Pirates by Position: 1B, DH addressed with additions of Ji-Man Choi, Carlos Santana

Ben Cherington entered the offseason with the objective of improving the Pittsburgh Pirates at first base and designated hitter, and the general manager addressed both positions before the Winter Meetings.

By trading for Ji-Man Choi and signing Carlos Santana in free agency, the Pirates added a pair of veteran sluggers with reputations for their defense at first base who also have experience at DH.

Cherington banked that both would benefit from a rules change.

The switch-hitting Santana faced defensive shifts more than any hitter in baseball when batting left-handed (98.3% of at-bats), while the lefty-swinging Choi faced the shift in 83.9% of his at-bats.

“We believe based on the analysis we’ve done from his 2022 season and then potentially some benefit from the shift rules that there could be even more offense than what he showed this past year,” Cherington said of Santana. “A little combination of a little bit of bad luck this past year and perhaps the benefit from the shift going away.”

Now that MLB has banned the shift, both Choi and Santana are counting on raising their batting averages. Despite a solid hard-hit (41.4%) and exit velocity (90.7 mph) rates, Santana batted .202 with 18 doubles, 19 home runs and 60 RBIs in 131 games last season, split between the Kansas City Royals and Seattle Mariners.

“Look back at the last two or three seasons, and you could see I’m probably one of the players most affected by a shift,” said Santana, who turns 37 on April 8. “I think now that it will be banned, it’s going to help me greatly getting on base.”

Choi’s hard-hit and exit velocity rates were even better than Santana’s, yet he hit .233 with 22 doubles, 11 home runs and 52 RBIs in 113 games for the Tampa Bay Rays.

“Obviously, I’m a left-handed batter, so most of the time, my hits would mostly go to the first-base side,” said Choi, 31, who had offseason surgery to remove bone chips from his right elbow. “With the shift being not available next season, I feel like there’s going to be a higher chance of me getting a base hit and helping the team win the game.”

The signing of 36-year-old outfielder Andrew McCutchen adds even more experience at DH, and adding outfielders Connor Joe and Ryan Vilade from the Colorado Rockies adds emergency depth at first. McCutchen hit only .213 but had 16 doubles, 11 homers and 45 RBIs in 82 games at DH for Milwaukee.

“It was a learning curve for me, especially last year, knowing that I was DH’ing more than I really ever have in a full season,” McCutchen said. “It was a new role for me, so I have learned a lot, learning what I had to do, learning what not to do. … It was trial and error for me. You hate having to go through a season with that, but it helped me out a lot and I’ll be able to get better at it and be better at it this year.”

It won’t take much for the Pirates to put up better offensive numbers at those positions. Last season, their first basemen combined to bat .206/.264/.337 with 21 doubles, 17 homers and 66 RBIs, while their DHs slashed .216/.308/.369 with 24 doubles, 21 homers and 82 RBIs — with Daniel Vogelbach doing most of the damage before being traded to the New York Mets in late July.

The Pirates are counting on all three to get on base – McCutchen has a .369 career OBP, Santana .359 and Choi .345 — while also providing some pop in the middle of the lineup. Per Statcast, Santana ranked in the 97th percentile in walk rate (14%) and 74th in strikeout rate (17.4%).

As important will be their play at first base. The Pirates used nine players there last season, with Michael Chavis leading the team in starts (82) after Yoshi Tsutsugo was designated for assignment. The Pirates turned to middle infielders Josh VanMeter and Diego Castillo at first, which didn’t help the development of rookie shortstop Oneil Cruz. Now, they can count on Choi and Santana to solidify the spot.

“We have confidence in both of those guys at first base. They’ve both been very capable to above-average defenders at first base,” said Cherington said, who added that he will leave lineup decisions to manager Derek Shelton. “But there’s obviously at least two spots in the lineup there, and we think both of them help us lengthen our position player group out and give us a chance to put together tougher at-bats as we go through the lineup. …

“I believe, I hope we’re in a spot where Shelty will have more options available, depending on matchups, just different and more ways to fill out a lineup and have that lineup be deeper than it was at times last year. That’s certainly our hope. We aimed to add at those spots and feel good that we were able to do it.”