The Pirates appear ready to roll it back next season under the leadership of President Frank Coonelly, general manager Neal Huntington and manager Clint Hurdle, per Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Pitching Coach Ray Searage is keeping his feet on the ground for now as he awaits ownership’s decision about his own fate. It stands to reason that Searage could be the fall guy if Hurdle returns after a tough season on the hill (and off) for Pirates pitchers.
Ex-Pirates pitchers, meanwhile, have excelled this season, as Tyler Glasnow, Charlie Morton, and Gerrit Cole can be counted among the league’s best. One could see their success as a testament to the tutelage received in Pittsburgh, as Searage suggests, though if ownership deems the above trio’s development as linked in any way to their departures from Steel City, a change in the coaching staff would seem appropriate.
The Pirates weathered criticism and fisticuffs throughout the year for a strategy of pitching up and in that didn’t always meld with a staff that struggled with location (3.63 walks per nine is the 23rd best mark in the league). And while it’s unnecessary to rehash here some of the obvious off-field complications for Pirates pitchers, the team’s 5.22 ERA is certainly apropos to a conversation about Searage’s future. As of today, they are tied for 26th in the league by ERA – easily the worst of the Clint Hurdle era. A fielding independent mark of 4.77 provides a slightly sunnier look on the Pirates’ year, though even that glass-half-full approach puts them in the bottom half of the MLB.
There was progress made on the offensive end, though Searage likely can’t claim much credit for Steven Brault’s “breakout” season at the plate The Pirates plan on converting their swingman into a two-way player a la Michael Lorenzen of the Reds. With a .341/.357/.439 mark across 49 plate appearances, you can almost argue Brault is a more polished offensive player than on the hill, where he is 4-6 with a 5.16 ERA/4.77 FIP across 19 starts and 6 relief appearances. The plan for now is for Brault to return to the rotation next season, though how exactly that would mesh with a role as a part-time outfielder is still in the storyboard phase of development.
Just rebuild already…
The GM moves their best pitchers and it’s Ray Searage’s fault the pitching staff as a whole sees their production totally regress. Let’s fire Searage. Got it.
Coldbeer you do not get it. The GM trades the pitchers who then all flourish when away from Ray Searage. Get it now?
Because pitchers never excel in new environments right?!
Trades for 2 stud prospects for Archer who then has the worst seasons of his career. Does not trade stud closer (Vazquez) while not in contention for an exorbitant asking price – only to see his stock bottom out from off-the-field allegations. 1 of those is tough for a small market team. 2 of those can set a squad back years.
Searage, that’s on you — smh
The Pirates have to recognize that it’s 100% possible that if Glasnow was healthy, him, Cole and Morton could have finished 1,2,3 in Cy Young voting this season. If that isn’t enough of an indicator that we need to re-evaluate Ray Searage as the team’s pitching coach, I don’t know what is. I don’t want to watch the Pirates trade away another young arm because he struggled with us, only to do amazing elsewhere.
So the Pirates GM who makes horrible trades gets Searage canned? Come on.
They need a new GM too. He did make those horrible trades. But that doesn’t mean Searage isn’t at fault. When 3 former players from your organization struggle with you, only to be TOR pitchers elsewhere, they need to strongly consider Ray Searage’s ability.
One could argue that, had these pitchers stayed in PT, with the results they had under Searage, then people would’ve asked why they weren’t traded.
The Glasnow trade, for example, looks horrible mostly because Glasnow has a 1.78 ERA in his second year with TB. Without that improvement, it would’ve merely been considered a bad trade.
Plus, part of the reason the trades were horrible is because of the lack of performance those pitchers had in their last season in Pittsburgh.
Gerrit Cole 2017: 4.26 ERA, 4.08 FIP, 1.4 HR/9
Charlie Morton 2015: 4.81 ERA, 4.19 FIP, 1.380 WHIP
Tyler Glasnow 2018 (with Pirates): 4.34 ERA, 3.62 FIP, 1.446 WHIP, 5.5 BB/9.
