Pittsburgh Pirates: 2017 season review and offseason preview
What Went Right
Andrew McCutchen didn’t quite get back to the guy who led the NL in Wins Above Replacement (Fangraphs WAR) over the first seven years of his career (2009 to 2015), but he did reestablish himself as an above-average, near All-Star caliber player. At his peak, Cutch was a .400 OBP/.550 SLG center fielder who won the NL MVP Award in 2013. He also finished in the top five in MVP voting four straight seasons. He wasn’t at that level this year, but he made himself more attractive to other teams should the Pirates decide to trade him as he enters the final year of his contract.
Josh Harrison is another guy who had a bounce-back year, although not to the level of his breakout 2014 season. Harrison struggle to hit for any sort of power in 2015 and 2016 (just four homers each year) but had a career-high 16 long balls in 2017. He was also versatile enough to play 83 games at second base and 49 at third base.
On the pitching side, the Pirates’ rotation stayed healthy enough to have five pitchers start at least 25 games. The only other team to match this was the Arizona Diamondbacks. Only one Pittsburgh starting pitcher had an ERA under 4.00, but at least they were generally healthy.
Gerrit Cole came back from an injury-shortened 2016 season to bump his strikeout rate back near where it was in 2014 and 2015. His ERA was over 4.00 thanks in large part to the 31 home runs he allowed. An optimist would point to his previous history of stifling home runs effectively and see good signs with Cole heading into next season.
Ivan Nova’s first half belongs in the “What Went Right” category. He had a 3.21 ERA in 120.7 innings. Unfortunately, his second half ERA of 5.83 belongs in the “What Went Wrong” category. Trevor Williams was the opposite. He had a 4.80 ERA in the first half and a 3.35 mark in the second half. He was the team’s most reliable starter down the stretch.
In the bullpen, Felipe Rivero emerged as a dominant shutdown reliever. He started the year as the setup guy for Tony Watson, but took over the closer’s role in June and ran with it. He finished the year with 21 saves and a 1.67 ERA in 75.3 innings, with 88 strikeouts.
Along with Rivero, Juan Nicasio had a good year in the pen, right up until the Pirates let him go on waivers at the end of August. It was a strange move. The Phillies claimed Nicasio, then traded him to the Cardinals for minor leaguer Eliezer Alvarez. Pirates GM Neal Huntington later said he didn’t want Nicasio to go to a division rival, but Nicasio ended up with the Cardinals anyway. Huntington also claimed George Kontos off waivers from the Giants. Kontos had a 1.84 ERA (2.61 FIP) in 14.7 innings with the Bucs, but he’s more likely to have an ERA around 4.00 than 3.00 going forward.