Position Flexibility: a strength of the Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates have recently gravitated towards players with multi-positional flexibility. How do they compare to other National League contenders in this approach?

In a perfect world, every baseball player would have the good health and good fortune to play like Cal Ripken Jr. and go almost their entire career without missing a game. But the truth is that many players are going to sustain injuries over the course of the season. Some may be as simple as a sore ankle that only requires a day or two of rest, but others can be as serious as a broken bone or a concussion which can unfortunately sometimes end a season.

The Pittsburgh Pirates, like all teams, had to deal with their fair share of injuries last year. They lost Josh Harrison and Jordy Mercer within just a few weeks of each other, but fortunately Jung Ho Kang was experienced with both positions and covered for both in their absence. Later in the season when Kang suffered a season-ending injury, Harrison and Mercer were healthy and could return to their positions. The impact of these injuries was softened a little since Clint Hurdle had experienced players who were ready to take over for their injured teammates.

Of the players expected to make the team out of spring training, Mercer is the only infielder who played only one position last year. Gone are the likes of Neil Walker and Pedro Alvarez, two players that Hurdle could only pencil into the lineup at second and first base, respectfully.

John Jaso was recently signed to platoon at first base with Michael Morse and/or Jason Rogers. While Jaso and Morse can play other positions, they’ll be at first base almost every time they step on the field. Rogers can play third base, but he seems to have been brought in to compete with Morse for time at first base.

With super utility player Sean Rodriguez back for another year and Walker gone, the Pirates will have a more versatile set of players to shuffle around the infield in 2016 than they did in 2015.

I thought that it would be interesting to compare the probable infielders of the Pirates to some of the other strong teams in the NL to see how much flexibility each manager will have in the upcoming campaign. I did not include everyday first basemen in the lists since they only play one position, save for emergency situations.

2015 season – games played by position

Right now it seems that Harrison will take over at second base for Walker and Kang will go to third full time. Not listed above is Mercer, since he only plays shortstop and will be the team’s starter at that position. Rogers could also see time at the hot corner, but most likely will compete for at bats with Morse as the right-handed counterpart to Jaso. Hanson could also break camp with the big league club, adding another player who could get at-bats while playing somewhere in the infield. If he hits well enough, he could play second, which could send Harrison back to third and Kang to shortstop. Rodriguez may not hit very well, but his versatility in the field is a huge strength for the ballclub. The one issue with this group of players is that they are all right-handed, except for Hanson who can hit from both sides of the plate.

Kris Bryant will be the everyday third baseman and with Starlin Castro now with the Yankees, Addison Russell most likely will play at shortstop and Ben Zobrist will start at second base. If Zobrist is the starter, his position flexibility loses some value since he’ll be tied to one position, but he could still move around late in the game. Javier Baez logged innings at all the infield positions last season, but his incredible strikeout rates certainly hampers his value.

The Cardinals will have all their infielders back for 2016, unlike the Pirates and Cubs who saw some changes this offseason. Carpenter, Peralta, and Wong all played more than 145 games last season. Carpenter and the newly acquired Gyorko are the only two players who played multiple positions last year. Gyorko’s acquisition will most likely not disrupt the infield set up, but instead will see him off the bench getting action late in games or to give other guys a day off.

With Wright back presumably healthy, the Mets will most likely go with Wright, Cabrera, and Walker most nights, barring an injury. Although Flores and Tejada saw a lot of action at shortstop last year, a player of Cabrera’s caliber was not brought in as a bench player. So, similar to the Cardinals, the Mets will be trotting out the same infielders every day as long as they are healthy.

In comparison to three of the other top NL teams heading into 2016, the Pirates are in arguably better shape than the others in terms of infield versatility. The Pirates have strong players in Harrison and Kang, both who can shift around to the other infield positions outside of first base.

While losing a hometown player like Walker is tough, his departure gives the Pittsburgh Pirates more flexibility with their roster. They have assembled a potential group of players that can play multiple positions, which in turn gives the team some insurance in case someone gets hurt or goes into a prolonged slump at some point during the season. Positional flexibility is certainly a strength of this team.

Photo credit – David Hague Photography

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