How Will the Pirates Fare if Grapefruit and Cactus League are Implemented for 2020
As the calendar ticks to late April, baseball fans across the country are missing the game they love. Right now, there is no stadium full of fans, no crack of the bat, and no popcorn, peanuts, or crackerjacks. However, Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association are trying to work out a way for the 2020 season to begin while keeping players, team personnel, and fans safe and healthy throughout this pandemic. One of the ideas tossed around has approval from top health officials and some players as an option to start the season sooner rather than later.
The proposed plan has a few stipulations, but could be the best solutions to getting the 2020 baseball season started. All teams would play their 2020 schedule in Arizona at Chase Field, 10 different spring training locations, and other ball parks around the area. They would play in front of no fans and all teams would be sheltered in one hotel where they can be under constant surveillance and testing to help stop the spread of COVID-19 among the teams and players.
One thing proposed that would make this easier is keeping the Grapefruit and Cactus leagues for the 2020 season as opposed to the American and National Leagues. Teams from each league would play each other throughout the season and the winner of the two leagues would play each other for the World Series at a neutral location. With this plan comes almost constant interleague play, which would probably lead to the implementation of a full-time DH for the season as opposed to switching between pitchers hitting and a DH every other day.
How would these proposed changes effect the Pirates? Well for starters, they would have to prepare for a different type of season against new opponents. No longer would there be 19 games a year against the Cubs, Brewers, Cardinals, and Reds. In fact, with the new format, the Cardinals would be the only one of those teams the Pirates would have to deal with. Instead, they would have to face both World Series teams from 2019, as well as the entire AL East through out the year. Luckily, the Pirates have played pretty well against American League opponents over the last several seasons.
Over the last three years, the Pirates have gone 37-23 against opponents from the American League. Their best year came in 2018 where they went 15-5 against the American League playing mostly against the American League Central opponents. In 2019, the Pirates were very good against the American League on the road where they went 8-2 away from PNC Park. Even with all the struggles the Pirates faced last season, they still were able to put up a winning record against American League opponents going 12-8 in 20 games.
Those numbers show that the Pirates can hang with American League teams, but does not necessarily translate to success with the new proposal. One quick look at the 2020 Spring Training schedule can show you that as the Pirates went just 3-15 in their 18 games and sat 2.5 games behind the next highest team. However, Spring Training results aren't always indicitive of what's going to happen as indicated by the World Series Champion Washington Nationals and the World Series Runner-up Houston Astros being the two teams directly ahead of the Pirates.
Another thing that might benefit the Pirates in this scenario is the fact that they wouldn't have to face the same opponent as much. As opposed to playing 76 games against the same four opponents, the Pirates would get to see more teams less often. With 15 teams per league, if you can play 120 games this season each team would have to face each other eight times to get everyone in. This means if the Pirates find themselves struggling against one opponent, they have the opportunity to make up for those struggles against another team, rather than having that one team wreck their positioning in the Division.
We also have to address the elephant in the room. The universal designated hitter would have to be implemented in this scenario so that the rules can be consistent in each game rather than flip flopping every few days. Now personally, I am not a fan of the DH and think pitchers should be hitting for themselves, but in this scenario I can see how it would make things easier. Also, the DH would greatly benefit the Pirates as it would improve their defense and could possibly add more power to their lineup.
In a scenario where the DH is in play, Josh Bell would be the automatic choice to fill the role. He is the biggest power threat on the team and his 37 home runs last season would fit quite nicely in that DH spot. It would also allow him to just focus on that side of his game, rather than worrying about improving on his lack-luster defense. The question that remains is who will play first base if this happens? The Pirates would have a couple of different options to fill the role that would help improve the Pirates defense and bring some of their young prospects up.
The first scenario, would be to move Colin Moran over to first base and bring up Ke'Bryan Hayes to man third base. This would put Moran in a position where he has been better defensively throughout his career. In limited action at first base, Moran's fielding percentage is thirty points higher than It is at third base. Last season, he played 46.1 innings at first base and did not commit an error while registering 36 put outs and three assists. This moves a defensive liability out of the hit corner and brings in a young guy who has played well at the position.
Hayes played all-star caliber defense last season comitting just three errors and having a .990 fielding percentage. Hayes won a Minor League Gold Glove in each of the last three seasons and is more than capable of manning the hot corner at the pro level. The only question would be how would his bat translate. He has had his best Spring Training of his career, hitting .400 in Grapefruit League action, but has only hit one home run. He may not give you the power numbers you expect from a third baseman, but he will hit for average and get on base.
The other scenario, and the more beneficial one in my opinion, would be to call up Will Craig to take over at first base. Craig has shown he is more than capable of hitting Major League pitching while hitting for power. Last season, as Josh Bell was tearing it up at the Major Leagues, Craig was hitting sell at Triple A. Through the month of May, he had 15 home runs and 38 RBI for Triple A Indianapolis. He has been chomping at the bit to make it to the Major Leagues and this would be his chance.
It would give the Pirates two legitimate power threats in the middle of their lineup, something the Pirates haven't had for a couple years. It would allow the Pirates to bat Bell fourth and Craig fifth in the lineup. With Craig being the younger guy, pitchers would attack him and it would allow him to see better pitches to hit until he proves to be dangerous. It opens up the door for Craig's Major League Career and could add home runs to the Pirates lineup.
This plan has not been made official by any means and there is no certainty that the plan will be implemented. It is just one possible scenario that Major League Baseball is working on to get back to a sense of normalcy. Whatever it takes to get the MLB back works for me, as long as everyone is safe, it should be time to Play Ball sooner rather than later.
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