Pirates GM Ben Cherington finds 'no silver lining' in club's freefall, looks toward future

Things looked bleak for the Pittsburgh Pirates amid an eight-game losing streak after being swept in back-to-back series against NL Central foes, so a visit from the first-place Milwaukee Brewers to PNC Park didn’t do much to improve their outlook.

If general manager Ben Cherington was looking for a positive spin, he simply could flip the standings to see the Pirates (41-74) are positioned for the fourth pick in the 2021 MLB Draft. Going into Friday’s game against the Brewers at PNC Park, they trailed only Arizona (36-80), Baltimore (38-75) and Texas (40-75).

“I think there’s a bright side of things, but it has nothing to do with next year’s draft,” Cherington said Friday afternoon on a video conference call. “I think the bright side of things for us is the amount of young talent we’ve been able to bring into the organization over the last calendar year or so, the growth that some of those players have shown, continued progress, we feel, in how we’re approaching our work, whether it’s in evaluation or acquisition or development, and at the major-league level. So encouraged by a lot that’s going on.”

The Pirates have overhauled their farm system through trades, international signings and the amateur draft. Though Cherington’s trades that sent All-Star second baseman Adam Frazier to San Diego, left-handed starter Tyler Anderson to Seattle, relievers Clay Holmes to the New York Yankees and Austin Davis to Boston and closer Richard Rodriguez to Atlanta returned 11 prospects, it came at the expense of the decimating the major-league starting lineup and pitching staff.

Since the MLB trade deadline passed at 4 p.m. on July 30, the Pirates have lost 10 of 13 games to fall 28 ½ games behind the Brewers in the NL Central standings. The Pirates have been outscored 78-39 in the 13 games since the trade deadline passed, including 50-18 amid the eight-game losing streak.

“Very clear that we want to win, and if we’re losing at the major-league level, there’s no silver lining to that,” Cherington said. “What it means is that we just need to keep learning from that and how do we get better than those outcomes are better in the future.”

The Pirates are hardly alone. Since trading off All-Stars Javier Baez, Kris Bryant, Craig Kimbrel and Anthony Rizzo, the Chicago Cubs (52-65) were 2-11 and also lost eight consecutive games going into Friday. The Orioles also are on an eight-game losing streak.

The losing is wearing on the Pirates, though first baseman Colin Moran said many are concentrating on making the most of opportunities for regular playing time over the final six-plus weeks of the season.

“You try not to look up the record and just treat every day the same: work hard, play a good nine innings, play a good game and try to win the ballgame,” Moran said. “We’ve got a lot of guys working real hard and trying to put some wins together.”

Cherington called it “more challenging” for teams that were sellers at the trade deadline to remain competitive over the final stretch of the season, given they are subtracting talent while their opponents are adding.

“Where our mindset needs to be is we need to prepare every day to win,” Cherington said. “We need to go into games expecting to win. We need to execute in games with an eye on winning. When the game’s over, and we haven’t scored as many runs as the other team then put our energy into learning from that and bringing it the next day and doing it again. I’m not suggesting that’s easy, but it’s not supposed to be easy. We’ve got to have faith in the group in the clubhouse to do that.”