Pittsburgh Pirates: Season Grades for Every Offensive Player in 2014
After entering the 2014 All-Star break only three games over .500 in 2014, the Pittsburgh Pirates stormed back into the playoffs for the second straight season, finishing with a record of 88-74.
Unfortunately, the team failed to make it back to the Division Series, falling to the eventual National League champion San Francisco Giants in the Wild Card Game.
Considering how things were going (Pittsburgh was still four games under .500 as late as June 10), the Pirates had a fairly successful season. They were able to turn it around and find their way back into the postseason thanks in part to increased production on offense.
The grades are in. Let's take a look at the report cards of each member of the Pirates offense in 2014.
All statistics are courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.
Russell Martin, Catcher
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Since joining the Pirates in 2013, Russell Martin has been a staple in the Pirates lineup.
The soon-to-be free agent had a spectacular season, batting .290 with 11 home runs and 67 RBI.
The downside: Martin missed about a third of the season, playing in only 111 games this season. Had he been healthy, the Pirates may have won the division, as he has that much impact on the lineup and behind the plate.
Martin had a WAR of 5.5 in 2014, which was second in the organization only to reigning MVP Andrew McCutchen.
Furthermore, had he played in more games, Martin could and should have been in the discussion for the 2014 National League MVP Award.
Grade: A-
Ike Davis, First Base
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There was a time when Ike Davis was considered one of the best offensive first basemen in baseball.
The year was 2012, and Davis had collected 32 home runs and 90 RBI for the New York Mets, who had thought that they had found their franchise first baseman.
In 2013, though, Davis looked lost at the plate, batting .205 with only nine home runs in just 103 games.
After playing only 12 games with the Mets this season, he was traded to the Pirates, where he was able to improve his statistics and overall performance.
While Davis batted .235 with 10 home runs in 135 games with the Pirates, he still has yet to show that he can put up a big season like he did in 2012 with the Mets.
More importantly, he did not perform well in September when the Pirates were chasing both the St. Louis Cardinals and, at the time, the Milwaukee Brewers. That month, Davis batted just .204 with 10 hits in 49 at-bats.
Perhaps after having a full season under his belt in Pittsburgh, Davis can settle in and produce at a higher level in 2015. For now, he is an average player at best.
Grade: C+
Neil Walker, Second Base
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Throughout his first six seasons in the majors, Neil Walker has become arguably one of the best second basemen in the National League.
In 2014, he had a career year, batting .271 with a career-high 23 home runs in 137 games for the Pirates.
That's the most games he's played since 2011, when he played in all but three games for Pittsburgh.
Walker's 76 RBI were second among all teammates, again only to McCutchen.
Grade: B+
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Jordy Mercer, Shortstop
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After having a successful sophomore season with the Pirates in 2013, Jordy Mercer seemed primed to have a breakout season in 2014.
However, early on in the season, it looked as if those who believed that were dead wrong.
Entering June 1, Mercer was batting a dismal .199 with just one home run.
On June 2, Mercer snapped out of his slump by collecting four hits, one of them being a home run.
Since that day, Mercer kept gradually improving until he finished the season with a .255 average and 12 home runs.
Given his poor start to the season, Mercer doesn't deserve the highest grade, as his team performed poorly while he was not playing well.
However, given the fact that he had a tremendous turnaround and is able to stay healthy and rarely miss a game, Mercer deserves some credit for his team's turnaround.
Grade: B-
Pedro Alvarez, Third Base
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In 2013, Pedro Alvarez hit a career-high 36 home runs and 100 RBI. It was also the second straight season of 30 or more home runs for him, as he became one of the great power-hitting third corner infielders in the game.
Due in part to injuries, 2014 was a major disappointment for Alvarez, as he was not able to produce in the middle of the order as he had in the past.
Alvarez missed all but one game in the month of September, as he was dealing with a foot injury.
Still, in only 122 games, Alvarez was able to blast 18 home runs and 56 RBI. Had he played in 152 games as he did in 2013, he would have been on track to hit 22 home runs this season.
While that still would have been considered a down year for Alvarez, we saw that the power is still there, and if he can come back healthy in 2015, he and the Pirates should expect better offensive numbers.
However, given the performance we have seen and come to expect from Alvarez, his grade for 2014 has to be considered below average for a Major League player.
Grade: C
Starling Marte, Left Field
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Left fielder Starling Marte broke onto the scene in his first full season in 2013 with the Pirates, batting .280 with 12 home runs and 35 RBI in 135 games.
It was no different for Marte in 2014, as he performed at a high level all season long, finishing with a career-high .291 average, 13 home runs and 56 RBI.
Marte's .356 on-base percentage was third among all starters in the Pirates lineup in 2014, behind only (you guessed it) McCutchen and Martin.
