Kevin Gorman’s Take 5: LHP Joey Wentz wins final spot as Pirates finalize Opening Day roster
Joey Wentz took shots to his left wrist and his right shin on a couple of comebackers in the span of three pitches in his final outing for the Detroit Tigers but didn’t experience any real pain until the next day.
That’s when Detroit designated the left-handed reliever for assignment, ending Wentz’s six-year run with the Tigers to make room on their 40-man and active rosters for right-handed pitcher Casey Mize.
Wentz was hopeful that a change of scenery could help, and got a second chance when the Pittsburgh Pirates claimed him off waivers Sept. 3 and activated him two days later.
“Obviously, you never know what’s going to happen,” Wentz told TribLive earlier this month in Bradenton, Fla. “Once I got the call from the Pirates, I was excited. I knew the season was over in about four weeks, so I was really trying to put my head down and work hard and show myself that I’m a good pitcher and I can get guys out. I got into a new situation where I didn’t know anybody and nobody knew me. I was the new kid on the block.”
After a solid September and a strong spring training, Wentz won one of the final spots on the Pirates’ Opening Day roster. The 6-foot-5, 220-pounder is soft-spoken and unassuming, but showed a presence on the mound by recording nine strikeouts against one walk in four innings over his final three Grapefruit League appearances.
Wentz made a solid first impression on the Pirates, going 1-0 with a 1.50 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 13 strikeouts against six walks in 12 innings over eight appearances last September. But he had a 5.37 ERA with the Tigers, as opponents batted .316 against his four-seam fastball and his 10.9% walk rate ranked in the 16th percentile, per Statcast.
Wentz recorded 12 strikeouts and allowed only three walks this spring. That gave the Pirates incentive to keep four lefties in the bullpen, as Wentz is joined by Ryan Borucki, Caleb Ferguson and Tim Mayza.
That Wentz started 19 games for the Tigers shouldn’t be ignored, even if his 1-11 record, 7.73 ERA, 1.88 WHIP and .321 batting average against were forgettable. His experience as a starter and his ability to pitch multiple innings could allow the Pirates to use him as an opener or pitch piggyback in a bullpen game, if they decide to use a six-man rotation now that Jared Jones will start the season on the injured list.
“I try not to think about what I need to do to make the team or not make the team,” Wentz said. “In my two springs past, I was in pretty similar spots, where there’s players that feel like they should make the team and didn’t. I think that’s good. I think that’s healthy. I think it will benefit the team in the regular season. We brought in some veteran players, guys who have been in the World Series, guys who’ve won the World Series, been around Hall of Fame players. I think the competition is good.”
It certainly brought out the best in Wentz.
Here’s five storylines to watch this season:
1. Supporting Skenes: As much as Andrew McCutchen enjoyed watching Opening Day starter Paul Skenes shove as a rookie last season, the Pirates icon saw danger in his dominance.
“You know you’re going to have a chance to win,” McCutchen said. “The thing about it as an offense is you don’t treat it like, ‘All right, he’s going to go seven and he’s going to shut everybody out.’ Because then you relax as an offense and you don’t do what you’re supposed to do.”
The Pirates averaged a healthy 5.3 runs in Skenes’ 23 starts last season, scoring 45 runs in his first five alone. They had double digits five times and scored nine runs twice.
Between the run support and Skenes’ 1.96 ERA, it was a recipe for winning baseball. No wonder the Pirates went 15-8 when Skenes pitched, an incredible .652 winning percentage.
But there also was a downside to his dominance.
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The Pirates scored two or fewer runs eight times, going 3-5 in those starts. In his six starts where they scored one run or fewer, the Pirates went 1-5. They lost four games by one run and another by two.
“We saw part of that start to happen with him, as he got into 10, 11 starts. The game started to be like, he’s carrying the load but the offense isn’t scoring,” McCutchen said. “It’s no different than Jacob deGrom back in the day. When he had a sub-2.00 and his win-loss record was not great. He had no run support.”
McCutchen was referring to deGrom going 10-9 with a 1.70 ERA and 0.91 WHIP in winning the 2018 NL Cy Young with the New York Mets, who went 14-18 in his 32 starts.
“If we operate as an offense that we do our thing so that he can go out there and really do his thing,” McCutchen said. “It’s one thing watching him pitch when it’s a 0-0 ballgame; it’s another thing to watch him pitch when we’ve got a lot of runs on the board. Then you really get to watch him pitch. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do that for him more times than not.”
2. Cutch chase: As McCutchen returns for his 17th season — and 12th with the Pirates — so does his climb in the club’s record books.
