Pirates GM Ben Cherington: We need great players

With about nine months on the job and his first season as Pittsburgh Pirates general manager down to its final two weeks, Ben Cherington is getting a better sense of where the organization stands.

“Better,” Cherington said. “Not complete.”

The Pirates made a major move Sept. 1 by calling up their top position prospect in third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes and added a promising pitcher to the bullpen when they activated Blake Cederlind from the taxi squad Tuesday at Cincinnati.

What Cherington has learned about the Pirates, from the majors to the minors, is there is a pressing need for more talent. Aside from sending 36-year-old center fielder Jarrod Dyson to the Chicago White Sox for international bonus pool money, Cherington didn’t make any trade deadline deals but made it clear the Pirates must make upgrades throughout the system.

For a team with the worst winning percentage in baseball and ranks at or near the bottom of the majors in most offensive categories, one thing is clear: The Pirates needs are many.

“I think we need great players,” Cherington said. “I don’t wake up in the morning thinking we need to find this or we need to find that. We need to find and develop great players, at every position. Of course, we feel like we have a little more depth in some areas than others, sure. But, you know, I’m not thinking about it, we’re not thinking about like there’s one type of player we need and that’s going to be the solution for anything. We need to continue to be aggressive, innovative, persistent, dogged about identifying the best talent, acquiring, developing every kind of player, every position across the board.”

Cherington holds out hope for right fielder Gregory Polanco, who is batting .147 with five doubles, five home runs and 16 RBIs with a team-high 55 strikeouts. Cherington outlined Polanco’s positives: He is healthy, moving well and is still strong after recovering from covid-19 during training camp.

“He’s hitting the ball really hard when he makes contact, which is encouraging,” Cherington said. “His swing decisions are not different from when he’s been successful. He’s missing on some fastballs. I’m not sure anyone can say exactly why that is. But it would be reasonable for me to think that, a very strange year like this might impact (him).”

Cherington praised the 29-year-old Polanco for his attitude and energy amid a frustrating season, calling the longest-tenured Pirate a “good teammate” and indicating he still has a future with the team. Polanco has one year remaining on a contract that will pay him $12.5 million next season, with club options in 2022 and ’23.

“He’s still really young and at a point in his career where there’s no reason to think that he can’t be a really good player again,” Cherington said. “I would expect him to be. I look forward to him doing that in a Pirates uniform next year.”

Where Cherington gave Polanco a vote of confidence, the Pirates GM shared reservations that injured closer Keone Kela (right forearm inflammation) will return in time to pitch this season.

Kela has pitched only three innings in two games, missing all of summer camp and the first few weeks of the season after testing positive for covid-19 before experiencing arm troubles. Kela will be a free agent at the end of the season.

“I don’t know. The answer is I don’t know for sure,” Cherington said. “It does seem like the calendar’s starting to work against us, through no fault of his. I believe that he’s going to be fine. The thing that he felt toward the end of July (this) is something he will recover from. I’m confident of that. Not concerned that there’s any structural issue at all. But he felt something in that muscle belly. Until he feels fully confident in being able to throw his curveball as hard as he always throws it to be able to have success, it’s not going to make sense for him to go out there. … If the calendar lasted another month, then I’d feel a little differently about it. ”