Colin Beazley's Pirates chat: 05.29.26
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Colin Beazley
12:00
Hello all and happy Friday. Should be an interesting day at the ballpark -- Derek Shelton's return, Jared Jones' first start back, injury updates and most importantly, Paul Skenes' birthday. Plenty to talk about. Looking forward to answering your questions.
Matthew B
12:01
Do you think Carmen gets traded/asks for a trade?
Colin Beazley
12:05
I'll start with the news from yesterday -- Jared Jones as a starter, Bubba Chandler stays in the rotation, Carmen Mlodzinski to the bullpen. Mlodzinski wasn't happy: “I can honestly say I’m just still communicating with the organization and the people in my corner, whether that’s my family or my agency, about what is next. I really don’t have any comments after that.”

He could ask for a trade -- he wants to be a starter and has performed well enough to be one, so teams would be interested. However, the Pirates need him badly. And as a pre-arbitration player, he doesn't have much leverage.
Michael
12:05
Why won’t the Pirates acknowledge that Bubba is simply not ready for major league pitching? Is it fear of his reaction to being demoted? Anyone can see that continuing to start him is basically an automatic loss so why not send him down and help him work through things?
Colin Beazley
12:07
Simply not ready? He hasn't been good, but it's not like he's been overmatched. The stuff is there, he struck out 11 against the Blue Jays after all. I would have understood if the Pirates had sent him back to Indianapolis to work on a few things, but I wouldn't say he's not ready.
marty
12:07
It's almost June, isn't time to let Ozuna go and have a revolving DH with the guys we have?  Our DH now is hitting under .200.  I think he's been enough opportunities.
Michael
12:07
How long do you think the Pirates are going to wait before cutting Ozuma unless his bat comes around?
Hutch
12:07
Colin, how much longer can the Pirates continue with Marcell Ozuna as their regular DH?
The Seton Hall Pirate
12:07
When, oh when, will the Pirates dump Ozuna?
Colin Beazley
12:12
Figure I might as well put all the Ozuna questions together. The Pirates have started to create opportunities for their younger players by sitting Ozuna a little more, but they're still giving him plenty of starts. However, I do get the sense that there's frustration. Both generalizing and paraphrasing here, but early in the year it was when Ozuna gets going. Seems like a little more of an if now -- though all still understand that, if Ozuna gets going, it would solve a lot of the Pirates' issues (including their struggles against lefties).

With that said, I don't think the Pirates would entirely cut Ozuna. I've seen a lot of value in having him around the clubhouse. But that doesn't mean he would (or should) keep his playing time.
Michael
12:12
if Ozuma is gone does Reynolds become the full time DH?
Colin Beazley
12:13
No, because having a full-time DH limits what you do with the rest of your lineup (as the Pirates knew and have seen with Ozuna). If Ozuna is no longer a starter, it would open up more DH days for Reynolds, Cruz and O'Hearn.
Keith
12:14
They are paying him too much money they will not admit the made a mistake!
Colin Beazley
12:14
Just because you're paying him doesn't mean you have to play him every day.
demosthenes98
12:14
In the current CBA negotiations, the MLBPA has proposed a competitive integrity tax, a sort of reverse competitive balance tax that penalizes teams with low payrolls. If this came to pass, would it finally COERCE Bob Nutting to spend more on payroll? Or would he cling to his [im]moral stance of low payrolls, come what may?
Colin Beazley
12:17
Was curious if we'd get a CBA question. Figured who it would come from.

A "competitive integrity tax" is a very, very clever way of saying "salary floor," which would never happen without a cap. The owners proposed a floor of $171.2m and a cap of $245m in their first offer. I was impressed by the floor, which is higher than I expected, though this will all still be negotiated on.

The owners also proposed heavily revamping revenue sharing, which is why all were comfortable proposing that level of floor.
demosthenes98
12:17
I have another CBA-related question, if you don't mind answering it. MLB has proposed a salary cap for the first time since 1994. If they don't get it, is it possible that MLB owners of limited financial means, competence, and/or moral fiber will be FORCED to sell? (Please note that there are no names in this question.)
Colin Beazley
12:18
I have noted it and respect the restraint, Demosthenes. Forced to sell? No. I am interested in how this all works out, though.
Retire21
12:19
Could Carmen out of the rotation be part of a plan to move him to get a catcher? Hope so.
Colin Beazley
12:21
Couple of Henry Davis questions I'll answer next, but to this one, no. Mlodzinski is most valuable (money and trade wise) as a starting pitcher. Look what the Pirates got for Mike Burrows. If the Pirates were hoping to trade Mlodzinski, they would present him as a starter.

