The Pirates announced Thursday that they’ve optioned struggling outfielder Jack Suwinski to Triple-A Indianapolis. Left-hander Jose Hernandez has been recalled from Indy in his place.
It’s a notable turn of events for the Pirates and Suwinski, who looked to have emerged as a potential core piece for the Bucs just last season. Suwinski mashed his way into an everyday outfield role, clubbing 26 home runs and drawing plenty of walks en route to a .224/.339/.454 slash (112 wRC+). Everything’s gone in the wrong direction for the slugger this season, however. In his first 157 trips to the plate, Suwinski has posted an anemic .174/.268/.297 batting line.
The decline at the plate hasn’t followed the typical pattern. Suwinski has actually greatly improved on last year’s problematic 32.2% strikeout rate, punching out in a more palatable (albeit still higher-than-average) 25.5% of his plate appearances. He’s making contact at a much higher rate both on pitches within the strike zone (88% in ’24, 81.3% in ’23) and off the plate (60.2% in ’24, 52.7% in ’23).
Counter-intuitive as it may seem, that improved plate coverage has resulted in some ugly trends that have tamped down his production. For starters, Suwinski is swinging more in general. His 28.9% chase rate is lower than average but still up considerably from last year’s excellent 22% mark. That’s likely contributed to a dip in walk rate, which sat at a huge 14% a year ago but is down to 11.5% in 2023 (still about three percentage points north of average). It seems there’s been a conscious effort to be more assertive at the plate. Only eight qualified hitters swung less often than Suwinski in 2023, but this year there are 79 qualified bats swinging less often.
Suwinski’s more aggressive approach hasn’t generated quality contact, however. His ground-ball rate has spiked from 27.9% all the way to 44.4%. His line-drive rate is down two percentage points, while his fly-ball rate has plummeted by 14.2% percentage points (from 53.6% to 39.4%). He’s no longer elevating the ball at a strong rate, and when he does make contact, it’s been weaker in nature. He’s lost 2.4 mph off his average exit velocity and seen his hard-hit rate fall from 43.4% to 36.4%. After barreling up 15.7% of his batted balls last year (as measured by Statcast), he’s at just 6.1% in 2024.
Whether the more aggressive approach was intended to take advantage of Suwinski’s clearly plus power, to improve his batting average, some combination of the two or perhaps has simply been borne of frustration at his slow start, the results aren’t there. He’ll head to Indianapolis for now in an effort to get back on track and hopefully recapture some of the form that made him the Bucs’ top power threat just last season.
From a service time vantage point, the demotion won’t alter Suwinski’s path to free agency. He entered the season with 1.118 years of MLB service, meaning he only needed 54 days on the active roster or injured list to reach two years of service and remain on pace for free agency following the 2028 season. He reached that number earlier this week, so even in the unlikely event that he stays in the minors all year, he’d still have stayed on his prior free-agent trajectory. It’s at least possible this could cost him Super Two designation, as he’d have been on the Super Two bubble with 2.118 years of service this coming offseason, but he could remain on that bubble if his optional assignment is short enough. He’ll have to spend at least 10 days in the minors, unless he’s recalled sooner as a replacement for someone who’s being placed on the injured list.
With Suwinski no longer in the outfield fold, the Pirates figure to use a rotation of Bryan Reynolds, Michael A. Taylor, Ji Hwan Bae, Connor Joe and Edward Olivares. Taylor and Bae are likeliest to see time in center. Reynolds has split his time between the two corners this season but will be on the lineup on a near everyday basis. Olivares and Joe can rotate through the free corner spot, with Joe also an option at first base and either a candidate to stand in as the designated hitter (should Andrew McCutchen need a day off).
Shame. He looked like a solid core piece last year for the Buccos. Hopefully he can find his swing again in AAA. Just another strike against hitting coach Andy Haines. Nobody in the pirates lineup is showing any improvement, and many like Suwinski are regressing
Hit the road, Jack.
