The Pirates fell to a league-worst 4-16 Wednesday, faltering against Aaron Civale and the Indians at PNC Park in a 6-1 defeat.
The only offense the Pirates had all night was sparked by Cole Tucker and his ninth inning leadoff double. He would later score the Pirates' only run.
Tucker didn't start, though. That was a pinch-hit appearance. JT Riddle got the nod in center and Gregory Polanco in right instead. He didn't start Tuesday either, instead sitting in the third row of seats behind home plate while Jarrod Dyson and Polanco played.
Derek Shelton said postgame Wednesday that Tucker will get a start Thursday, but it's fair to wonder why he isn't playing every day. Especially since the starting center and right fielder have struggled so much. Dyson has a .143 batting average with no extra-base hits and an OPS+ of -3. Polanco is 3-for-43 this year, translating to a .070 batting average.
Polanco looks lost at the plate, and is just not making contact. He swung seven times Wednesday and whiffed four times, all against curveballs. But when addressed with the possibility of if he might need some time off to reset, Shelton disagreed.
"I think one of the things with Polanco is that I know the regular numbers aren’t real good, but he’s hitting the ball hard," Shelton said. "If you look at balls that have been hit hard in a game, he’s hitting the ball hard. We just have to get some of ‘em to fall. We have to get him some consistent at-bats. There will be days that he has off for his body and other factors. But we have to get him going, and hopefully some of these balls will start to fall."
Polanco does have encouraging batted ball peripherals, but that doesn't matter as much when he has struck out in 22 of his 43 at-bats this season.
Onto the pitcher side, the game remained scoreless up until the sixth inning, when Dovydas Neverauskas threw a cutter that didn't cut to Carlos Santana, who hit it over the grandstand in right for a three-run homer.
Jacob Stallings' reaction says it all:
That would be all the offense the Indians would need, but a little insurance never hurts. They got it in the eighth on a bases clearing double from Domingo Santana down the third base line that Jose Osuna couldn't get to:
Osuna was at third and Colin Moran was at first base Wednesday, a reversal from where they usually play. That had little bearing on the result of the play though, as Moran almost certainly wouldn't have gotten to the ball in time either.
But there is someone in the alternate Altoona camp who could have made that play.
And there might have been someone they could have gone to in the sixth inning rather than Neverauskas.
And there just might be a couple outfielders who could bat at least a buck-50.
The Pirates are well on their way to a last-place finish. If that's going to happen anyway, then the hope would be to play the younger players. If you have to lose, lose with them. They will get better. Players like Dyson and Neverauskas probably won't.
This isn't even just advocating playing the kids so they can get some experience. Right now, adding or starting players like Tucker, Ke'Bryan Hayes, Jason Martin, Jared Oliva, Blake Cederlind -- who started throwing in-game in Altoona Friday -- or even Oneil Cruz would seemingly strengthen the roster and lineup.
Sometimes you need to remind yourself that the grass isn't always greener when looking at alternatives in class AAA, but this team is flirting with history for their abysmal winning percentage, just .200. There's not much to lose.
"Obviously the record's not a positive thing," Shelton said. "But we have a lot of teaching we still have to do and a lot of development we still have to do."
For an organization that has put so much emphasis on making sure their players are learning and getting better, the question should become, who are the players they should be teaching?
On Tuesday, the Pirates turned to JT Brubaker for the start. Because of the postponements in the schedule because of the Reds and Cardinals COVID-19 cases, he hadn't pitched in 12 days, so he was on a pitch count.
Knowing they would need some innings, Shelton went to follow starter Derek Holland about potentially pitching in relief to bridge the gap. Doing so could have potentially pushed back his next start yet again. He did it anyway, and in the end, Brubaker got to start.
That's what Holland wanted.
"Obviously, you want to let the young guys get in there," Holland said. "I've done my starting for the time being, so I think it's good to let guys like Brubaker and the other rookies come in and do stuff to get those opportunities. My career's at the end of it, I guess you could say, as a starter, so I'm okay with watching guys get their opportunity to go out there and shine."
If the veteran is advocating for letting younger guys get a shot, even if it comes at his expense, what more do you need? The threshold has been crossed to retain the extra year of team control. The super-two threshold is likely passed. There is no benefit, either long- or short-term, to keeping all of these guys in Altoona. If the Pirates want to have their best 28 players available on the roster, they will need to go to their alternate training site.
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