Pirates preview: Thin ranks in outfield could become problem

This is the first of a four-part position-by-position preview of the Pirates heading into Friday’s season opener in St. Louis. Thursday: Starting pitchers

When you look at the thin numbers in the Pittsburgh Pirates outfield, you think of former starters and .300 hitters Corey Dickerson and Starling Marte.

And you wonder what might be if they were still on the roster. Both outfielders were traded in the past year for no one who will help the team this season.

It doesn’t matter if they were dealt to ease strain on the payroll or to build for the future. Both are probably true.

The result is a starting outfield (at the moment) consisting of:

• Left fielder Bryan Reynolds, 25, one of the game’s brightest young stars, who was fourth in National League Rookie of the Year voting last year.

• Center fielder Jarrod Dyson, 35, a career .247 hitter with little power but a knack for chasing down balls hit in the gap.

• Right fielder Guillermo Heredia, 29, who hit .225 for the Tampa Bay Rays last season. In four seasons, he has more than twice as many assists (13) as errors (six). Perhaps he will bring a more reliable glove to right field than the one worn by Gregory Polanco, who tested positive last week for covid-19.

But the Pirates need Polanco’s power, and until he is cleared to return, the team remains one serious ankle sprain from disaster.

Shortstop Cole Tucker made a pitch for the fifth outfield spot Monday night when he played center field and right field in Cleveland and made a sliding catch on the warning track of a long fly ball hit by Bradley Zimmer.

Before Monday, Tucker never had played the outfield as a professional and hadn’t been out there since he was “messing around in high school.”

“I was probably 14 or 15, as a kid in sandlot games, but never seriously,” Tucker said.

Also in the mix is Socrates Brito, 27, a five-year veteran who has returned from quarantine after a coronavirus diagnosis. He has 27 hits in his past three seasons consisting of 174 at-bats with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Toronto Blue Jays.

Polanco, 28, might be the key to resurrecting this unit. He was one of the Pirates’ top prospects early in the previous decade, and he had 23 home runs and 81 RBIs in 130 games in 2018 before injuring his shoulder in early September.

Surgery before last season limited him to 42 games before the Pirates wisely shut him down June 17. During spring training in Florida and the early days of summer camp this year, he appeared sufficiently recovered to raise hope he could replace Marte’s 23 home runs and 82 RBIs from last season.

Now, he probably won’t open the season on the active roster, and his absence only will exacerbate the Pirates’ lack of offensive punch. A slow start in a 60-game season might be all that’s necessary to create meaningless games in September.

If that occurs, critics will blame an outfield that didn’t hit well enough.

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