The Pittsburgh Pirates are in the middle of a catastrophic late season collapse that has seen them drop to the bottom of the National League Central and 5.5 games back from a Wild Card spot, with five other teams ahead of them. The question now of course is does management need to be held accountable if the Pirates once again miss the postseason?
We asked yinz to vote on this matter and whether or not General Manager Ben Cherington will be fired if the Pirates miss the playoffs for the 11th straight season. The results are officially in, and 43% of the voters believe that Cherington will be fired if the Pirates miss the postseason.
The facts surrounding Cherington’s time in Pittsburgh are not pretty. As the GM of the Pirates Cherington has a record of 425-569 over the course of seven seasons. His lowly .427 winning percentage has resulted in zero playoff berths, zero division titles and zero winning records. He’s also been at the helm for back to back 100 loss seasons.
Despite his lack of success, most that voted believe Cherington will not receive his pink slip from the Pirates if they miss the postseason. In defense of Cherington, the team did go out and make big moves this past offseason. They signed Ryan O’Hearn to a multi-year contract, while also trading for Brandon Lowe, Jake Mangum and Mason Montgomery. Lowe currently leads all second basemen in home runs this season, and has the most homers by a Pirates’ second baseman in a single season. Jake Mangum was named the Pirates’ Heart and Hustle award winner, while Ryan O’Hearn was enjoying great success with the team before being put on the injured list with a quad injury. Needless to say that those moves have largely paid off in the Pirates’ favor.
Those were great signings, but Cherington also signed Marcell Ozuna to be the team’s designated hitter. Ozuna’s time in Pittsburgh saw him serve more as the designated strikeout before he was finally released after the trade deadline. Cherington also parted ways with pitching coach Oscar Marin. What has resulted is a rotation with all the talent in the world and nothing to show for it. It’s a group that has completely fell apart this season under Bill Murphy and is not performing nearly as good as they should be. The bullpen has also been a disaster all season, and despite the moves that were made at the deadline the Pirates are further from a postseason berth than they have been all season.
The Pirates sit at +1800 odds to make the postseason according to FanDuel Sportsbook, with -10000 odds to miss the playoffs. Unfortunately those odds make it more or less a lock for the Buccos to be sitting at home in October.
For ownership there is some familiarity in having Cherington as their GM. Granted they have not exactly given Cherington the money he needs to make moves up until this season, but with a collapse this bad it might be time for the Pirates to move on and go in another direction.