The next member of the Pittsburgh Pirates to hit for the cycle will be…

Who will be the next member of the Pittsburgh Pirates to hit for the cycle?

Hitting for the cycle requires a rare combination of skill, luck, and baseball mojo. A single player getting a home run, triple, double, and single in the same game is about as uncommon as a no-hitter. The last Pittsburgh Pirates hitter to do it was none other than Daryle Ward who did it in his first season with the Pirates on May 26, 2004. The most recent occurrence before that was Jason Kendall on May 19, 2000.

Hitting for the cycle requires a player who collects a lot of extra base hits, is fast enough to leg out a triple, and has enough power to hit his fair share of home runs. In addition, they need to make a lot of contact and rack up a lot of multi-hit games to even have a chance at the cycle. Based on this, we can identify which players in the Pirates’ current lineup are most likely to complete this amazing feat.

We will start by looking at the rarest part of the cycle – the triple. Jordy Mercer and Jung Ho Kang only have three triples between them since the start of 2015. This tends to eliminate them from the discussion. Francisco Cervelli isn’t the speediest player, but he did have five triples last season and already has a triple this season. However, Cervelli doesn’t get enough extra base hits to have a realistic shot at batting for the cycle; he’s only had five so far this season and none of them were home runs.

John Jaso gets a lot of hits, many of them for extra bases, he hits it over the fence on occasion and has two triples already this season. However, Jaso isn’t exactly what you’d call fast. Jaso was a triple away from the cycle on May 8th of this season, having already singled, doubled, and homered in a game against the Cardinals. He was lifted in the 7th for a pinch runner (Sean Rodriguez) in a game where the Bucs were winning 6-2. It would have been nice if Hurdle could have left Jaso in the game to see if he could knock it into the corner for a three-bagger. All that aside, Jaso is unlikely to be the next Pirate to hit for the cycle, simply because he doesn’t get that many triples – he had zero in 2015.

That leaves Andrew McCutchen, Gregory Polanco, Josh Harrison, and Starling Marte. This is where we need to dig deeper and examine each player’s record of multi-hit games. Last season, McCutchen, Polanco, and Marte all had more than 40 multi-hit games, whereas Harrison had only 36. Harrison likely would have had 40-plus had he not been injured for part of the season. So all four have plenty of multi-hit games.

One of the things that should be obvious about hitting for the cycle is that you have to get four hits in one game. For the entire 2015 season, Cutch and Polanco only had one game apiece with four hits, whereas Marte and Harrison each did it four times. Marte and Harrison are both free swingers who make a lot of contact which makes them ideal cycle candidates.

[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”#000000″ class=”” size=””]Although either Harrison or Marte could do it, Marte is the most likely of the two to pull it off this season.[/pullquote]

Although either Harrison or Marte could do it, Marte is the most likely of the two to pull it off this season. Marte bats earlier in the lineup and therefore will have more games with five plate appearances. And since baseball mojo plays a big part in this, Marte will probably do it against St. Louis. Darlye Ward and Jason Kendall both did it against the Cardinals and John Jaso almost did it against them. As if you needed another reason to watch the next Pittsburgh Pirates – Cardinals series!

Image Credit – Daniel Decker Photography

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