The Pirates don’t have much room for error in September, and that puts a spotlight on three players who have to find their game fast.
With only 24 games left, Pittsburgh needs a strong month to stay in the postseason chase. That means the club can’t afford more stretches like the ones it got from Bryan Reynolds, Carmen Mlodzinski and Spencer Horwitz in August.
Reynolds has been in a real slump since the All-Star break. Over 41 games, he hit .217/.296/.298 with an OPS of .594, piling up 35 hits in 161 at-bats, one home run, seven RBI and 17 walks against 50 strikeouts. Among qualified hitters in the second half, he’s been near the bottom in several key categories, including slugging percentage, OPS and batting average.
The biggest issue is the missing pop. Reynolds hit 14 home runs before the break, then managed just one after it. His run production fell off just as sharply, with seven RBI after he had driven in 59 earlier in the season.
August was his roughest month yet, as he batted .238/.322/.295 with an OPS of .617, six doubles, five RBI and 12 walks to 28 strikeouts. And historically, September has been the toughest month of his career. The Pirates need that trend to flip in a hurry.
Mlodzinski’s August was just as ugly. After the Pirates expected him to build on an excellent July, he went 0-4 in five starts and posted a 7.40 ERA across 20.2 innings. He allowed 17 earned runs, struck out 25 and walked 12, while opponents hit .318 against him and he finished with a 1.94 WHIP.
Those numbers put him near the bottom of the league among pitchers who logged at least 20 innings last month. His worst outing came in an 11-1 loss to the New York Mets at PNC Park on Aug. 9, when he gave up eight runs in three innings. Even in his best start, against the Boston Red Sox at PNC Park on Aug. 15, he still only made it five innings once all month.
Mlodzinski is just three months removed from internal brace surgery, so some unevenness is part of the picture. Still, the Pirates need more than just his attitude and energy on the mound. They need his fastball, slider and changeup working together so he can get hitters out faster.
Horwitz is the third name on the list, and his August was hard to ignore. After returning at the beginning of the month from a left hamstring injury and a concussion that sidelined him for more than five weeks, he hit .141/.221/.154 in 21 games. He had only 11 hits in 78 at-bats, with a double as his lone extra-base hit, plus five RBI and six walks against 18 strikeouts.
That made him one of the least productive hitters in baseball last month. He finished with the second-worst slugging percentage and OPS, along with the third-worst batting average and on-base percentage among qualified MLB hitters in August.
It’s a sharp drop from what he was doing before the injury, when he hit .280/.386/.455 with an OPS of .841, along with 11 doubles, 10 home runs, 33 RBI and 40 walks to 40 strikeouts. Horwitz was an important piece of one of the league’s best offenses, and the Pirates moved him around the batting order because he could deliver from different spots.
Now Pittsburgh needs that version of Horwitz back, and September gives him the chance to put his season back on track.
In Other News...
Pirates Just Got A New Opening In The NL Central Race
The Cardinals September push took a hit when they placed rookie infielder JJ Wetherholt on the 10-day injured list with right wrist tendinitis, a setback for a player who had become one of their more important contributors and a legitimate NL Rookie of the Year candidate. For Pittsburgh, the timing matters because the Pirates are still hanging around in the NL Central race and have spent enough of the season looking up at St. Louis that any disruption in the division picture is worth noticing.
It also comes at a moment when the Pirates could be getting a boost of their own, with Konnor Griffin close to returning from injury. If that happens, Pittsburgh would not only be watching a rival lose a key piece, but potentially adding help at the same time, which is exactly the kind of late-season swing that can keep a clubs playoff hopes alive a little longer. [Read more 🡒]
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 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 🡒]