With no days off, Pirates have many questions to answer in their final 19-game stretch

If the Pittsburgh Pirates need a theme for the remainder of their season, it should be this: No days off.

The Pirates (14-27) start the final stretch of the shortened season Friday night at Kansas City. They will play 19 games in 17 days, including doubleheaders at Cincinnati and against St. Louis, and do so without any scheduled days off.

Not only will it be a grind to end this 60-game campaign, but Pirates manager Derek Shelton indicated that it should help answer some questions on what the lineup might look like next season.

“I don’t think people are necessarily winning or losing jobs, but we are definitely evaluating what we’re doing and how we’re going about it,” Shelton said. “With those assessments, we’re also isolating or identifying how we can get better. But in terms of actually saying, ‘At the end of this, this guy has won a job or this guy has lost a job,’ we’re not doing that.”

Lineup changes, however, already are underway.

Three Opening Day starters are no longer on the major-league roster, as center fielder Jarrod Dyson was traded to the White Sox, right fielder Guillermo Heredia designated for assignment and claimed on waivers by the New York Mets and designated hitter Jose Osuna optioned to the alternate training site in Altoona.

First, the Pirates have to figure out their infield. Colin Moran started the season at third base but hasn’t played there since Aug. 7 and is rotating with Josh Bell at first base and DH. With the way rookie Ke’Bryan Hayes plays the position, it looks like his for keeps.

Kevin Newman started the season at shortstop but Erik Gonzalez has played there in 14 of the past 20 games. With his slick defense and surprising bat — batting .279 with a team-best 10 doubles and 19 RBIs — Gonzalez could seize the starting job at short.

Adam Frazier started the season at second base but Newman has played there eight of the past 15 games, with Frazier playing in left field in six of the past 13 games. Both are still starters but neither one has a set position like they did at the start of the season.

Next is solving center field. At best, Dyson was going to be a one-year stopgap. The Pirates switched Cole Tucker from shortstop to center in training camp, and he’s made 16 starts there and seven in right. Shelton experimented with Reynolds in center, where he played at Vanderbilt, the past two games and he proved that he can make diving catches and throw runners out at the plate from either position.

Perhaps the biggest question is what the Pirates will do about Bell and Gregory Polanco, their highest-paid position players.

A season after slashing .277/.367/.569 with 37 home runs and 116 RBIs, Bell is scuffling with a .209/.285/.317 slash line, four home runs, 14 RBIs. His defense hasn’t improved much, his throwing motion has gone from three-quarters to sidearm to submarine and the Pirates have to decide whether to keep him at first or use him at DH.

After testing positive for covid-19, Polanco has struggled to make contact. He’s batting .150, with a team-high 48 strikeouts. When he does hit the ball, he hits it hard — with an average exit velocity of 92.5 mph that is tied for 16th in MLB. Polanco’s five homers and 16 RBIs rank second on the Pirates.

“It’s been hard, for sure,” Polanco said. “You know me. I’m a worker. I won’t give up. I’m going to keep my head up. I’m going to keep working every day and keep swinging.”

Despite drawing a team-best 16 walks, Reynolds is batting only .181 after leading the team with a .314 batting average last year.

Shelton plans to keep those core players in the lineup in the hope that they will find something positive that they can carry into the offseason and next year.

“I think we definitely need to do that,” Shelton said. “We need to have, like we’ve talked about teaching points, we need to take steps forward and we need to use these 19 games to get better so I think it’s very important.”

The pitching staff is another story. The Pirates lost two starters, Joe Musgrove and Mitch Keller, and five relievers to injuries. Nick Burdi, Michael Feliz and Clay Holmes all suffered season-ending injuries while Kyle Crick and Yacksel Rios spent time on the injured list.

Closer Keone Kela has missed the majority of the season, first with a positive covid-19 test and then with right forearm inflammation, and will be a free agent at season’s end.

The Pirates are getting a long look at both veterans like Trevor Williams (1-6, 5.80) and rookies like JT Brubaker (5.34), while being careful with the pitch counts for Musgrove, Steven Brault, Chad Kuhl and, when he returns from the IL, Keller that should help set the starting rotation.

The bullpen has been a pleasant surprise, as righties Geoff Hartlieb and Chris Stratton and lefties Sam Howard and Nik Turley have taken advantage of their opportunities. Richard Rodriguez remains their best high-leverage reliever, but could be challenged for the closer role if Blake Cederlind is called up from Altoona.

“It’s a perfect chance for us with no pressure to go out there and perform and put to work some of these things that we’re working on every day before games,” Musgrove said. “Although it might seem to some people like this season’s come and gone, we can really make a lot of ground up in these last (19) games and prove ourselves for next year.”