Kevin Gorman's Take 5: Pirates GM Ben Cherington still searching for starting pitching

As Ben Cherington was celebrating the re-signing of Andrew McCutchen, the Pittsburgh Pirates general manager addressed an offseason that has been slow to address the team’s glaring needs.

The Pirates have traded for left-handed starting pitcher Marco Gonzales and outfielder Edward Olivares and signed free agents in designated hitter McCutchen, catcher Ali Sanchez and first baseman Rowdy Tellez. They also agreed to a one-year contract with lefty starter Martin Perez.

While Cherington said the Pirates “feel really good” about the progress they have made to improve their roster depth, he emphasized that he’s “certainly not satisfied.”

“We have a long time between now and Opening Day,” Cherington said Wednesday morning on a video conference call. “Our aim is to continue to make the team better and use every day between now and Opening Day to continue to make the team better. Focused on doing that.”

Cherington discussed the following topics:

1. Starting pitching: With the Pirates down to All-Star right-hander Mitch Keller as their lone traditional starter, adding rotational depth has been the top priority.

Acquiring Gonzales from Atlanta addressed one spot in the rotation, even though he’s coming off a rough year and was shut down by a nerve issue that required season-ending surgery.

“Physically, he’s in a good spot in that he’s recovered from that and having a good offseason and that portends well for 2024,” Cherington said. “He also has a style of pitching that has worked well at PNC and in our division in the past. It was a combination of factors, and we knew going into the offseason, especially after the news about Oviedo, we knew we were looking to add multiple starting pitching options, and we knew that they would probably come from a variety of places and different flavors, so to speak. We felt good that Marco could kind of be the start of that offseason starting pitching project. Really excited to work with him and get to know him. By all accounts, he’s just an exceptional pro, teammate, competitor. Feel like he’s gonna be in a good spot to bounce back.”

The signing of Perez, which hasn’t been officially announced, will add another innings eater with a history of success who is coming off a down year.

But Cherington is still seeking starting pitching, perhaps through a trade.

“We would still like to add to the rotation,” Cherington said. “We feel good that we can go into the season with the group we have, but we don’t want to be satisfied with that, either. We want to keep hunting for upside, both in the rotation and in the position-player group. We feel like there’s a lot of time left in the offseason, a lot of possibilities still out there, whether that’s free agency or trade.

“There are things we can do right now, things we could say yes to that we have not said yes to because we don’t yet like the deal. We’re gonna keep hunting opportunities … primarily both in the rotation and in the position player group just to continue to hopefully push our upside higher for 2024.”

The Pirates are rumored to be showing interest in trading for Chicago White Sox right-hander Dylan Cease, who has made at least 32 starts and recorded at least 214 strikeouts in each of the past two seasons and is projected to earn $8.8 million next season, entering his second year of arbitration eligibility.

2. Starting catcher: A position where the Pirates had two of baseball’s top-50 prospects entering 2023 suddenly became a concern when Endy Rodriguez underwent Tommy John surgery on Dec. 12 and will miss next season.

“The news was a blow, no doubt,” Cherington said. “The truth is, in the second week in October, as we thought about our team, we certainly envisioned Endy playing a really important role. We were setting up for a good offseason.”

Cherington touted Rodriguez’s passion and love for the game, which led him to playing winter ball in his native Dominican Republic and getting injured while swinging a bat during a game.

“So now, we’ve just got to pick him up. We’ve got to support him and help him get through this rehab,” Cherington said. “Confident he will. He works hard. He’s going to recover well from this. He’s gonna march forward to a really good career. He’s going to help the Pirates win a lot of games. We’re just going to have to make up for it in 2024. That’s the bottom line.”

Rodriguez replaced Austin Hedges as the starting catcher upon his promotion to the majors July 17, so the Pirates are now relying upon backup Jason Delay, 2021 No. 1 overall pick Henry Davis and Sanchez, who spent last season in the minors with Arizona.

They have a combined 963 2/3 innings behind the plate in the majors, with Delay accounting for 920 2/3 of them. Sanchez has played catcher in seven MLB games, and Davis has yet to start one.