Only the Pirates could have every player be in a slump at the same time and management doesn’t understand the problem
Well, the Reds are right there with you, along with an incompetent front office.
The Cubs are closing in. Last I checked team batting average.230
Jack Jack needed this move. Tellez isn’t far behind (but out the door for good).
lead off triple by Gonzalez and no one could drive him in and was stranded there after ( another player who should be optioned to Indy), Triolo hit a weak grounder, Tellez ( who did what he does best), strikes out looking and Bart who also grounded out
There’s a number of players who need to be sent to Indy or released not just Jack
They definitely need a new first baseman. Tellez has no business in a major league uniform.
They should have known that before they even signed him. FO had to be hoping for some kind of revival from him, but clearly that’s not going to happen, so keeping him in the lineup and on the roster is pure insanity at this point.
Shelton seems to not care if they lose, why would you even put him the lineup?
Simply no accountability with anyone in this organization. Working from home today and last I looked 6 to 2 and come back to TV and down one. I thought we just recalled a reliever but yet leaving Stratton in to give up four runs. Complete circus
And don’t forget that moron Skelton needs dispatched for assignment immediately. I was having lunch today with my 3 brothers. We were watching the game, eating and having some brews. It was 5-1 and moron pulled Skenes. I said moron will blow the game by his idiotic moves. Wa La moron made me look like a prophet.
What I don’t understand is how they can keep this idiot as a manager. He would have been fired 4 years ago by any other team.
In defense of Shelton, Skenes had already thrown 90 pitches when he was pulled. That said, Shelton’s mistake was not giving Hernandez the opportunity to pitch after he issued a walk in favor of Stanton who is responsible for blowing the lead.
And I dislike Shelton as much as you do
If Shelton managed the lineup as much as he does with changing pitchers, they might have better outcomes in the game
Taylor should join him. And bringing Hernandez up is a nice idea given that the $10m signing of Chapman has been a ridiculous bust
Taylor and Tellez should be DFA, Williams optioned and Lamb and Pegs should be promoted
Can’t be any worse then what these three bums are doing, certainly not contributing to the offense
Williams stays because of his defense but this team is in dire need of offense and he offers nothing for offense
Taylor has a positive WAR and he’s a bargain at $3m. Tellez is awful and should be DFA’d at $2.5m.
What good is a positive WAR if he can’t hit and only strike out
Cruz, on the other hand has committed 10 errors but he can hit and for XBH including home runs
Taylor might have been a financial steal but there’s valid reasons why he was signed so close to the start of ST
No one else wanted him
Are you really asking – ‘what use is a premium defensive player?’
Yes, his bat stinks (I think we both agree Haines has something to do with that), but he’s an excellent part time CF and pinch runner. All good teams need a player like that and have done since the dawn of time.
If the supposed ‘big bats’ had done their job so far we wouldn’t notice Williams and MAT’s struggles at the plate because they’re paid to defend key situations.
Great to see the hitting heat up a bit this last couple of weeks – I think Nick Gon has been a catalyst. I’ll hold my hand up and admit I was wrong about Cutch’s demise.
He’s a good defensive outfielder who can’t hit himself out of a paper bag
I am admitting that his arm and speed playing center field is a plus for this team but his hitting ability is a minus.
Happy?
Thoughts and prayers for a speedy return to the majors.
Woe. Jose Hernandez trying to make a comeback as a pitcher. Plus he learned to throw with his left hand.
Now he can strike himself out, lol
I got ripped apart by some pirate fan on here for suggesting suwinski for Edward Carbera bc the pirates were giving up “way too much.”
I would do that trade in a heartbeat.
I would have thought the Marlins would be crazy to make that deal even if Cabrera was injured.
If the Marlins offered Cabrera to the Cubs for Miles Mastrobuoni and Jed said no. He would get the Steve Bartman treatment. Only this time it would be justified. And if he said no, then we’d would definitely know Miles had some kind of dirt on him. There’s no other reason to keep him around.
