Kevin Gorman’s Take 5: Ben Cherington's patient plan about to have a biased reaction

When the Pittsburgh Pirates fired Neal Huntington, Kevan Graves served as the interim general manager while they searched for a successor. Once Ben Cherington was hired, Graves moved into a role he describes as driving professional evaluation and acquisition efforts.

Talk about a job with a safety net.

The Pirates have been wheeling and dealing under Cherington, with six major trades and a handful of minor moves, that have overhauled the major league roster and dramatically upgraded the farm system.

Graves was filling in for Cherington on his weekly radio show on Pirates flagship 93.7 The Fan on Sunday when play-by-play broadcaster Greg Brown asked a pointed question: Why should Pirates fans be confident that Ben Cherington is the one that will lead them to the promised land?

The answer was biased, given that Graves was talking about his boss, but it also shed some insight into how Cherington does his job and, perhaps more important, allows others to do theirs.

“Ben was obviously thrown into a really difficult set of circumstances as a GM with a new organization in the covid environment. I think, from my perspective, he navigated that really well, built relationships, worked hard to assess what the Pirates were doing well and where there were opportunities for growth,” Graves said. “A couple of things jump out, as I’ve gotten to know Ben. For one, he’s incredibly driven to put a winner on the field in Pittsburgh. Everything that we do is really with that singular goal in mind.

“Beyond that, one of the aspects that makes him unique — and fun — for to work for is just his belief in empowering the collective leaders throughout the department. Whether that be Steve Sanders or Derek Shelton or John Baker, any number of folks, it’s unique to have an opportunity to have him provide guidance, vision, feedback but also empower his leaders throughout the department to really drive their spaces. Ultimately, that’s going to make us really good.”

Graves also noted Cherington’s background in player development. That started with the Boston Red Sox, where he began as a scout and worked his way up the ladder to GM, and continued with the Toronto Blue Jays and has been a point of emphasis with the Pirates.

“That absolutely comes through when you talk to him or spend time around him, believes very, very strongly in both really people and player development — good players come from everywhere,” Graves said. “He both believes and pours a lot of time and energy into our ability to impact their development at all stages, whether that’s players that have been around the big leagues or Triple-A or some of the players that we’ve acquired in other deals that may be further away. We’re going to continue to build out our processes and our vision in all those spaces but really focus on our ability to impact players and make them really productive players for the Pirates.”

It was a follow-up question by Brown, who delicately danced around directly mentioning the previous regime of Frank Coonelly and Huntington, about allowing outside noise affecting how things are done that gave Graves an opportunity to talk about Cherington’s belief in the collective, soliciting and incorporating different perspectives into his decision-making process while maintaining his vision for the club.

“He’s got kind of a unique balance of being patient and thoughtful but also having a biased reaction,” Graves said. “So when we have kind of adequately thought through everything as a group, we’re going to go. We’re going to commit to ultimately what we’ve decided to do. Outside noise, I think, we’ll not allow that to influence our decision-making.

“That’s unique to Ben and it’s fun to be a part of that.”

It hasn’t been much fun for Pirates fans to watch them trade away All-Stars Starling Marte, Josh Bell and Adam Frazier, Opening Day pitchers Jameson Taillon and Joe Musgrove or even reliable closer Richard Rodriguez. Now comes the interesting part, as Cherington’s patient plan is about to have a biased reaction as the Pirates shift toward playing prospects and newcomers.

1. A different trade: The first indication that the Pirates are shifting toward player development came Saturday, when they selected outfielder Anthony Alford from Triple-A Indianapolis and designated infielder Erik Gonzalez for assignment.

That’s a trade of a different sorts, as the Pirates promoted from within by choosing an outfielder over one of their most versatile players in Gonzalez, who had played first base, shortstop, third base and in the outfield in his three seasons with the Pirates.

Alford’s promotion was two-fold. Starting left fielder Ben Gamel was lost to a hamstring injury, which could lead to an extended stay on the injured list. Alford had a .307/.420/.593 slash line and 14 homers, including three in his past two games.

Graves attributed some of Alford’s success to player development, as Indianapolis hitting coach Jon Nunnally worked with him on stabilizing his lower half to help him cover the strike zone and drive the ball, as well as rebuild his confidence.

