New Pirates coach Tarrik Brock to prioritize baserunning

Bad baserunning seemingly has become an epidemic around the major leagues.

Rarely does a game go by without an egregious baserunning error. The lack of acumen players sometimes show can be galling, especially to traditionalists.

However, Tarrik Brock isn’t ready to say baserunning is a lost art. In fact, it is the Pittsburgh Pirates first-base coach’s mission to make running the bases a point of pride with his new team.

Brock, hired Dec. 20, will oversee baserunning and outfield defense in addition to coaching first base.

“Baserunning is basically the character of the team,” Brock said. “When I talk about baserunning, I talk about team baserunning, which means each player has an individual part in it, but it’s part of a team concept. I’m running for you, you’re running for me, we’re running for us sums up the whole thing.”

It often seemed the Pirates did not know where they were running last season, when they had a 69-93 record and finished in last place in the NL Central.

The Pirates ranked 20th among the 30 major league teams in FanGraphs’ baserunning runs metric and 28th in Baseball Info Solution’s baserunning net gain statistic.

Naturally, Brock wants the Pirates to improve in 2020.

“We want to run the bases with the intention of doing it better than everyone else and be the best baserunning organization in baseball,” Brock said in a recent phone interview. “We want to put pressure on the defense by consistently bringing great energy and looking to take extra bases.

“But when we take risks, we want them to be calculated risks and not doing something like running from first to third just because. We want to make the other team earn every out they get.”

The 46-year-old Brock spent the last three seasons as the Los Angeles Dodgers minor league outfield and baserunning coordinator. He also served as a first-base coach in the major leagues for one season each with the then-Florida Marlins (2010), San Diego Padres (2014) and Houston Astros (2016).

Brock played professionally for 13 seasons as an outfielder, his lone major league experience being a 13-game stint with the Chicago Cubs in 2000.

Baserunning is a little trickier to teach than other aspects of baseball because it can be difficult to simulate game situations during practice. And as Brock readily admits, “nobody wakes up in the morning and says ‘hey, I get to run the bases today!’ ”

Like every other team, the Pirates will start baserunning drills during the first full-squad workout in spring training next month in Bradenton, Fla. Brock will make the workouts fun and relatively short.

“It starts at the very beginning of spring training,” he said. “I’m big on how things are introduced, how they are imparted and set up. You get out and get reps, but they need to be mindful reps.”

Brock has never worked with recently hired general manager Ben Cherington or manager Derek Shelton. However, it did not take Brock long to get comfortable with the duo as well as assistant GM Kevan Graves and third-base coach Joey Cora.

“I looked at the interview process as one long conversation because it was easy and smooth,” Brock said. “I was left thinking that I would be crazy to not want to join something special that’s going on in Pittsburgh. I’m very excited about being with the Pirates. The three words I keep using are grateful, overwhelming and humbled.”