Odd. I don’t see any posts that ripped you Tom on this thread. Are you sure you weren’t dreaming?
It was on a prior post where carbera to pirates was rumored to happen this past off-season
I don’t live in the past and neither should you
LOL.
Cabrera is a mess. I would take Suwinski over Cabrera all day.
Change of scenery could be good for him.
He had a somewhat breakout year but then the Pirates brought in Taylor to take his at bat’s and confidence away the FO has nobody to blame but themselves. Hoping Jack gets some regular playing time to show that last year wasn’t just a fluke
Taylor was brought in because of his defense in center field, not to take Jack’s place
Jack has struggled all year even in games where both he and Taylor have played
Our brilliant hitting coach changed Jack’s batting stance to make him more of a contact hitter
Surprised that the Pirates made the right move here. It’s not their style. At this point, one has to wonder just who attempted to “help” Suwinski as a hitter and somehow had him lose his power. You could almost justify his average last season and the incredible number of K’s because he hit 27 homers. Almost
Hopefully the people at Indy can do what the big club can’t do.
The key to making this work is leaving Suwinski in AAA until he figures it out which won’t be in a week or two. If and when he starts mashing consistently over the course of a month or so should they recall him.
I agree, however we still lack an offensive force that doesn’t strike out in every plate appearance
Bart, Cutch, Reynolds and Gonzalez seem to be the only players contributing to runs.
Everyone else is in the team supported slump
Tellez next. Time to get tubber out of the lineup.
I’m not going to pretend to know anything about hitting, but you’ve got Davis, now Jack…something is amiss in development or approach. Guys who got this far solely on their bats can’t be this bad.
Let’s narrow your note a bit
Davis goes down to AAA and is knocking the cover off the ball, as Bae did
Reynolds was a perennial .300 hitter but over the past two seasons is around .250
You kinda wonder what’s going on with the big club
There are a LOT of players struggling to hit to their career norms this year. This problem is not unique to the Pirates.
Haines,Skelton are yo blame for the backward steps of the pirates hitters. They are an embarrassment to the pirates, the city of Pittsburgh and most importantly the fans. Sitting has to take his SMALL HANDS, out of his pocket and take a little control. We know he’s cheap, but he apparently knows little about owning and managing a teams resources.
If i was nutting I’d probably be looking at BC and wondering exactly he bought with the money he spent on FA this year.
BC has been a huge bust for the most part in FA. I know he’s not signing top shelf but these guys come to town and just flat die
This is season 4 of the Cherington regime and he has yet to get close to either a contender or even a .500 season and I suspect his future here is under a microscope
Time for Tellez to walk the plank.
Have they dfa’ed Shelton and Haines yet? Yeah, I know managers and coaches are not dfa’ed but …
Shelton’s 8th inning magic today—keeping Stratton in the game to literally snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Batting practice for the Giants
Really sickening to watch
I don’t boo players but Shelton and Cherington should be on a train out of town
There was no reason to lift Hernandez for Stratton in the 7th inning. He walked a batter and was gone
Game is over now. Another disappointing loss by the team that sits near the bottom of the league in runs scored
I think I’m done listening to you somehow simultaneously disagreeing with everyone yet repeating exactly what they just said. It’s exhausting.
The game is tied, the Pirates bullpen stinks and they don’t have enough big bats to come back from this one
And it’s not just the bullpen that stinks in this game
Cruz 3 strikeouts and is 0 for 4
Tellez 2 ks and is 0 for 3
Triolo is 0 for 3 with a HBP
Bae is 0 for 3
Joe finally ended his 0 for 20 slump with a single
but struck out twice
Face it Bucco fans, this team stinks
Chapman velocity down 4-5 mph
Last night he couldn’t find the plate
Today he throws dead red
Some days he couldn’t find the plate with a GPS and a compass. Other days he was right on it. Just the way he’s always been.
