Mark Madden: Pirates' pitching depth sparks hope for future, but lacking bats will hold them back

There’s already a buzz surrounding next year’s Pittsburgh Pirates: “This team is close. Closer than people think.”

Close to what?

Escaping last place in the NL Central seems the only reasonable answer. But maybe not that close and certainly not that soon. (The Pirates are currently seven games out of fourth place in the division. Wait till next year.)

Bubba Chandler’s immediate ascendancy to MLB’s king of bulk relief (sponsored by Sam’s Club) seems the catalyst for crazy talk. No runs allowed in eight innings. Chandler might win the NL Cy Young Award four innings at a time.

The Pirates do appear to have assembled a decent cadre of starting pitchers.

But you’ve got to hit, too.

The popular formula to remedy the Pirates’ imbalance is to trade for bats from their surplus of starting pitchers.

But that might lead them to realize they didn’t have the surplus they thought.

Anyway, the only pitchers the Pirates could trade for great return would be Paul Skenes or Chandler. (They won’t trade Skenes. Yet.)

Mitch Keller swoons in the second half of every season and is scheduled to make more than $55 million in his contract’s final three years.

Jared Jones and Johan Oviedo aren’t far removed from Tommy John surgery. Jones hasn’t even started throwing yet.

Mike Burrows is a ham-and-egger.

Braxton Ashcraft might be a sleeper.

You’ve got prospects like Hunter Barco and Thomas Harrington.

The Pirates don’t need marginal bats. They need sturdy middle-of-the-order hitters with power.

Nobody besides Skenes or Chandler would fetch the sort of lumber the Pirates need.

For the right bat(s), trading Chandler might be a worthwhile gamble.

But Chandler won’t reach arbitration till after the 2027 season at the earliest. He’s mega-cheap till then.

The window to win depends on how long the Pirates are willing to keep Skenes through his arbitration (and the accompanying huge awards). That starts after next season.

So, trading excess arms for legit bats wouldn’t necessarily be easy. (Even if it was, would you trust GM Ben Cherington to make those deals?)

What about swapping center fielder Oneil Cruz?

Cruz is either a flat-out bum or can’t be developed properly by the Pirates. But his talent is great, evident and undeniable.

That talent might bring decent return in a trade. (He’s arbitration eligible after this season.)

Cruz is astonishingly bad lately.

Cruz is hitting .100 in August. That’s half the Mendoza Line. Cruz is 5 for 50 with one home run and 19 strikeouts.

His average on the season is a lowly .202. His OPS has dropped to .693.

Cruz is all mph and nothing that helps win games beyond an occasional highlight.

Cruz might yet get better, or even great. But a change of scenery seems his best bet.

The Pirates would be well advised to deal Cruz before all of MLB thinks he’s rotten.

Or the Pirates could spend money in free agency to get bats.

It wouldn’t be easy. Any hitter with a better option would take it, and the best offer made to top-notch hitters won’t come from the Pirates.

That rules out Pete Alonso, Cody Bellinger, Bo Bichette, Alex Bregman, Kyle Schwarber, Eugenio Suarez, Kyle Tucker and a whole lot more big-time free agents.

The Pirates have to spend considerably more to find the offense needed to legitimately contend for a playoff berth.

That won’t happen.

With the Pirates’ pitching, it’d be possible to appear like they’re competing for a wild card when they’re really not. Hang in there for a while.

If that’s “close,” then yeah.