Can John Bowker make the team?

With his home run off of Josh Beckett on Sunday afternoon, John Bowker joined Lyle Overbay as the only Pirates with multiple home runs this spring. Bowker hasn’t played much this spring (just 18 at-bats spread over 9 games), but he’s doing as much as he can to impress the club with the limited chance he’s been given. He’s got six hits in his 18 at-bats with three of them (the two homers and a double) going for extra bases. It’s a small sample, but he’s hitting just about as well as anyone this spring and unlike the guys he’s competing with, he’s already on the 40-man roster. Does he have any hope of keeping that spot?

The biggest thing Bowker has going against him right now is that he’s left-handed, like Lyle Overbay and Garrett Jones and Ryan Doumit, three guys who will almost certainly go north in two weeks. As a left-handed hitter, he can’t platoon with Overbay at first or give Pedro Alvarez a break against tough lefties, and as a left-handed fielder, he can’t play third base. If we assume that there are ten roster spots taken (the eight starters + Matt Diaz in right + Ryan Doumit barring a trade) and the team will carry 13 players, that leaves three open spots. One will almost certainly be a middle infielder (Josh Rodriguez or Pedro Ciriaco), and one will almost certainly be a right-handed 1B/3B from the Steve Pearce/Garrett Atkins/Andy Marte/Josh Fields group (Marte has also been excellent this spring and much better than Pearce, Fields, or Atkins, but he still seems like a long shot and I’d still put money on Atkins being the guy with Pearce being optioned to Triple-A). The last player seems likely to either be an outfielder or a third catcher, so with Alex Presley being demoted today that leaves Bowker, Corey Wimberly, and Jason Jaramillo battling it out for a spot. 

As Charlie pointed out last week, there’s plenty of reason to think that Wimberly won’t be very good, but assuming that Josh Rodriguez beats Ciriaco out for the team, his speed and ability to really play shortstop and CF give him something that none of the other guys have. The Pirates don’t necessarily need a backup center fielder with Jose Tabata on the team, but there’s no one on the roster that I’d feel all that comofortable with playing left field at PNC in the situation that ‘Cutch needs a day off at home and Tabata slides over to center. Bowker and Jones and Doumit are barely right fielders and Diaz is probably beyond the point in his career that he could cover that much ground. Beyond Bowker and Wimberly, Jaramillo has the advantage of actually being a catcher that can catch and throw the ball. 

Bowker’s biggest hurdle right now is that he basically replicates Ryan Doumit’s skill set, without nominally being a switch-hitter or catcher. If Doumit’s traded, Bowker’s path to the team is clear. If not, it’s just hard to see a role forl him on the team, no matter how well he hits.