Pirates don’t need “big bats”, they need bats to manufacture runs. They mostly score on home runs and show an incredible inability to manufacture runs. Gonzalez leads off with a triple and is stranded on third. You don’t need a “big bat” to get him home, just a productive bat. I think if Haines was coaching a T-ball team, his team would be held scoreless.
Big bats mean big money. Can we just agree that it’s the wrong terminology in this town? Competent bats is a better term
Skeptical, you’re referring to the idea of situational hitting. There’s no such thing here. That’s the problem. Plate discipline is one thing and evident with so many batters here. But the incredible inability to hit according to situation is astounding
Their low key bats aren’t making any noise so having a big bat might
The coaching staff teaches them to take pitches to get into the bullpen early but when your batters can’t hit to begin with, taking pitches more often than not just becomes a called third strike
I love the game, and I grew up on baseball. But where the Pirates are concerned, that’s enough
It never changes.
Time to take up fishing
They needed a bat to hit a fly ball deep enough to bring Gonzalez home with less than two outs after he hit his triple.
And the weak hitters followed him couldn’t lift the ball far enough to drive him in
Instead we got 2 weak grounders and a strike
So much for manufacturing a run
Sorry, theman3, but it was the supposed “big bats” that failed there. Both Triolo and Tellez were supposed to bring power to the lineup.
There are more ways than a sac fly to bring in a runner from third, but the Pirates tend to think one dimensionally.
In the ninth, I do not fault Bae for getting thrown out stealing. McCutchen failed to move him over which was his primary function.
Tellez has been a major disappointment since he initially signed, Triolo was never supposed to be a power hitter but instead someone who could hit the ball into the gap. Instead he barely makes it out of the infield.
He wasn’t a “ big bat “ in the minors either but hit with consistency
If you heard Bob Walk in the 9th when Cutch was batting, Tyler, the Giants pitcher was more effective against right handed batters than left. Joe’s plate appearance proved that after left handed hitting Reynolds got a hit
Maybe Shelton should have used Grandal to hit for Cutch instead of using him as a replacement for Bart
Skeptical
“Pirates don’t need “big bats”, they need bats to manufacture runs. They mostly score on home runs and show an incredible inability to manufacture runs. Gonzalez leads off with a triple and is stranded on third. ”
Are you, perhaps, overlooking that it was “big bat” energy to get to third?
The bats finally get going, now we have to get the bullpen going. Get rid of Tellez and you’re adding by subtracting. The line-up has potential and it’s starting to show over the last few weeks. The rotation is finally coming together, but the bullpen holds leads like a strainer holds water.
Do not ask for whom the bell tolls…
I watched Suwinski last year and this year and the change in his whole approach at the plate is way different and having been a hitting coach for over 30 years there is not a doubt in my mind that I could “fix” him in less than an hour
I, for one, seriously believe you could…
Similar background and agree 100%
Problem is that what we’re seeing is micro-managing that interjects personal philosophies that have shaken the confidence of young players
That’s a much harder nut to crack, as you know
And so much of what we see here should have been refined in the farm system. It’s staggering
Andy Haines should be fired just for what he’s done to Suwinski. You can’t take a three-true-outcoems hitter and make him a contact hitter. He was solid both with the bat and glove last year, and they tried to make him something he isn’t. He’s been more like his 2023 self this month, but it’s going to take a minute for him to readjust. Best to let him get things back in check at Triple-A.
More Fantasy Island talk from you. It’s so incredible that it’s almost laughable
I get it. You’re a true believer type. A huge fan of Jack Suwinski. And you’ll throw some meaningless analytics out there to tell baseball fans that what they see game in and game out was just an illusion
Suwinski was never solid at bat. Ever. He hit 27 homers. Great. Dave Kingman used to hit 40-50 homers every year but given his strikeout rate and pathetic hitting other than that, he wasn’t anywhere near solid, either
I’ll agree that tinkering has ruined whatever he had and quite likely messed with his head. But “solid?” You must be joking
Let me take this opportunity to demand you rush everyone to the bigs and then cry about it when my genius idea blows up.
tiredolderdude sounds like the boomer whining about participation trophies he invented to give his millennial kid because he’s a lousy parent but looking in the mirror is too hard.