Unfortunately for Mlodzinski, he's most valuable to the Pirates as a reliever. The demotion will hurt his ego, as he wants to and has performed as a starter, and could hurt his paycheck in arbitration next offseason.
BuccoMan
12:21
how much longer are we stuck watching henry davis stink it up, i thought we were past the glove only dead weight when we dumped hayes last year
Seni
12:21
Does Davis head to Indy when Bart returns? If Carmy is willing to go to the pen then Skenes should be able bite the bullet of the personal catcher that is currently batting  .134.
Shoe dog
12:21
Does Joey Bart get DFA when he comes back from his toe injury? Or send Henry Davis to Indy which does not make him better long term. Henry has been hitting the ball better this year with not much to show! Either way our catchers are not putting fright in the opposing pitchers!
Colin Beazley
12:26
Three Henry Davis questions I'll answer together. Count me among the people who assumed that Davis would be better offensively this year. He had to, right? Guess not.

Where there's starting to be skepticism with Ozuna, there's still optimism that Davis will recover. I'm not as optimistic.

I anticipate getting a more concrete timeline with Bart today, but I've heard he's still several weeks away from a return. Who knows where the Pirates will be when that happens. If Endy Rodriguez continues to hit he won't be sent down, and as I've answered in mailbags, I don't see Davis going anywhere midseason as long as Skenes is in the rotation. (And yes, even still after three Skenes losses.) He's still the preferred catcher for the majority of the staff.

So to answer the questions -- who knows where we'll be once the Pirates have three healthy catchers again.
Dr. Karen
12:29
Hi Colin, I was recently watching an extra inning game and would like to know if the announcers get paid extra or are such games just part of their contracts.   Thank you.
Colin Beazley
12:31
I haven't asked, but I'm almost 100% sure announcers aren't paid hourly. They're not celebrating when games go to extras.

Now, some of the press box attendants/MLB data operations folks are thrilled when the games go to extras. But us media folk get no benefits from free baseball.
Michael
12:32
Skenes is looking like he’s running out of gas. Do you think that is the case and is the WBC partly to blame?
Colin Beazley
12:33
Did we watch the same game last night? Paul Skenes struck out seven of the first eight batters. The Cubs didn't have a single ball hit over 93 against him. He was really, really good.

Slumps happen. You could call three consecutive losses (two bad starts for his standards and last night) one. But I'm not worried at all about Skenes.
Breakout season or same old stuff?
12:34
Talent is talent. You can’t get blood from a stone… I get it. Is it time for a change within the pitching coach group? The blame may not lie squarely with coaches, but something has to give, right? Or do we just stand pat while our bullpen loses way too many games for us?
Colin Beazley
12:37
There's a new pitching coach this year. Bill Murphy isn't the problem. The pitching coach isn't the one walking batters or allowing hits (and the manager isn't, either). At a certain point, it's on the players to execute (and on management to assemble a group that can).

That doesn't mean this group can't or that they were destined to fail. But a collective slump isn't on the pitching coach.
Michael
12:37
Any chance that Lowe is extended? How much would you think they would need to pay him to do so?
Colin Beazley
12:42
Speculation, not source: My guess is Lowe would want to test free agency. He's never had a chance at free agency before after signing an extension with the Rays early in his career. He likes being settled, but he'll also have the chance to pave his own path for the first time.

I'd guess he'll be a $15-20 million a year player, signing for roughly three years. And after watching him play 60 games, I can say (health willing) he'll be worth every penny for whatever team signs him.
Lenny
12:43
Hey Colin, any trade rumors you’re hearing that may have a chance to become reality?
Colin Beazley
12:43
Hey Lenny. Nothing to share. It's my job to report what I hear, so I promise I will let you all know if I hear something good.
Shoe dog
12:44
Lawrence needs to go, there are reasons why is has been DFA in the past. He is not even good in mop up roles.
Colin Beazley
12:47
But the potential! There are plenty of teams that would love to see what they can do with Lawrence. The Pirates haven't been able to figure it out.

The Pirates could really, really use Lawrence at his best, a right-hander with eighth inning potential and strikeout stuff. But after the first 50+ games, its hard to see it happening.
MUNKEEFIST
12:47
Has their been any talk about getting Endy more playing time even if it means taking a game or two at DH? I would think the Pirates would want to get a really good look at him while Bart is out to see if he could be the future of the position. Davis has to run out of rope eventually if he continues to nose dive right?
Colin Beazley
12:49
A lot of pitchers are more comfortable with Davis, which makes sense considering Endy has been injured or in Triple-A. The Pirates have a lot of players competing for limited reps at DH, especially as they continue to give opportunities to Ozuna.
TooTall21
12:50
Hey Colin, a Konner Griffin question. Seems to me that his biggest area for improvement right now is at shortstop. I’ve seen too many occasions where he either backhands a ball when he should have fielded it in front of him, taken too many steps/too much time before throwing to first, or as we’ve all seen, just flubbed too many routine grounders. These flaws all seemed very fixable with the right coaching. Have you seen yourself, or heard anything from the team, about Griffin needing to clean up these fielding shortcomings?
Colin Beazley
12:51
Hey TooTall. Konnor Griffin will be fine defensively. I'm not worried about it and haven't heard anything to suggest the Pirates are, either.
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