Tim Benz: If Ben Cherington truly wants to help the Pirates 'stay in it,' there's an obvious way to make that happen

The last two times Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Ben Cherington has spoken publicly, he’s had a slightly different message about his plans when it comes to potentially adding help to the 2024 roster.

Back on June 8, Cherington said, “We want to do everything we can to put our team in a position to stay in it, get better, keep winning more games.”

Cherington did not provide his definition of “in it.” However, a check of the standings coming out of their off day Thursday puts the Pirates half a game back of the last wild-card spot.

So, they are no doubt “in it” to qualify for the playoffs. To win a pennant or the World Series? Probably not. There’s some nuance to “in it,” as there was between that quote from Cherington and one he uttered about the team’s struggling offense a week later on his 93.7 The Fan radio show.

“It’s an area of the team — if we can hang in there, which I expect we will — that we’d like to add to. We’d like to be able to find a hitter or more that can come in and provide an upgrade,” Cherington said.

In other words, what Cherington is saying to the team is: “Prove that you are worthy of me becoming a buyer before the deadline.” To me, that is different from his first quote: “We want to do everything we can to put our team in a position to stay in it.”

I prefer the first quote, regardless of what he really thinks “in it” means.

Be proactive. Help the Major League roster now. Maybe they’d be “in it” to contend with Milwaukee atop an otherwise weak National League Central Division instead of scrounging with the other four teams in it (and the rest of the NL for that matter) for two of the three wild-card spots.

The Atlanta Braves are in solid position for one of them, even without Ronald Acuña Jr. The other two appear up for grabs for just about anyone in the NL aside from the Colorado Rockies or Miami Marlins. Starting play this weekend, nine teams (including the Pirates) are jumbled within 1.5 games of each other for those two slots.

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For as easy — and appropriate — as it is to take shots at Pirates ownership for being unwilling to spend, one narrative that is incorrect is to suggest that Bob Nutting won’t green light his GM to acquire talent before the deadline when the franchise is contending.

• Between July 21, 2011 and the trade deadline of July 31, with the team five games above .500 and at least sniffing its first winning season since 1992, Neal Huntington signed reliever Jason Grilli as a free agent and traded for Derrek Lee and Ryan Ludwick. Lee and Ludwick were both right-handed bats. The Pirates needed some at the time. They were perceived to be two of the best ones available at the deadline.

Ludwick didn’t do much of anything while he was here. Lee hit .337 as a Pirate but missed a month after getting hit by a pitch on the wrist, and Grilli went on to be a vital cog in the team’s bullpen through 2014.

It didn’t work out for a 2011 team that finished 72-90, but at least Huntington tried.

• Similarly, in 2012, at 54-44 on July 24, Huntington started making a series of moves by acquiring pitcher Wandy Rodriguez from the Houston Astros. He then added Travis Snider and Gaby Sanchez.

Rodriguez proved decent at 5-4 with a 3.72 ERA and put up similar numbers in 2013 before getting injured in June. Sanchez and Snider were role players.

Again, the team faded and went 79-83, but adding Rodriguez was an attempt at giving the rotation the boost it needed.

• The next year, the Pirates eventually added Marlon Byrd and Justin Morneau just before the waiver trade deadline at the end of August in advance of securing the franchise’s first playoff berth since 1992.

• In 2015, JA Happ was seen as a modest acquisition to buffer an injury to A.J. Burnett, with bigger-name pitchers apparently available before the July 31 deadline. But he was excellent upon arriving in Pittsburgh, going 7-2 with a 1.85 ERA and helping the Bucs to a 98-win season and third-straight playoff appearance.

• In 2018, with a less-threatening but still contending 56-52 edition of the team, Huntington pulled off the ill-fated but well-intended Chris Archer and Keone Kela trades. Archer was a bust, and it took Tyler Glasnow, Austin Meadows and Shane Baz to get him, but it was at least another example of the Pirates’ front office being willing to take on salary with the team alive at the end of July.

Given the mediocrity in the NL, this year’s team could also be alive at the end of July. Cherington must get the roster significant offensive help it desperately needs in mid-June so things can stay that way.

Do it now. This year’s lineup certainly needs the help earlier on the calendar than those clubs did a decade ago. Instead of the team indicating to Cherington that it is worthy of additions, Cherington should already deem this team worthy of help simply because help is needed.

It would be a shame to waste what has already become a top-5 starting pitching rotation in the NL, along with a bullpen that has now suddenly taken on the shape it was constructed to have at the start of the season.

Let’s see what Cherington’s definition of “doing everything we can” really is. And let’s see when on the calendar he is willing to define it with action.

I’m not holding my breath.