Are the Pittsburgh Pirates going to take an offensive approach in 2017?

Could the Pittsburgh Pirates take a new approach in 2017 and lean towards more offense rather than emphasize run prevention?

The Pittsburgh Pirates have always stressed run prevention. It’s what made them successful each of the past three seasons when they finished in the top five of the National League in ERA each of those years. Mark Melancon led baseball in saves last season behind a dominant bullpen, which has been a trademark of the Pirates as of late, at least up until this season. They’ve frequently used defensive replacements late in games to protect leads, and they like catchers that are great pitch framers rather than those that bring power to the table.

And this has all been well and good because it’s helped propel the Pirates out of years of losing and turned them into a yearly playoff contender. But this season that changed. Everything seemed to fall apart. It wasn’t necessarily because of this defense and pitching-first approach, but after a year like this one, the Pirates might be looking for any sort of change to spark the team next year.

One idea the Pirates might have is to give Jung Ho Kang some time at shortstop:

Could Jung Ho Kang play some shortstop in 2017? Hurdle hinted at it today. "That’s going to be an interesting development," Hurdle said.

— Travis Sawchik (@Travis_Sawchik) September 26, 2016

And that’s certainly an interesting response from Hurdle. Who knows if this means Kang is going to be given a shot to start at short, or what the future holds for Jordy Mercer. But it’s an answer that piqued my interest. Mercer seems to be the consensus better choice defensively at shortstop, but Kang is certainly the better offensive choice. Couple this with the re-signing of David Freese earlier this summer and the use of Josh Bell at first base despite his defensive shortcomings, and maybe the Pirates are exploring a slight change of philosophy.

It’s not something a team does overnight. And it’s not done unless something is going wrong. But maybe the Pirates look at the division leaders across the league and how they are performing offensively compared to the rest of the league and are intrigued. The Cubs, Nationals, and Dodgers rank second, fourth, and seventh in the NL, respectively, in runs scored, while the Red Sox, Indians, and Rangers are the three highest-scoring teams in the American League. Pitching and defense has turned the Pirates into playoff contenders, but it hasn’t won them a division, which is their goal.

I’d be excited to see what an infield of David Freese-Jung Ho Kang-Josh Harrison-Josh Bell can bring to the table. I for one don’t think Kang’s bad defensively at short, and that he’s actually quite good there. I also think Bell’s offensive upside is intriguing enough to keep him at first base for a while longer. Who knows if this is what the Pirates have in mind for 2017, but it’s interesting to think about nonetheless.

Now, many will still say that run prevention is a better indicator of success than scoring runs, and that’s still true in most cases. But maybe it’s not true in the NL Central with the Cubs now a perennial powerhouse. Or maybe it’s only good enough to get the Pirates to the Wild Card game. Or maybe the Pirates just want to experiment next season with adding more offense to the lineup on a regular basis. Whatever the case, it will be interesting to see if the Pirates have a philosophical change over the off-season when it comes to whether more offense is placed on offense or defense come 2017.

Image Credit – Daniel Decker Photography

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