enough to warrant playing every day as a left-handed hitter.

Results aside, the eye test tells you that Suwinski is improving against LHP. Suwinski has been driving the ball more and hitting it harder than last season against LHP. He has been putting together stronger at-bats and doing a better job of laying off pitches outside of the strike zone.

If the strides Suwinski has made this season against LHP continue then he can be an every day player in the majors. For the rest of the season, the Pirates need to continue to play him every day against LHP to find out if he can be that hitter or not.