This was a move that had to be made.
Not sure whether Suwinski will ever improve off what he did last year when he struck out too much.
I am done sticking up for Shelton as he leaves relief pitchers in too long.
Many of these guys cannot pitch under pressure.
Bednar and Chapman have both been failures.
Carmen needs to go down and Ryder needs to come up.
More than a player shakeup needs to occur.
Or doesn’t leave relief pitchers in long enough
He pulled Hernandez after he had walked a batter with one out
This all begins with Cherington, in reality. It’s great that he rebuilt the farm system, taking it from threadbare to average players now at every level, but the shroud is removed when the kids arrive at the MLB level and it doesn’t matter who the player is.
Cruz is perhaps the only young guy who may overcome what is clearly a poor player development program, but that’s thanks to his physical gifts. Here’s hoping he hires a private hitting coach who can teach him to hit against left handers. Here’s the first thing to work on: his head. The kid is defeated before he even takes a swing, and he shows it
You can blame Shelton and Haines all you like, but it starts at the top
Pity that they’re going to have a stellar pitching staff that had better go 9 innings
It’s Shelton’s fault a major league pitcher (Chapman on Wed) is literally incapable of throwing a strike? You have to bring in a guy and then literally have to warm up a guy right behind him in case he can’t even do the basic function for which he’s being paid? That Holderman kept them to one run with bases loaded no one out is great work.
This is how the game is played. You bring in the closer, the managers job is done. Hence why these clowns get paid, with the intros, all to nail down games with such wife margin for failure to get a save, and they still can’t do it?
And everyone is so desperate not to be “cheap” they just demand everyone get paid, never asking if so and so is someone you want to be locked into for 5-7 years.
“He’s making contact at a much higher rate both on pitches within the strike zone (88% in ’24, 81.3% in ’23) and off the plate (60.2% in ’24, 52.7% in ’23).
Counter-intuitive as it may seem, ”
Not really counter intuitive that putting more bad pitches into play is bad for your offense
15 transactions since Jack was optioned yesterday, players being selected, released; and signed
Yet, Shelton and company are satisfied with the status quo.
The good news, Rowdy isn’t in the lineup for tonight’s game against a lefty but Cruz is and he’s been horrible lately against left handed pitchers
I’m sorry, I just don’t understand his analytics and how he assembles his lineups. It’s almost like he’s daring the team to lose
Shelton doesn’t run the analytics department.
I’d be willing to bet he’s supplied multiple lineup scenarios for each game and has final say on tweaks.
I’d say the analytics worked out pretty well for tonight’s game.
And honestly if not for the bullpen it would have been fine for the last 3 games on top
They were batting against a 29 year old relief pitcher with minimal major league experience so don’t go thinking their offensive struggles have come to an end
Don’t get me wrong, I am happy they broke out of their slump but it’s only one game and against one of best offensive teams in baseball
For those who thought signing Cutch was a mistake and who questioned Gonzalez’ offensive output, read their stats over the past 14 days and weep
Are you for real?
You’ve pretty much copied and pasted my comment above and posted within seconds to make it look like your own!
Apologies – I must’ve read the timestamp wrong when I got to this comment.
My comment about Cutch and Gonzalez was not aimed towards you, Terrier1980
Awhile back, it was Dream I believe who was against signing Cutch, using his age as the reason and the way other day, another poster mentioned that Gonzalez, with minimal playing time, hadn’t shown his talent
It should have been directed towards me because I doubted Cutch more than most in Pirates fandom. I was on your side with NGon though, comparing him to Walker as a prospect that looked broken who might break out.