The one major flaw in Marte's game is his tendency to swing and miss, and he showed that this season, leading all Pirates with 131 strikeouts.
Now, back to the positives. Marte has shown that he is fearless on the basepaths, successfully swiping 30 bags in 41 attempts, which led the team in 2014.
Marte has the potential to become a big-time player, and he has shown glimpses of that over the last two seasons.
Grade: B+
Andrew McCutchen, Center Field
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The most vital piece to the puzzle in Pittsburgh's lineup, Andrew McCutchen was coming off of his first most valuable player award and looking forward to putting up big numbers again in 2014.
He did just that, blasting a career-high 25 home runs and collecting 83 RBI. His incredible .410 OBP was not only a career-high for him, but it also led all of Major League Baseball this season.
For the fourth straight season, he was named an All-Star, and for the third straight season, McCutchen finished with a batting average over .310.
Aside from being placed on the 15-day disabled list due to a broken rib sustained in August, McCutchen rarely missed a beat, playing in 146 games for the Pirates.
That injury put an end to McCutchen's streak of four straight seasons with at least 154 games played, showing his ability to stay healthy and have a great impact in the Pirates lineup.
Grade: A
Gregory Polanco, Right Field
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It was one of the most highly anticipated moves in the majors this season: the call-up of top Pittsburgh prospect Gregory Polanco.
It seemed as if Polanco was ready to make the transition from AAA to the majors after batting .328 in 69 games with the Indianapolis Indians this season.
When he was called up, he made an immediate splash, batting .301 with three home runs and 13 RBI through his first 23 games.
After batting .288 overall in June, he struggled mightily, resulting in the Pirates sending him back down to AAA for the last week of August before being recalled with the September call-ups.
Polanco owned just a .225 average in August and a poor .179 average in September.
The sky is the limit for this kid, and he showed us glimpses of his raw talent both in the outfield and at the dish in 2014. Still, there's room for more improvement.
Grade: B-
Josh Harrison, Utility
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What a year it was for Pittsburgh's Josh Harrison in 2014.
Harrison was so important to the Pirates' success that had he not been in the lineup in 143 games this season, they likely would not have even made it into the wild-card matchup.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Harrison had a career year in 2014, leading his team with a .315 batting average while blasting 13 home runs and crossing the plate 77 times.
For the first time in his career, he was named an All-Star after he batted .297 with 74 hits in 79 games played. If fans thought that was enough to consider it a breakout season for Harrison, what they were about to witness was simply incredible.
In 15 fewer games during the second half of the season, Harrison collected 16 more hits than he had in the first half (64 games, 90 hits in second half). Of course, Harrison started eight more games in the second half that he did in the first half, but that statistic is still incredible considering the fact that he only had 20 more at-bats in the second half than in the first half of the season.
Harrison had played mostly outfield positions during the first half of the season. When Pedro Alvarez went down with his injury, however, Harrison transitioned comfortably into the everyday third baseman role.
Often when we think of stars in Pittsburgh, we think of Martin and McCutchen, and rightfully so. However, Harrison was undoubtedly the Pirates' MVP in 2014.
Grade: A
Travis Snider, Outfield
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Since acquiring him via trade with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2012, the Pirates have enjoyed using Travis Snider in different spots in ballgames.
Snider played in 140 games in 2014, but he only started 71 of them. In 322 at-bats, Snider batted .264 with 13 home runs and 38 RBI, which is very impressive for a guy who does not get many at-bats.
The Pirates really cannot ask for much more from Snider, as he tended to produce when given the opportunity.
Considering the great depth the Pirates already have in their outfield with McCutchen in center, Marte in left and Harrison and Polanco both sharing time in the outfield, expect Snider to continue to serve as a platoon outfielder as long as he is in a Pirates uniform.
Grade: B
Gaby Sanchez, First Base
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Gaby Sanchez had two stellar seasons back-to-back in 2010 and 2011 while playing for the then-Florida Marlins.
Since then, Sanchez has actually been pretty terrible at the plate. For one, he can no longer hit right-handed pitchers, which has prevented the Pirates from putting him in the lineup against a right-hander.
In 129 at-bats against right-handed throwers this season, Sanchez owned a poor batting average just over the Mendoza line at .202. On the other hand, in 133 at-bats against southpaws, he batted .256.
Between 2010 and 2011, Sanchez drove in a combined 163 runs at the plate. Since 2011 (a span of three seasons), he has driven in just 99 runs.
Below-average performances are what we have come to expect from Sanchez as we saw throughout the regular season.
Grade: C-
Jose Tabata, Right Field
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Jose Tabata was just 21 years old when he made his Major League debut with the Pirates on June 9, 2010.
That season, he played in 102 games for Pittsburgh, batting an impressive .299 in 405 at-bats and finishing eighth in the National League Rookie of the Year race.
