Pittsburgh Pirates 2020 Grade Report: First Base

We continue our position by position grade report as we move to first base, a position that saw a lot of rotation. It was the group that had one of the most impressive and least impressive players on the team this season.

When the National League implemented the Designated Hitter for the 2020 season, it set the Pittsburgh Pirates first base situation for a loop. The only clear power hitter on the Pirates was first baseman Josh Bell and the Pirates new there would be a carousel of players rotating through the first base position. In total, five different players cycled through first base for the Pirates, but the two front runners had very different seasons. For one, it was a season full of disappointment while for the other it was a break-out year that might have put him back on the Pirates radar for the future.

Josh Bell went through one of the worst seasons of his career, while Colin Moran had one of his best at the plate. While the offense had its ups and downs, the defense left little to be desired throughout the season. The Pirates first basemen ranked in the bottom of the league in terms of fielding percentage with Colin Moran ranking 16th at .988 and Josh Bell ranking 21st at .984. Neither are great defensively, but Moran has emerged as the better defensive player at the position. First base is one of the positions where the Pirates need to figure out which man is going to take over the position full-time. Today, we are going to look at first base as we hand out our Buccos Cove Report Card.

Josh Bell: First Base/Designated Hitter

After coming off the high of the 2019 season, where Bell hit .277 with 37 home runs and 116 RBI, Josh Bell was looking to officially take over as the team's starting first baseman. He put in a lot of hard work on the defensive side of the ball, fixing his throwing angle to try and cut down on his errors. However, things didn't go Bell's way as he got off to a slow start to the season and never fully recovered. He finished the year hitting .226 with eight home runs and 22 RBI in 57 games played. His strikeout percentage was raised to 28.2%, up six points from the previous season. Bell had a career-high WHIFF% of 33.6% and was routinely behind ln the fastball for a Majority of the season.

His lowest point of the season came towards the end of August when he went on an 0-14 stretch that dropped his batting average to a season-low .186. However, he followed that string with one of his best stretches of the year from September 6th through September 16th. Bell compiled a 10-game hitting streak during that time hitting .454 with three home runs and five RBI. Bell has been a very streaky hitter throughout his career and that is concerning, considering he is still one of the only true power threats on this team. When Bell is on, the Pirates usually generate a good amount of offensive production. However, when he is off, it usually spells disaster for an offense that already has a hard time generating runs day in and day out.

After his offensive production, there isn't much more exciting about Bell in the field. He came through the Pirates Minor League system as an outfielder but transitioned to first base to crack the Major League roster. The move has seen its ups and downs as Bell has committed 36 errors in over 3900 innings at the position. Most of those errors have been of the throwing variety as Bell has had trouble finding his arm angle. His defensive game is something he really focused on this off-season, adjusting his arm angle to more of a side-arm throw. It seemed to help a little bit, but he still had a subpar .984 fielding percentage, committing four errors in 285.2 innings of work. If the Designated Hitter remains in the National League, Bell is looking at a move to the DH spot to get a better defensive first baseman on the field.

Colin Moran: Back-Up First Baseman

Since he came over to the Pirates in the trade that sent Gerrit Cole to Houston, we have heard about the power that Colin Moran possesses. He hasn't really shown much of that power to this point, hitting a career-high 13 home runs last season, but he has been one of the more consistent hitters on the team. That all changed this season as Moran broke out the power leading the team with 10 home runs while hitting .247 with 23 RBI. He got off to one of the hottest starts not only on the Pittsburgh Pirates but in all of Major League Baseball. He led the league with four home runs through the month of July, and again was one of the Pirate's most consistent hitters.

Moran has always been good at collecting extra-base hits, but the area he really excelled at this year was the power department. After setting a career-high of 13 last season, Moran was on pace to hit 31 if 2020 was a full 162 game season. He compiled a total of 20 extra-base his this season, leading the team with 10 home run and finishing second on the team with 10 doubles. However, for all the power he displayed, the one spot where he didn't show it was with runners in scoring position. Moran hit just .195 with runners in scoring position, leading to his low number of RBI. He was on pace to drive in just 71 RBI this season, so the main thing for Moran offensively is to work on getting back to where he was in 2019 with runners in scoring position.

Defensively, Moran went from a position where he was subpar at best, to a position where he could hold down the fort. After starting the year as the Pirates third baseman, where he had a career fielding percentage of .950, the Pirates decided to move Moran to the other side of the field. He has taken the move in stride and committed just two errors in 166 innings played. He proved a definite upgrade over Bell and the move allowed a spot for third base prospect Ke'Bryan Hayes to make his debut. Moran showed good skills around the bag picking up 152 putouts and 15 assists. If Moran is part of the Pirate's future plans, he might have just found himself a home at first base for years to come.

Jose Osuna: Utility Man/Back-up First Baseman

The 2020 season was an up and down year for Jose Osuna, quite literally. Osuna had two different stints between the Big League club and the team's satellite camp and ended up finishing the year hitting .205 with four home runs and 11 RBI. His second stint was much more successful than his first stint, especially in the month of September. In 28 at-bats in September, Osuna ended up hitting .321 with three home runs and five RBI. While he split time between four different positions, first base was the one he appeared most at and, when he was out there his defense was good. He did not commit an error in 46 innings and showed he can handle the role. Moving forward Osuna will probably continue to serve as a utilityman getting his at-bats when he can.

Overall Grade: C+

First Base was one of the most frustrating positions for the Pirates during the 2020 season. Bell severely underperformed at the plate which made his defensive play look that much worse. If the DH does not stay in the National League, I don't think first base will be a lock next season. Bell and Moran will be competing for that starting job and Bell needs to step up. It was Moran's strong performance that saved the grade from dipping even lower. For the Pirates, they need someone to step up and be a run produced and their two first baseman are the ones they will rely on as they move towards 2021.