Pittsburgh Pirates Three Things To Watch: How Will The Pitchers Be Used?

Opening Day is tomorrow, and we can't wait for the 2021 season to begin against the Chicago Cubs. In our final installment of Three Things to Watch, we take a look at how Manager Derek Shelton will use his pitchers coming into 2021.

The 60-game season in 2020 was a nice sprint of a season during the pandemic, but it is nothing compared to the marathon of a 162-game season. Players get a full season to show off their talents and pitchers can work their arms out and build up their innings on the mound. Tomorrow, that marathon begins when the Pittsburgh Pirates head to Wrigley Field to take on the Chicago Cubs for the opener. The Pirates aren't picked to do much this season, but this young and hungry team is looking to prove the critics wrong and show how talented they are. They aren't going to be competing for a playoff spot this season, but they are going to be in some competitive games and it will be fun to watch.

However, they are only going to go as far as their pitching staff goes, and that brings us to our third and final installment of Pittsburgh Pirates Three Things to Watch. With all of the piggyback starts, and pitchers not going five innings last year, it will be interesting to see how Manager Derek Shelton utilizes his pitching staff during the 2021 season. Will he be conservative and have his starters go less, or even build off of each other, or will he be aggressive and let them go six or seven innings? It may be determined by results on the field, or it could be in an effort to help prevent injury. The Pirates already lost Steven Brault for two months and Blake Cederlind until next year and they don't want to lose any more pitchers. Today, we look at how Shelton may use both his starters and his bullpen and how it will affect the Pirates in 2021.

Starters Going The Distance

One of the biggest problems for the Pittsburgh Pirates last season was the fact that their starters weren't going deep into games. The starters averaged just 4.0 innings per start last season, and in turn, the bullpen got used more than they should have been during the season. Whether it was because of the short Spring Training or that Derek Shelton was just evaluating what he had, it definitely took a toll on the bullpen. However, toward the end of the 2020 season, you started to see the starters go deeper and deeper into ball games. After relying on piggyback starts at the beginning of the year, both Steven Brault and Chad Kuhl showed they could be stretched out going seven innings or more in their final starts of the season. 

The question with this year's team is will the starters be used like the first half of 2020 or the second half? There are benefits to having starters go shorter outings, but you have to have an effective guy behind him who can eat up the extra innings and not tax the bullpen. Too many times when the Pirates went with the piggyback starter method, the guy who came in would last just one or two innings, and the bullpen would have to eat the final five innings every night. One guy who could thrive as a piggyback type guy is reliever, Chris Stratton. He has starting experience and can go multiple innings if he needs to, to eat some innings. Stratton got the ball more than any other NL reliever last season and posted a 3.90 ERA over 30 innings of work, and as a piggybacker, his innings would fly up.

However, what the Pirates are hoping for, is that their starters can eat up some of those innings and go deeper into ball games. Early in the year, there will obviously be pitch counts and limits to their innings, but as the season goes on, you should see the starters go deeper and deeper into games. At the end of last season, Pirates starters began to go deeper and deeper, and during their last starts of the season, each pitcher lasted at least seven innings. This is a milestone the starting staff needs to aim at hitting more often as it puts much less pressure on the guys in the bullpen. JT Brubaker made the final start of Spring yesterday and looked good over five innings of work. If the Pirates starters can consistently go deeper into games, it will help a bullpen that may turn into a strength for them in 2021.

Working Guys Out of The Bullpen

The names are mostly set in the Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen, with the last battle remaining between Wil Crowe and Clay Holmes. However, what is not set in stone are the roles that these pitchers will play for the Pirates throughout the season. Obviously, a guy like Luis Oviedo is not going to come out and close games, but within the bullpen, there are roles that have yet to be decided. The biggest question surrounding the Pirates bullpen is who is going to be the team's closer? Other questions involved look more at the middle and long-relief side as the Pirates determine which pitchers can eat up innings, and who will work better in high leverage situations bridging the gap to the back-end guys.

Looking at the Pirate's closer situation, the obvious choice to close games at the beginning of the year would be Richard Rodriguez. Rodriguez did a great job assuming that role last season by converting four of his five save opportunities. He posted an impressive 2.70 ERA last season for the Pirates, but his Spring Training wasn't so good as he went 0-2 with a 6.75 ERA and allowed 13 hits in 6.2 innings of work. However, a competitor to Rodriguez has emerged this spring in reliever David Bednar. The Pittsburgh native has had a dominant spring, not allowing a run in 8.2 innings of work while striking out 18 batters and walking one. While he does not yet have a Major League save, he was groomed as a closer most of his Minor League career. He went 39-47 in save opportunities in the Minor Leagues and is looking to bring some of that high-leverage experience to the back-end of the Pirates bullpen.

As for how the rest of the bullpen will shape up, a lot is still unknown as to what role guys will play. Chris Stratton and Luis Oviedo are two guys who can eat innings and be used in long-relief. However, Stratton also lends himself well to be used in short, high-leverage situations in the middle of games. The lefty specialist in this year's bullpen seems to be Sam Howard, who is coming off of a career-year with the Pirates in 2020. He went 2-3 with a career-low 3.86 ERA in 21 innings of work while striking out 27. Then, there are guys like Kyle Crick who aren't exactly middle relievers but aren't exactly in the running to be closers either. How Derek Shelton will use his bullpen will be determined in the first couple weeks of the season, but one thing is for sure, the Pirates will go as far as their pitching can take them in 2021. 

The Pittsburgh Pirates (0-0) kick-off the 2021 season tomorrow when they take on the Chicago Cubs (0-0) at 2:20 pm. Chad Kuhl (0-0, -.--) takes the mound for his first Opening Day start against Kyle Hendricks (0-0, -.--) for the Cubs. You can watch the game on AT&T Sportsnet, listen on 93.7 The Fan, or follow along with us on Twitter by following @Buccos_Cove.