Pittsburgh Pirates: Team preview and prediction for 2020 season

Pittsburgh Pirates: 2020 Preview, Prediction

But it’s not all doom and gloom for the Bucs. In fact, I’d say they’re pretty much out of the woods on this and should be able to start the process of turning things around very soon.

Like I said before, this team has a handful of really good young players, but they’ve also cleaned up their management by replacing Clint Hurdle as well as cleaning house in the front office. New manager. New GM. New president. Good job to the Bucs for finally making those moves after everything fell apart last year.

As for the product that will be on the field, Derek Shelton is a former big-league catcher who will be taking the reigns as the manager for the foreseeable future. With a catcher’s perspective in the dugout calling the shots, I think we’re going to see the pitching staff start to turn things around.

Chris Archer has been terrible since coming over from Tampa, but make no mistake about it, he is still as formidable as they come and continues to possess number one quality stuff. He may be starting 2020 as the second or third in the Pirate rotation, but by years end, don’t be surprised to see him back at the top of the rotation racking up his usual numbers he had in Tampa.

Joe Musgrove is in a similar boat in that I think he’ll be able to take another step in his progression now that his environment will be cleaned up. Musgrove came out strong in 2019, but gradually faded back into the pack and wound up with an ERA of 4.44 by the end of the season. With another year under his belt, I think we’re going to see him finish 2020 strong.

Mitch Keller is another guy I’m excited about. Keller is the Bucs’ top pitching prospect who came up in 2019 and made 11 starts in which he didn’t exactly set the world on fire, but the fact that he’s in a similar boat as everyone else in the pitching staff with a fresh start, I think we’ll see him slowly get into a groove as the season progresses.