Cherington, however, added that the Pirates will keep “an open mind, if it makes sense to add” to the catching group between now and spring training. That sounds like they could look for a veteran to sign a minor league contract as a non-roster invitee.

3. Fast-tracking the No. 1 pick: As much as Pirates fans want to see 2023 No. 1 overall pick Paul Skenes pitching at PNC Park this summer, the development of Davis is even more crucial.

After playing primarily in right field and DH last summer, the Pirates instructed Davis to concentrate on catching. Cherington said Davis will “get every opportunity” to catch this spring.

“As Henry does with everything, he’s working his tail off on the defensive part of his game,” Cherington said. “I think it certainly opens up opportunities. He was going to have opportunities before Endy’s injury. Obviously, with Endy out for 2024, there’s no hiding it: There’s more opportunity now. So I think it changes that.”

Davis remains raw behind the plate but was promoted to the majors June 19 because of his bat. He hit .213 with 10 doubles, seven home runs and 24 RBIs in 62 games — becoming the first MLB player to homer twice in one game off two-time AL MVP Shohei Ohtani — but played only two innings at catcher in the majors.

That could change, if Davis makes marked improvement.

“There’s never, ever going to be a question about how hard he works to get better at something,” Cherington said, emphasizing the demands and responsibility of the position. “So Henry’s got a chance to beat those kind of timelines because he works so hard. At the same time, he has not caught a lot of major-league games. That’s also a fact. So we’re going to have a totally open mind.

“We’re going to support him in any way we can. There is opportunity. We fully believe he’s going to be a very good major league player. We want to give that every chance to be at the catcher position. We’ll know more at the end of March than we do now and we’ll probably know more at the end of May than we do now.”

4. Getting Rowdy: Adding Tellez on a one-year, $3.2 million contract worth up to $4 million was a low-risk, high-reward proposition for the Pirates.

They are hoping Tellez can recapture his form with Milwaukee in 2022, when the 6-foot-4, 270-pound slugger hit 35 homers and had 89 RBIs. The plan is for Tellez to play first base, especially as a left-handed hitter against right-handed pitching.

“We’re hoping he makes a big impact,” Cherington said. “This is taking a bet on a bounce-back. He’s still a relatively young player. He’s a left-handed hitter with huge power. He’s got hitting skill. He’s always had an idea of how to hit. When he’s in his best physical shape, he’s been a really productive hitter. He gives us a threat from the left side that we don’t have a lot of.”

Cherington noted that beyond switch hitter Bryan Reynolds and Jack Suwinski — who combined for 50 homers and 158 RBIs — the Pirates didn’t get enough production from lefty hitters to take advantage of the short porch in right field at PNC Park.

Of course, they also traded switch hitters Carlos Santana and Rodolfo Castro and lefty slugger Ji-Man Choi, so there was a need to add what Cherington called “a left-handed power threat” in hopes of making for a more balanced position player group.

“The conversation with Rowdy was really about first base, anticipating that Cutch was going to be back and we were not going to have unlimited DH at-bats available,” Cherington said. “It was important for us and important to Rowdy that first base was actually the opportunity, so he’s doing his training this offseason with that in mind, that he’s coming into spring training primarily as a first baseman. It doesn’t mean he’d never DH but the opportunity is really at first base.”

5. Player depth: Although the Pirates prioritized starting pitching, first base and designated hitter, Cherington said he hopes to add another position player.

Whether the target is a true center fielder or a second baseman remains to be seen.

The Pirates added outfielders in Olivares and Billy McKinney, who was acquired on a minor-league contract from the New York Yankees, but Cherington indicated that they will be competing with Connor Joe, Joshua Palacios and Canaan Smith-Njigba for the fourth outfield spot.

The Pirates have been rumored to be interested in a reunion with free-agent second baseman Adam Frazier, who was traded to San Diego in July 2021 amid an All-Star season. Cincinnati Reds second baseman Jonathan India also could be a trade candidate.

And Cherington didn’t rule out addressing the bullpen, although it’s more likely to be through non-roster invitees.

“We’d love to add to it,” Cherington said. “I think in terms of resources, if we’re talking about free-agent dollars, we went into the offseason and will continue to say the same thing that probably those resources are likely to go into starting rotation and position player and will continue to build the bullpen in a different way.”