2024 Off-Season Thread

[mouse]

On the whole, though, we don't need ever "if" to work out. If even a few do, the team can show real improvement. As to Horwitz, if he's really the three-year plan, missing a bit of time getting into playing shape at the beginning of this season will be quickly forgotten. It only seems significant now because of the timing. A couple of weeks of rehab in the middle of the season would be taken in stride.

[Ecbucs]

On the whole, though, we don't need ever "if" to work out. If even a few do, the team can show real improvement. As to Horwitz, if he's really the three-year plan, missing a bit of time getting into playing shape at the beginning of this season will be quickly forgotten. It only seems significant now because of the timing. A couple of weeks of rehab in the middle of the season would be taken in stride.

As I said above I am not optimistic. The problem with ifs working out is there are usually things that you count on that don't work out too. Perhaps because of injuries or just a bad year. Can Skenes pitch as well as last year and do it for twice as many games? Can IFK play an acceptable shortstop and hit at close to a 100 OPS (his career OPS is just 83)? Can Tommy Pham match last even last season's production?

So to me we need most of the ifs to work out and we need pretty much all of the players counted on to do what is expected or better.

For last season we were optimistic about Bednar, Hayes, Rowdy, Olivares, Suwinski, Davis and Taylor and together they brought zilch.

[mouse]

So ask yourself - It's the first game of the season, Baltimore announcers that are basically ignoring the Pirates, would Aliki Williams have had that ball that squirted through to Pegora's right? I'm not sure he has enough range for short.

[3pirates3]

https://x.com/Pirates/status/1893373619847201275

https://x.com/JonHeyman/status/1893478970198208524

https://t.co/8sqg5ln8zH

[UtahPirate2]

Thought we'd be on this list, but I guess it shows we have company for the worst offseason:

https://www.si.com/mlb/five-mlb-teams-w ... 025-season

[3pirates3]

Cubs just made Alexander Canario available when they signed Justin Turner. He has some nice numbers and is only 24.
He probably won’t be available by the time the Pirates put in a waiver claim in the 8th position. They should look into making a trade maybe a Suwinski back to his hometown for Canario.

https://x.com/JesseRogersESPN/status/18 ... 8663949789

[JollyRoger8]

Cubs just made Alexander Canario available when they signed Justin Turner. He has some nice numbers and is only 24.
He probably won’t be available by the time the Pirates put in a waiver claim in the 8th position. They should look into making a trade maybe a Suwinski back to his hometown for Canario.

https://x.com/JesseRogersESPN/status/18 ... 8663949789

That is too bad. For only cash considerations the Pirates could have taken advantage of the Cubs situation and obtained a 24year old player with very high upside. Perhaps the Cubs did not want to work a deal in the division with the Pirates and therefore accepted the Mets offer.

[fjk090852-7]

Is it just me, does anyone like myself wonder why Alex Verdugo is still on the offseason free agent list?
He is 29, so he is not an older player, and has had some success in the Majors. Unless he has some personality issues his asking price must be off the wall. It just seems strange he has not yet found an organization to land.

[3pirates3]

https://x.com/EthanHullihen/status/1895214618513154208

https://x.com/kevin_barral/status/1895235048116523102

[fjk090852-7]

I have seen a couple articles about Stone Garrett who was recently designated for assignment by the Nationals. He suffered a very bad injury in late 2023, but seems like he has recovered. He has two options remaining, and it might be a good idea if the Pirates kicked the tires on him. If they ended up acquiring him, he may end up being the fourth outfielder.