Major League Baseball

Three reasons to watch the Pirates in 2015

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 12:45 p.m. ET

foxsports

Look, you shouldn’t need me to tell you to watch the Pittsburgh Pirates. Low-revenue teams that win goodly numbers of baseball games are inherently interesting, don’t you think? With the Rays falling on semi-hard times, our models for small-market/low-revenue success are the Pirates and the Royals. And the Pirates are the only club of their ilk that’s now shooting for three straight postseason berths. You want specifics, though! Here are three specific reasons to watch the Pirates this spring...

1. Oh, those outfielders!
This is the easy one. In center field, the Pirates have Andrew McCutchen, who’s simply one of the two best players in the National League. In left field they’ve got Starling Marte, who’s improved in each of the last two seasons, is still only 26, and probably is about this far away from playing in a few All-Star games. And in right field they’ve got Gregory Polanco, who was terribly disappointing upon his arrival in the majors last summer ... but he’s still the player who entered last season as Baseball America’s No. 10 prospect, then tore up Triple-A for a couple of months before the Pirates promoted him. We certainly can’t anoint the 23-year-old Polanco yet. But this outfield might be scary good, and it might happen this year.*

* As good as these guys might be, they’ll probably never match the Pirates’ tremendous outfield in 1990 and ’91, when Barry Bonds, Andy Van Slyke, and Bobby Bonilla manned the garden in Three Rivers Stadium.

2. Is this Gerrit Cole’s year?
Cole, as you’ll probably recall, was the Pirates’ No. 1 prospect two years ago. And he’s been really good! In two major-league seasons, he’s gone 21-12 with a 3.45 ERA, and his 3.5 strikeout-to-walk ratio leaves little room for improvement. But last season he started only 22 games, thanks to a shoulder injury.

There was a time, not really so long ago, when the Pirates’ future was supposedly reliant on their tremendous young pitching prospects. Especially Cole, Jameson Taillon, and young Tyler Glasnow. But to this point, the Pirates have instead been forced to rely on veteran starters, with Glasnow still just a baby and Taillon missing all of last season with Tommy John surgery.

They can probably get away with this for another season! Especially if A.J. Burnett’s got another good season in him, and Vance Worley’s for real. But if the Pirates are going to keep this run going for a few more years, eventually they might actually need one of their pitching prospects to turn into a pitching ace. And at the moment, Cole is the best candidate.

3. Jung-Ho Kang
He’s not tall (6 feet and that’s listed) but he’s big (205) and he seems to have all the confidence in the world. Will his confidence and his 40 homers in Korea last year be enough to displace incumbent shortstop Jordy Mercer? Probably not. Mercer’s really good, and there are legitimate questions about Kang’s defense. But the Pirates have invested $16 million in Kang – $11 million contract, $5 million posting fee – so they seem likely to give him a shot to play ... somewhere. Which could mean all sorts of things. If he looks good enough at shortstop this month, might the Pirates actually consider trading Mercer? If he looks good enough at the plate, might they consider him at third base, with Josh Harrison taking over at first base or returning to this super-utility chores? A month from now, we might not be all that interested in Kang’s attempt to conquer Major League Baseball. But for the moment, he’s a pretty good reason to check the news from Bradenton every day.

Pittsburgh Pirates
2014 record: 88-74
Playoffs: Lost to San Francisco Giants (1-0) in NLWC
Projected 2015 record: 84-77*
Key additions: C Francisco Cervelli, RP Antonio Bastardo, RF/1B Corey Hart, SS Jung-Ho Kang, UTIL Sean Rodriguez, SP A.J. Burnett
Key subtractions: C Russell Martin, INF Clint Barmes, SP Edinson Volquez

*Projected records courtesy of FanGraphs