Pirates by Position: Starting job at second base could be biggest battle of spring training

Since Adam Frazier was traded amid an All-Star season in 2021, second base has been something of a misnomer for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

It’s more like a short stop.

The Pirates have tried 24 players at the position over the past two-plus years, and not one has started even half the games in a season at second base.

That wasn’t by design as much as it was by demand. Kevin Newman, Rodolfo Castro, Diego Castillo and Tucupita Marcano split time at short, Hoy Park and Cole Tucker also played right field, Michael Chavis manned first base and Josh VanMeter even had to pitch and catch in emergency situations.

Ji Hwan Bae beat out Castro for the starting job last spring, only to play almost as many games in center field (62) as he did at second base (64). Bae still had almost as many starts at second (56) as Nick Gonzales (25), Liover Peguero (23) and Jared Triolo (10) combined.

Pirates by Position

• Can Oneil Cruz's return spell the end of revolving door at shortstop?
• Third base in good hands with Gold Glove winner Ke'Bryan Hayes
• Spring training could see competition at center in a crowded outfield
• Rowdy Tellez hoping to make 'big impact' in possible platoon at 1B
• Once a strength, Endy Rodriguez's injury makes catcher a concern

The search for a starting second baseman appears to be a four-way competition, one that could be the biggest battle of spring training.

The Pirates, of course, still could pursue a veteran free agent such as Tony Kemp or three-time All-Star Whit Merrifield, but a week before the start of spring training, Bae enters as the favorite with Gonzales and Peguero his primary competition. Pirates manager Derek Shelton has hinted that Triolo projects as a potential utility man because he can play first, second or third.

“There’s a lot of competition there,” Shelton said last September during the final homestand. “Bae, I think, grew a ton at second base this year. We’ve seen that Nick can play on both sides of the base, which is really important. Triolo has made a really big impact, especially now showing the ability to play first. …

“There’s a lot of different options with where we’re at now. Peggy came in playing just shortstop and now we’ve transitioned him into playing some second base. We feel, organizationally, we’re in a much better spot because there’s a ton more options to be able to play there. The versatility that we’ve talked about for four years, I think it’s really starting to come to fruition of being able to bounce guys around the field.”

Peguero played more games at shortstop, his natural position, than he did at second. So the position switch to second base is still new to him.

“It takes a little bit of different stuff,” Peguero said last month at PiratesFest. “It’s a lot different. People think it’s the same stuff, but I don’t see it that way. I’m also learning about how to feed the ball to second base, throw underhand, stuff like that. I feel like I still need to get better.”

Where the Pirates love Bae’s speed and ability to create chaos on the basepaths — he had a team-best 24 stolen bases and scored 54 runs in 111 games — Gonzales and Peguero have pop in their bats.

Gonzales batted only .209 but had eight doubles, a triple and two home runs — both 400-foot shots to center — in 35 games. Peguero batted .237 with four doubles, a triple and seven homers in 59 games. The problem is both had high strikeout rates — Gonzales at 28.1%, Peguero at 31.5% — that resulted in low on-base percentages.

The Pirates have invested in all three. Bae, 24, was signed out of South Korea for a $1.25 million bonus in 2018. Peguero, 23, was acquired in the trade that sent All-Star Starling Marte to Arizona in January 2020. And Gonzales, 24, was Ben Cherington’s first draft pick as Pirates general manager, No. 7 overall in July 2020, and signed for $5.4 million.

But there’s little room to relax. The Pirates added Tsung-Che Cheng, who played shortstop and second base at Double-A Altoona last summer, to the 40-man roster this offseason. And 19-year-old Termarr Johnson, the No. 4 overall pick in 2022 and a top-100 prospect, is coming off an 18-homer season split between Low-A Bradenton and High-A Greensboro.

That could make this a fierce competition between friends for the starting job at second base this spring.

“I want to come out here and play,” Gonzales said. “All the guys on the team are my brothers, and I love all of them. You don’t think about it in that way. You just think about it as they’re there to make me better. I’m there to make them better, and at the end of the day, whoever’s there to start the season or whatever time in the season, is who deserves it.”