MIKE BURKE
Allegany Communications Sports
When all three of the major league baseball teams you follow stink, what do you do on May 30?
You still follow them, but your eyes tend to turn to the NFL, because all three of the football teams in the area are pretty good. Even if it’s only May 30.
What makes this such a natural thing to do so early in the season? Maybe it’s the Baltimore Orioles, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Washington Nationals not just being bad, but all being very difficult – challenging might be a better word – to watch play on any given night, or day.
Maybe that’s just how the game has been set up to play these days. Pitchers don’t pitch just to get outs anymore; they’re trained from age 10 to throw as hard as they can on every pitch and get strikeouts.
No wonder pitchers’ elbows have been dropping like flies for the past several years, eh?
Conversely, batters don’t look to put the ball in play, to bunt, to hit behind the runner, or to shoot the gap. They’re up there swinging from their heels, trying to go 400 feet on every swing. Frankly, it’s not unlike watching two kids play Home Run Derby in the backyard.
The problems, the perceived problems and the misfortune of the Orioles, at 19-36, have been documented here and everywhere else ad nauseum.
The Nationals have had the most success of the three teams this season, if you call 25-30 success, though they did enter Thursday night having won seven out of 10, so maybe the big push of this rebuild is about to take place.
The Pirates, in their defense, made some noise in Arizona this week, with a thrilling comeback win over the Diamondbacks on Tuesday, and a 10-1 beatdown on Wednesday, highlighted by another Paul Skenes gem. Plus, the Bucs, now at 21-36, have won six out of 10 in the midst of what is easily the best baseball they’ve played this year.
Still, it’s hard to get excited about the future of any of the three teams, which has been a lightning-fast turnaround for the Orioles and their not-so-long-ago top-rated farm system and three consecutive winning seasons.
The farm system has been thinned by graduation to the big leagues and a couple of trades meant to enhance the club’s championship window; and on top of that, other than Jackson Holliday, the prospects that have been called up and been given a chance have not and are not producing.
As it pertains to Heston Kjerstad and Coby Mayo, the old-school 600 at-bats to see would seem to apply. But will the Orioles be patient enough, or does the game even function that way anymore for either player to receive that many MLB at-bats to produce a truer picture of their promise?
Certainly, those 600 at-bats (actually 554) have been working for Kyle Stowers, who the Orioles traded to Miami (386 at-bats ago) along with Connor Norby, at the time two of Baltimore’s top prospects.Then again, a club makes these deals to enhance its championship window, which is what Orioles general manager Mike Elias was trying to do. I guess.
Since winning the 2019 World Series (seems like 2009), the Nationals rank third in the majors in losses, one behind the Pirates, and are trying to avoid their fifth-straight 90-loss season.
The Nationals consistently had top-10 payrolls in the not-so-distant past, but have been bottom 10 the past three seasons, and the farm system has failed to produce the way it once did, other than the players general manager Mike Rizzo acquired in the Juan Soto deal.
With the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft, one wonders if the Nationals go for the highest-rated high school position player, Ethan Holliday, Jackson’s younger brother, or select a college pitcher who could get to the big leagues quicker?
Either way, it doesn’t appear the Lerners, who own the Nats, are going to have an epiphany and start spending money again, so one must wonder how long this Nationals rebuild is going to last.
Then there are the Pirates, owned by Bob Nutting, so we know the minimum required will be spent here. Which brings us to Paul Skenes. The Pirates say they have no intention of trading him, but come on, they have no intention of extending his contract or approaching the number when he becomes a free agent.
Skenes, 22, would be the most valuable MLB trade asset in many years because he has more than four years of team control remaining and is a true ace, who gets batters out and is a box office draw. Plus, he’s only making $740,000 this year and won’t be arbitration-eligible until 2027.
The Pirates are wisely saying they have no intention of trading him, but don’t think for a minute they won’t listen to the potential deals that will be available for Skenes. It would be a far bigger haul than what the Nationals took home for Soto, because there just aren’t many 22-year-old aces out there these days.
With no farm system to speak of, with no valuable trade options at the big-league level, as painful as it would be for Pirates fans, the team’s best bet to put a competitive or contending team on the field is to trade Paul Skenes, as unthinkable as it feels and sounds.
They’re certainly not going to pay him.
It’s May 30, and we’re keeping our eyes on those Ravens, Commanders and Steelers.
God, I love baseball. Right?
Mike Burke writes about sports and other stuff for Allegany Communications. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984, serving as sports editor for over 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X @MikeBurkeMDT