Pirates Hall of Fame director and team historian Jim Trdinich, who keeps track of McCutchen’s milestones, noted four to watch early this season that will put him in the company of the game’s greats.
McCutchen is one run shy of tying Hall of Famer Arky Vaughan (936) for 10th place in runs scored and five home runs shy of tying Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente (235) for third place among the franchise’s all-time leaders.
The 38-year-old designated hitter also needs two extra base hits to reach 800 in his career, which would join Freddie Freeman (882) and Paul Goldschmidt (831) as the only active players to reach that mark. McCutchen also needs five RBIs for 1,100, where he would join Freeman, Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado and Giancarlo Stanton among the only active players.
If that sounds like McCutchen is deserving of Hall of Fame consideration, consider the comparison of his career numbers to those of Dave Parker, who was elected by the Era Committee and will be inducted into Cooperstown in July.
In 19 seasons, Parker had 2,712 hits, including 526 doubles, 75 triples, 339 home runs, 1,493 RBIs and 154 stolen bases. Parker finished with a .290/.339/.471 career slash line.
In 16 seasons, McCutchen has 2,152 hits, including 429 doubles, 50 triples, 319 homers, 1,095 RBIs and 219 stolen bases. McCutchen has a .273/.367/.462 career slash line.
Cutch has one notable edge, with a 48.9 WAR to Parker’s 40.1.
3. Hubba Bubba: The Pirates already had assigned top pitching prospect Bubba Chandler to minor league camp before Jones was shut down after experiencing soreness in his right elbow.
For as dominant as Chandler looked with four strikeouts in a pair of perfect innings against the Philadelphia Phillies in the Spring Breakout, he posted a 19.29 ERA, 3.00 WHIP and .375 batting average against with twice as many walks (four) as strikeouts (two) in 2 1/3 innings over three Grapefruit League appearances.
But here’s some statistics to chew on:
• Skenes was 0-0 with a 0.99 ERA, 0.92 WHIP and 45 strikeouts against eight walks in seven starts at Triple-A Indianapolis before his May 11 debut with the Pirates last year.
• Chandler was 4-0 with a 1.83 ERA, 1.04 WHIP and 54 strikeouts against 15 walks in seven starts at Indy last year.
If the Pirates were to call up Chandler on the same date this year as Skenes was promoted last year, the Georgia native would make his major league debut against the Atlanta Braves at PNC Park.
4. On the bump: The Pirates announced their probable starters for the season opening series at the Miami Marlins, with Skenes facing Sandy Alcantara on Thursday, Mitch Keller against Connor Gillispie on Friday, Bailey Falter against Valente Bellozo on Saturday and Andrew Heaney against Max Meyer on Sunday.
That leaves Carmen Mlodzinski to start the series opener against the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday. If they stick to a normal rotation, that would set up Skenes to start Tuesday and Keller on Wednesday afternoon and Falter in the home opener against the New York Yankees on Friday at PNC Park.
Then again, the Pirates could use an opener and have a bullpen game against the Rays, if they want to try a six-man rotation early because of the scheduled day off next Thursday.
That would bump Skenes to the day game and give Keller six days of rest to start the home opener against the Yankees. It will be interesting to see whether Derek Shelton offered that as a consolation prize to Keller, a 2023 All-Star who was the Opening Day starter in Miami last year.
Jones started the home opener against the Baltimore Orioles last April and struck out seven while allowing six hits, including two solo home runs, without a walk for a quality start in the 5-2 loss.
5. Prediction: Shelton’s proclamation that “it’s time to win” was met with skepticism from Pirates fans, who haven’t experienced a winning season since 2018 or a postseason since 2015.
There are some parallels to the last playoff team that offer promise. The Pirates followed a 105-loss season in 2010 by going 151-173 over the next two seasons (72-90 in 2011 and 79-83 in 2012) before ending a 20-year losing streak and clinching a wild-card berth with a 94-win campaign in 2013.
The Pirates followed a 100-loss season in 2022 by going 152-172 over the next two seasons (76-86 in both 2023 and ’24). And McCutchen is on both teams, to boot. Can a full season with Skenes, a more productive year at the plate by Oneil Cruz and a healthy Ke’Bryan Hayes be the difference in an NL Central race that is considered wide open?
It says here that the Pirates will finish 82-80, good enough to snap the six-year losing streak but not quite enough to qualify for the postseason. That’s also what the Pirates were projected to finish in 2013.
Kevin Gorman is a TribLive reporter covering the Pirates. A Baldwin native and Penn State graduate, he joined the Trib in 1999 and has covered high school sports, Pitt football and basketball and was a sports columnist for 10 years. He can be reached at kgorman@triblive.com.
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