"Opener" A Bad Idea for Pirates

In every major sport in the United States there are fads that come along every once in a while that find some success but ultimately die out over time. Some can last only a few years (like the wildcat offense in professional football), while other can last a little bit longer (the "trap" style as a predominant game-plan in hockey). In the end these new and exciting ideas or styles tend to eventually fade out of the game. Such will be the case of the "Opener" in professional baseball.

The idea of using an "Opener" was pioneered in the major leagues by both the Tampa Bay Rays and the Oakland A's last season, and for the most part it was fairly successful. The idea is based on the fact that lower end starters tend to struggle heavily when facing the order for the third or fourth time. Implementing a bullpen arm in the first inning or so allows the starter to not have to face the top end of the other teams lineup (usually the best hitters) the first time through. Then after the first or second inning, you can bring in a "bulk guy" who is usually a traditional starter and will pitch the next few innings. Like I said those two teams found some success when implementing this "opener" strategy, but they also failed horribly at points as well (The A's against the Yankees in the AL Wild Card Game).

During the MLB Winter Meetings Pirates GM Neal Huntington acknowledged that the Bucs might be interested in implementing this strategy in 2019. This would be a horrible mistake for the Pirates organization to make. Looking at their rotation to start the season they have four solid starters in Jameson Taillon, Chris Archer, Trevor Williams, and Joe Musgrove. The fifth spot, if the Pirates don't move forward with this idea, looks like it will be up for grabs between Steven Brault, Nick Kingham, and newest Pirates pitcher Jordan Lyles.

One of the biggest issues with using the "opener" is that the Pirates mid relievers were horrible last season, and weighed down what could've been a dominant bullpen because of the talent in the back end. Relievers like Dovydas Neverauskas, Clay Holmes, Tanner Anderson, Alex McRae, George Kontos, and Michael Feliz all had ERAs above 5.00. Steven Brault and Chad Kuhl weren't much better with 4.62 and 4.55 ERAs respectively. The Pirates bullpen was carried by the success of closer Felipe Vasquez, Kyle Crick, Richard Rodriguez, Keone Kela, and now injured Edgar Santana. If anything the Pirates should be figuring out ways to keep the bullpen fresh, and not shortening it by using it out of the gate.

If this is something that the Pirates were serious about doing they needed to sure up their mid relievers. Adding Jordan Lyles was not enough, especially because of the struggles we've seen both Brault and Kingham have in the major leagues. I won't say that it wouldn't be nice to have Richard Rodriguez start a game by handling the first two innings the way he normally handled his later innings last season, but after that who do you trust to be the "inning eater"? The Pirates don't have a convincing option in that area, therefore they shouldn't try to implement this method.

Even if they did tailor their bullpen to cater to the "opener" as the 5th starter, what would that mean for pitchers like Mitch Keller, who is expected to be ready to make his major league debut at some point during the 2019 season? You could just stop using the "opener" but you still have the tailored bullpen to be using that. You will also throw off the pitcher who normally opened the games as well as the "long guy" if you switch them out suddenly, which could create issues for them coming out of the pen.

GM Neal Huntington only hinted at the possibility during the Winter Meetings, but still didn't seem sure about implementing it. He told MLB.com's Adam Berry, "If we go in that direction, it will take some conversations. It will take some explaining," Huntington added. "It will take some buy-in, not only from those who are involved, but from those who are around it." If the General Manager is unsure about implementing it, then it shouldn't happen, especially for a team like the Pirates who are coming off yet another disappointing, albeit winning, season.

The idea of the "opener" is definitely interesting, and it found some success last season, but the Pirates should steer clear of it during the 2019 season. Considering the other multitude of issues that they Pirates need to address (middle infield and mid relievers for example) this is something that would only add to the drama and confusion that is already apparent in the Pirates organization.