The Pirates have spent most of the second half waiting for a break, and they finally got one.
St. Louis put rookie infielder JJ Wetherholt on the 10-day injured list Sunday with right wrist tendinitis, taking a key young bat out of the Cardinals’ lineup right as September opens. Wetherholt has hit .242 with 17 home runs and 48 RBI in 130 games and has been one of the top names in the NL Rookie of the Year conversation.
For Pittsburgh, the timing matters. The Pirates enter September at 67-71, just one game behind the 68-70 Cardinals after taking two of three at Busch Stadium over the weekend.
They remain six games back of the final NL Wild Card spot, which leaves almost no margin for error. But the path ahead also depends on the teams in front of them slipping, and St.
Louis now looks a lot more exposed.
The Cardinals have dropped seven of their last nine, and losing Wetherholt only adds to the pressure on a club the Pirates need to pass before they can even think seriously about the teams sitting in postseason position.
There’s also a small but important bit of good news on the Pittsburgh side. Konnor Griffin is on the way back.
He started a rehab assignment Sunday with Double-A Altoona and is scheduled to head to Toledo with Triple-A Indianapolis this week. Griffin is eligible to return from the 60-day injured list Friday, and before he got hurt he was giving the Pirates the speed, athleticism and lineup juice they’ve badly lacked during their second-half offensive slide.
Wetherholt’s injury doesn’t magically turn the Pirates into contenders. He had also slowed down recently, going one hit in his final 12 at-bats before landing on the IL, and Pittsburgh still has several teams to chase with only 24 games left. But September races often come down to health, and for once the calendar is starting to tilt a little Pittsburgh’s way.
The Pirates still have to do the heavy lifting themselves. They’ve won four of their last six, Griffin is nearing a return, and one of the teams directly ahead of them just lost an important player for at least 10 days. For a club that has spent months getting punched in the gut by injuries and inconsistency, that counts as a break.
In Other News...
Pirates Drew A Hard Line With Carmen Mlodzinski For A Reason
Ketel Martes unexplained absence for the Diamondbacks put a familiar baseball issue back in the spotlight: what happens when a player is not where the club expects him to be. For the Pirates, it brings back the earlier case of Carmen Mlodzinski, who was sent to the restricted list after refusing to pitch out of the bullpen following his move out of the starting rotation, even though he did at least keep the team informed.
The difference in those situations matters to Pittsburgh, which made a point of drawing a hard line on availability. Mlodzinskis frustration was real, but the Pirates still chose to enforce the standard that a player has to be ready to fill the role the club asks of him, and that stance is part of why the episode resonated beyond one pitchers disappointment. [Read more 🡒]
Pirates September Push Rests On Three Slumping Contributors
With 24 games left, the Pirates are entering September with no room for their margin of error to shrink any further. A postseason push is going to depend not just on the usual core carrying the load, but on a few important contributors finding their form again after a rough stretch.
Bryan Reynolds, Mitch Jones and Spencer Horwitz have all been part of the problem in recent months, with Reynolds and Horwitz slipping at the plate and Jones dealing with pitching issues after surgery. If Pittsburgh is going to make the final month interesting, it needs those familiar names to look more like themselves and give the club a much-needed lift when every game starts to feel like a swing game. [Read more 🡒]
Pirates Just Addressed Two Thin Spots For The Stretch Run
The final month of the regular season is bringing a little roster housekeeping for Pittsburgh, with the Pirates reaching into Triple-A Indianapolis for left-hander Brandon Eisert and bringing in catcher Christian Bethancourt. Bethancourt was added to both the 28-man and 40-man rosters, giving the club some immediate coverage behind the plate while Eisert provides another bullpen arm as the schedule tightens.
Endy Rodrguezs move from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list opened the necessary space, and it also underscored how thin the catching picture has become. For a team trying to navigate September with limited wiggle room, the additions offer practical depth at two spots that can disappear quickly over a long stretch. [Read more 🡒]