ERA+
Cole PT 112
Cole HO 163
Morton PT 86
Morton Oth 118 (?)
Glasnow PT 71
Glasnow TB 146
Archer TB 107
Archer PT 85
There could be other factors accounting for the discrepancies, but the differences are huge, and these are pitchers with a fair amount of background.
“One could see their success as a testament to the tutelage received in Pittsburgh, as Searage suggests”
That might be the worst self-incrimination I have ever heard. Searage’s rationale is that, since everyone improved under a different pitching coach, that means Searage is a good pitching coach?
Curious thinking indeed for a pitching coach.
He’s trying to look on the
bright side!
The main reason Searage needs to go is because he doesn’t accept any responsibility for the poor pitching. Every quote from him on the subject this year ranges from subtly changing the direction of the conversation to outright blaming the pitchers themselves for not executing. Don’t get me wrong plenty of people in higher roles within the organization need to go too but Searage needs to start packing his bags too.
Huntington’s made 2 bad trades in 12 years. He’s made about two dozen good ones. But he’s a bad GM huh?
Keep in mind that Cole and Morton didn’t learn to maximize their talent until they went to the Astros. To me, that says more about Brent Strom being the best pitching coach in the MLB, more so than it does about Searage being at fault for their lack of dominance with the Pirates. The Astros are ahead of the curve in almost every aspect of the analytics game.
Yes, agreed…all 3 pitchers mentioned in this post seemed to have blossomed AWAY from Ray Searage’s tutelage, especially Cole and Morton.
What, did Cole and Morton call Ray between and during each start for tips or go over his pitching notes before each start?
Seems like the stories about the “pitching whisperer” seemed to be a bit overhyped.
Of course, it seems like the Pirates have other issues also but to pay homage to Searage is overstated.
Ray Searage was good years ago, but the Pirates should move on from him.
Ray Searage is not a big league pitching coach. He tries to get every pitcher that comes through Pittsburgh to fit into his same cookie cutter method of pitching: low 90s sinkers down in the zone. Morton, Cole, and Glasnow moved to places where pitching coaches let them pitch to their strengths and guess what? They dominate the league. Meanwhile Chris Archer, a pitcher who had had success in the past, comes to Pittsburgh, Searage tells him to throw sinkers and he gets shellacked, instead of letting him use high 90s 4 seamers up in the zone, which is where Archer had found success in the past. Is the sinker a good pitch? Sure, it definitely can be. Do sinkers have their time and place? Absolutely. Does every pitcher need to throw one? Certainly not, and Searage has never understood that. Time to go, and I’d be surprised to see him get another Major League gig.
Searage seems to be better at fixing reclamation projects, such as Francisco Liriano and JA Happ. He doesn’t appear to be the person who can turn a good pitcher into a great pitcher.
The Pirates just need a complete overhaul – front office, coaching staff, and most of the roster.
Too many people want to glamorize there handful of fixes and ignore the season after season of failures and inability to get young players better.
Also, most of his “fixes” have been players coming from AL East or Central where that bats were better… and all of his “fixes” where when the NL Central wasn’t that good — before the Cubs, Brewers were anything to talk about.
He has done nothing in four years.
One thing that everyone leaves out of the conversation is the maturity level of the pitcher. While with the Pirates, Cole would make a mistake or a fielder would make a mistake and he would lose it on the mound. Morton was the same. Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Philly all had shots at him and he was ok at best. Glasgow finally matured on the hill this year and not a soul saw that coming. A lot of pitchers have all the “stuff” in the world but it takes time to harness it, if they ever do. Could Searage have done better? Maybe. Could another coach have done better? Maybe not. Morton is proof of that.
Morton was a only with Atlanta & Philly for a few games, so I don’t see that as part of the conversation.
And certainly Glasnow & Cole could simply be a case of guys getting better as they gain experience. But that creates two other issues:
1-How much can a guy mature in one or two years? Morton’s ERA+ went from 81 his last year with PT to 113 in his first year year with Houston. Cole went from 100 to 144 in one year. Glasnow from 91 to 98 to 251.
