First-round draft pick Seth Hernandez is the latest reason for Bucco optimism. The Pirates’ head scout called the high school right-hander a “culture changer.”
But Paul Skenes hasn’t changed the Pirates’ culture.
Skenes is MLB’s best pitcher. But he’s 4-8, and the Pirates are last in the NL Central.
If Skenes can’t be a “culture changer,” what hope does Hernandez have?
Hernandez is a legit phenom. But if he does turn out to be as good as Skenes, the Pirates will waste him. Just like they’re wasting Skenes.
The Skenes era is now. Then comes the Bubba Chandler era. Then the Hunter Barco era. Then the Hernandez era. The Konnor Griffin era fits in there somewhere.
But there won’t ever be a winning era. How many of the players in the prior paragraph will ever be on the Pirates at the same time? Payroll would have to go up. (It won’t.)
If Skenes, Chandler, Barco and Hernandez are on the Pirates simultaneously, here’s how they’ll be used: Every fifth day, Skenes will open and pitch two innings. Chandler will pitch two innings. Barco will pitch two innings. Hernandez will pitch two innings. Then David Bednar will come in and blow the save. Got to protect everybody’s arms for their next employer.
Upon being drafted, Hernandez was asked about being in the same rotation as Skenes. But that won’t happen till they’re both with the New York Yankees or Los Angeles Dodgers.
Hernandez might be great. But he won’t make the Pirates a winner. Skenes can’t. Nobody can besides a new owner.
Mitch Keller has pitched well despite a 3-10 record: 3:48 ERA, 1.14 WHIP. Not bad.
After Keller helped the Pirates end an eight-game losing streak by allowing just four hits and one run in six innings during Sunday’s 2-1 victory at Minnesota, the usual suspects went tumescent with speculation about what Keller could fetch in a trade.
That’s Pavlovian at this point. Keep kicking the can down the road. Get more prospects. Build for a future that never arrives.
The Pirates shouldn’t trade Keller. You shouldn’t want them to.
Keller’s stats are good. He looks the part. He has three years left on a contract that pays $16.9 million, $18.4 million and $20.4 million. That’s reasonable compensation by MLB’s standard of the day.
But Keller will go because Bob Nutting won’t pay that. The citizens will endorse Keller’s departure because that’s the conditioned response.
If Keller got traded for MLB-ready bats, that would be a different story. But that won’t happen because those acquisitions would have to be paid sooner, not later.
No matter how bad it gets with the Pirates, the great unwashed can conjure a new reason for optimism.
That’s why I’m here. To bludgeon those hopeful notions into submission and bury them right next to the corpse of Donnieball, which has been repackaged as Shelty Jr.
