How about we just don't have the roster to be that good. It's not about guys playing in the wrong position. We didn't take care of our needs in the offseason, hence these results. You can't forsee Taillon going down, or maybe the Marte thing, but they didn't go after and solve true needs.
We've lost four guys from the lineup, one (Frazier) was a bench player until trusted into the starting lineup. Of the four, Kang could have been anticipated (OBN was warning that Kang's problems are serious and visa may not be easy, the FO ignored OBN's warning) but choose to believe 1) it will be resolved in time for Kang to have meaningful impact on the Pirates season and 2) the Pirates could compensate while they waited.
The problem is, they also chose to NOT anticipate the impact of one more injury (or drug bust!) and the impact on the roster. They didn't concern themselves with a weak bench knowing they were already down a man. They assume they can row the dice in every "cut corner" and their recipe for success is that the dice will always come up a winner.
I'm reading a book on Chernobyl (for our younger members, look it up). One poorly trained sap, at a bargain basement nuclear power plant, made one little mistake and who woulda thunk it would cause such problems!? Granted, baseball is not life and death (well.....) but it goes to show, when you live on the margins don't be surprised when you die on the margins.
(I recognize I am surely the first person to draw a parallel between the Pirates and Chernobyl; this could alter geopolitical alliances and the history of the USA
)Edit- actually both Frazier and Freese were both bench players until forced into full time action. So the Pirates have fallen completely apart because of two starters?? Impact, yes. Pull baseball back to the stone age?? Surely not but that's what it looks like.