So it was gratifying for the Pirates to see Alford go 3 for 4 with two doubles in his return Saturday night. Alford was 2 for 24 (.083) in 11 games to start the season in the majors.

“Obviously the results were different,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “He looks more grounded in the box, and I mean that in a good way. He looks more into his legs. That’s significantly different from when he left here.”

The big question is whether the 27-year-old Alford can reduce his strikeouts. He had 78 in 189 at-bats at Indianapolis (41.3%). Consider: Hunter Owen had the same strikeout rate (86 in 208 at-bats), and there was no clamoring for his return to the Pirates. Alford struck out twice on Sunday.

2. Shelty’s message: That the Pirates are going to be giving young prospects a chance at more playing time over the final 50 games of the season shouldn’t come as a surprise to his team.

Rookie third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes revealed Sunday that Shelton told the team before the trade deadline that changes to the lineup were inevitable.

“Shelty, probably two weeks ago or so — I can’t remember exactly — he told us that these last however many games we have, we’re trying to win every single game (but) don’t be surprised if you’re normally playing all the time that you might not be playing,” Hayes said. “There’s going to be a lot of opportunity for a lot of guys. He just told us to continue to keep playing hard.

“We’re really young. We’re trying to fight every single day. We’re trying to find ways to get better each and every day, try to go out there and win ballgames.”

3. New man at short: The first indication of new players getting opportunities could be at shortstop, where Hoy Park has started the past two games instead of Kevin Newman.

It marked the first time this season that someone other than Newman started in back-to-back games at shortstop this season.

While Newman got off to a great start defensively, going errorless through his first 76 games, he batted .218 while starting in 90 of the first 110 games.

That could be changing.

Park is a natural middle infielder who has played all three outfield positions as well as three games at shortstop since joining the Pirates after being acquired from the New York Yankees in the Clay Holmes trade.

Alford’s arrival could limit Park’s time in the outfield. Shelton has said he wants to see Park on both sides of the bag, indicating that he will get a chance to play second base and shortstop.

“You’re gonna see those guys play,” Shelton said of Alford, Park and rookie infielder Rodolfo Castro. “They’re definitely going to get opportunities.”

4. What about Polanco?: The big question, for Pirates fans at least, always comes back to what the team will do with Gregory Polanco.

Polanco, who turns 30 on Sept. 14, is the team’s highest-paid player at $11.6 million this season but has the lowest batting average (.203) in their starting lineup.

Graves attempted to put a positive spin on Polanco, noting that “he’s had some really nice stretches this year” and “obviously hit right-handed pitching very well.”

Polanco has done almost all of his damage against righties, batting .215/.296/.421 with seven of his eight doubles, both triples and all 11 homers. But since going 2 for 4 with a home run in the 8-5 walk-off win over Milwaukee on Aug. 3, Polanco is 1 for 16 with five strikeouts and no walks.

In fact, Polanco is tied for the team lead in strikeouts with Bryan Reynolds, who has 128 more plate appearances this season and leads the Pirates in batting (.308), slugging (.521), OPS (.923), home runs (19) and RBIs (65).

“To this point, the roster composition, really across the board but in the outfield has been a constant conversation,” Graves said. “Hard to sit here today and say that Gregory is in line to lose at-bats or opportunity, but I will say the overall landscape is a daily conversation.”

5. Swept again: The Pirates are still searching for their first series sweep of the season but they experienced a first on the flip side.

The Pirates have been swept 12 times this season — including a pair of two-game series to St. Louis and one at Kansas City — but the Cincinnati Reds became the first team to sweep a four-game series against them.

The Pirates have been swept by every team in the NL Central, lost 10 consecutive games in being swept successively by the Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers and Washington Nationals (with a loss to the Miami Marlins starting that streak) and have been swept by the two teams with the worst records in the NL, the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks.

That doesn’t bode well for the Pirates, who are on a five-game losing streak entering a six-game homestand. The Pirates are 3-6 against the Cardinals and 4-12 against the Brewers this season.

With 50 games to play, the Pirates are on pace to finish 59-103.

My preseason prediction: 57-105.