Pirates GM on sweeping Dodgers: 'You've got to celebrate and turn the page really quickly'

Watching the Pittsburgh Pirates sweep a three-game series at the Los Angeles Dodgers had a profound impact on Ben Cherington, but not necessarily the way one would expect.

“I thought it threw off my sleep schedule,” Cherington joked Friday at PNC Park.

The Pirates general manager was measured in his reaction to the successful West Coast swing, knowing that the Pirates are fielding a lineup featuring a handful of rookies and players that didn’t start the season on their Opening Day roster.

“Anytime you see our team — admittedly, we’ve got a lot of young players out there right now — compete and play hard and make mistakes — there were mistakes, we made mistakes in those games — but come back and keep playing hard and execute enough to beat a good team, of course it’s good,” Cherington said, “but you’ve got to celebrate and turn the page really quickly.”

The Pirates (22-27) remained nine games out of first place in the NL Central entering Friday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks (25-27), yet manager Derek Shelton believes the young players are carrying themselves with more confidence after performing well before big crowds at Petco Park and Dodger Stadium.

Cherington doesn’t disagree with that assessment, but emphasized the need for the Pirates to turn the page.

“Obviously, players that were on that road trip that haven’t played in those environments before and contributing to winning against good teams in an environment they haven’t played before, I think that’s where the impact is, that experience,” Cherington said. “Beyond that, no. We just know we need to keep getting better at everything.”

That’s a tall task to ask with four starters out with injuries: catcher Roberto Perez, first baseman Yoshi Tsutsugo, shortstop Kevin Newman and outfielder Ben Gamel. The Pirates got good news when designated hitter Daniel Vogelbach was reinstated from the 10-day injured list, but endured another loss when they moved infielder Josh VanMeter onto the 10-day IL with a fractured left ring finger.

The Pirates also have outfielders Greg Allen and Jake Marisnick and right-hander Heath Hembree eligible to come off the IL in the next week, though Cherington doesn’t expect any to be ready soon. That’s why Cherington employs an interesting strategy to make roster moves.

“Wait until the last possible minute because things change all the time,” Cherington said. “Until someone’s actually ready to be come back and be activated. My experience is you spend too much time worrying about what’s going to happen 10 days from now and something else is going to happen anyway, so let’s not worry about it.”

Until then, it puts more of an onus on rookies like infielders Diego Castillo and Rodolfo Castro and outfielders Tucupita Marcano, Cal Mitchell and Jack Suwinski to continue to perform while adjusting to life in the majors.

“I believe that baseball players don’t think about whether they should be in the major leagues or not or what should be expected,” Cherington said. “They think they should be, and when they get called up, they believe they can go play well and help a team win, and we do too. We expect that too. It’s obviously exciting to see that happen.

“From the player’s standpoint, you’d have to ask them, but I think from the player’s standpoint, they need to believe in themselves first that they’re going to do that, no matter what level they’re at. When they’re in the minor leagues, we want them to believe they can get called up at any day at any point and contribute to win.”

Cherington has resisted the clamoring to call up the team’s top position prospect, shortstop Oneil Cruz, and top power-hitting prospect, first baseman Mason Martin, from Triple-A Indianapolis. The Pirates have opted to use Castillo and Castro at shortstop in Newman’s absence and moved Michael Chavis and VanMeter to first base to fill in for Tsutsugo. They even acquired Yu Chang from Cleveland in a trade because of his right-handed bat and ability to play first instead of moving up Martin.

“We want to promote young players, and I think we have and will continue to do so,” Cherington said. “There won’t be any stopping that in the future. There are other players we hope to see in Pittsburgh this summer. But, yeah, in the moment, we’ve got to do it on a case-by-case basis and look at all the factors we’ve talked about before — where’s the player right now in his performance and skill development and the off-field stuff? What’s the opportunity? Is there an opportunity to actually play a lot if he comes up here? What’s the impact on the 40-man roster? All that stuff has to be weighed, and we try to make the best decisions we can. Generally, we want to see young players get opportunity and expect that that will continue to happen.”