2-If this is a maturity issue, whose maturity issue is it? If everyone is maturing as soon as they leave PT, is this not a problem with PT?
3-Did Archer ‘immature’ once he got to PT?
It’s awfully coincidental that all three of the pitchers mentioned have magically “matured” as soon as they left Pittsburgh.
Cole has repeatedly said that he benefitted from throwing fewer sinkers, more four seamers, and more off speed stuff. That’s not what the Pirates pushed on most of their starters and certainly Cole wasn’t the best version of himself as a two seam heavy pitcher.
“Glasnow” has said the same thing. The Pirates wanted him spotting fastballs at the bottom of the zone. The dude is a 6’8 giraffe with no clue where the ball is going. The Rays (Snyder in particular) told him to throw fastballs at the top of the zone to an area, and mix in a breaking ball. He’s a much more free version of himself and you can clearly see that. Sitting 96-100 at the top. Where did he do that with the Pirates? I’d love to see the charts on those games.
Morton had a 3.96 ERA, 3.85 FIP, and 3.89 xFIP from 2011-2015 with the Pirates. I would say those are solid numbers from a middle of the rotation guy. His peripherals and stuff with Philly was where you started to see the transformation into a guy that could rack up strikeouts. He credited the Phillies pitching coaches for pushing the usage of his curveball, and also mixing other offerings. The Astros certainly should be credited, but the Astros didn’t offer $14MM because of what they saw in 2015. They offered that because of what he flashed in his brief time with the Phillies.
I would say Searage helped Morton max out as a sinkerballer, but certainly not as a pitcher. It seemed from his actual quote that he felt he had a small part in the success of former Pirates pitchers, and wasn’t claiming to have impacted them in a major way. I would say that’s accurate. Morton’s transformation into the 2011 season is a reflection of his impact. Morton has been a good major league pitcher since that season.
To be fair losing Taillon and Kuhl to TJ didn’t help. Glasnow never got much of a chance, and perhaps Searage had little to do with that. Morton morphed into a different pitcher, and a lot of that is do to maturation. Cole was pretty darn good in Pittsburgh. Perhaps it is time the Buccos searched for a new pitching coach, and yes perhaps concentrating down in the zone is no longer a good strategy, but most of the Pirates woes should not be placed at the foot of Searage.
“Morton morphed into a different pitcher, and a lot of that is do to maturation.”
Becoming more mature helps you throw harder and vastly alter your pitch mix as a 30 something year old with six to seven years big league experience?
“Cole was pretty darn good in Pittsburgh”
That’s not the argument though. The argument is based on how night and day these pitchers are after leaving Pittsburgh. There’s no cogent argument to be made in defense of the Pirates here. Three examples of guys leaving and immediately becoming better pitchers.
Searage will be made the convenient fall guy, although he IS part of the pitching problem. Unfortunately, Hurdle and Huntington have 2 years to go, and Nuttig will not eat their salaries. Hurdle is one of the highest-paid managers. Why?????? This is a miserably failed management team. Long past time to get rid of ALL of them. Searage is the LEAST culpable of the 3.
It’s hard to see how Searage shouldn’t be shown to the door, but he shouldn’t take that walk alone. Pittsburgh needs to be rebuilt from the top down. Sadly for the fans there, you can’t fire an owner, though.
I have to question all the pitchers with injuries. Something is wrong in the burg.
Ray Searage has a lot of good work for the Pirates. This year Jordan Lyles looked like an ace before he got hurt.
Yeah and they trade him and the narrative magically becomes how the oh so astute Brewers saw potential in bad results that the dumb Pirates didn’t see, as if that wasnt exactly what the Pirates front office said upon bringing in Lyles.
playing on a winning team also boosts confidence and morale
Tear it all down. From the top down. I don’t disagree about trading players but I have no faith anyone in this group can evaluate talent, develop talent, and execute a team identity around said talent. Burn it all to the ground.