Since that stellar rookie season, however, Tabata has not had 400 at-bats in a single Major League season.
Tabata appeared in just 80 games this season and batted .282 with no home runs and only seven extra-base hits in 174 at-bats. Not long after, Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the Pirates designated Tabata for assignment.
He still has not shown that he can be the player the Pirates, or even the New York Yankees when they signed him 10 years ago, believed he could be.
Due to a lack of production on a consistent basis, Tabata spent 39 games in AAA Indianapolis in 2014, batting just .281 there.
Grade: B-
Chris Stewart, Catcher
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Catcher Chris Stewart is a prime example of a baseball journeyman.
Through just eight Major League seasons, Stewart has played for seven different teams, serving primarily as a backup.
In 2013, however, he served as the New York Yankees' starting catcher due to Francisco Cervelli's inability to remain healthy.
That year, he batted just .211 in 109 games, but when the Pirates signed him in the offseason, they knew they were getting a guy who could play outstanding defense behind the plate when Martin needed an off day.
What they probably did not expect was that Stewart would have an excellent season at the plate as well.
Although he appeared in only 49 games for the Pirates, Stewart batted a career-high .294 with 10 RBI and nine runs scored.
Simply put, Stewart did his job when he was called on, and the Pirates really couldn't ask for much more from him than what he gave them.
Grade: B
Clint Barmes, Shortstop
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For the majority of his career, Clint Barmes was a guy who one could expect to play in the majority of his team's games.
In 2014, Barmes failed to appear in at least 100 games for the first time since 2007, when he played in just 27 games for the Colorado Rockies.
With the emergence of Jordy Mercer as an everyday shortstop, the Pirates realized that there simply wasn't room on their depth chart to provide him with a chance to play every day. After all, Barmes batted just .211 last season in 108 games with the Pirates.
In just 48 games this season, Barmes batted .245 with seven RBI and 15 runs scored, proving that he is now, at 35 years old, a backup shortstop at best. That is where he should remain if the Pirates elect to re-sign him this offseason.
Grade: B-
Tony Sanchez, Catcher
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The Pirates organization was very high on Tony Sanchez in 2013 when he made his Major League debut as the backup catcher for the Pirates.
Unfortunately for Sanchez, it looks as if he may not even be their primary backup catcher in 2015, especially if Russell Martin returns.
There would be no reason for the Pirates not to keep Chris Stewart as their backup, especially after the year he had in 2014.
Meanwhile, Sanchez spent the majority of the season playing for the AAA Indianapolis Indians, where he hit .235 with 11 home runs in 81 games.
At the Major League level, Sanchez batted .267 with two home runs in just 26 games, which is not bad for a third-string Major League catcher.
Sanchez has shown potential, but if the Pirates do re-sign Martin in the offseason, there simply will not be room for him on the 25-man roster.
Still, he did a solid job in the games he was able to play for the Pirates in 2014.
Grade: B
Michael Martinez, Utility
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The Pirates could not have expected a great outcome when they called up Michael Martinez from Indianapolis in June.
Martinez, who is a career .181 hitter in 403 career at-bats at the Major League level, batted just .128 in 26 games with the Pirates in 2014.
In August, the Pirates outrighted the 32-year-old back to Indianapolis.
Given the fact that he has never been able to establish himself as even a Major League bench player, it would be unfair to Martinez to give him a failing grade, since the Pirates knew his talent level was not anything to get excited about.
Still, Martinez did a poor job at the Major League level in 2014.
Grade: D
Brent Morel, Third Base
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In 2010, it looked as if Brent Morel would be a young star in the big leagues, blasting 10 home runs and batting .245 in 126 games with the Chicago White Sox.
Since then, however, he has spent the majority of his career in the minors.
The Pirates selected Morel off waivers from the Toronto Blue Jays during spring training in 2014, hoping that he could possibly make the team and help off the bench.
Morel was unable to do that, however, batting just .179 with no home runs and four RBI in 23 games for the Pirates in 2014.
Grade: D
Jayson Nix, Utility
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After being released by the Tampa Bay Rays in early August, the Pirates took a gamble by signing Jayson Nix to a contract.
That did not work out, as Nix was terrible, batting just .111 in 16 games for the Pirates. The Kansas City Royals eventually claimed him off waivers from Pittsburgh, and he is now serving as a bench player for them in the World Series.
Nix did not pick up any hits in seven games with his new team, but it is safe to say he will be satisfied with being in the World Series.
Grade: D
Andrew Lambo, First Base/Left Field
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There's a lot to be excited about with young Andrew Lambo playing in Pittsburgh.
Lambo was ranked the Pirates' best power-hitting prospect by Baseball America prior to the start of the 2014 regular season.
Lambo lived up to that ranking with the Indianapolis Indians, blasting 11 home runs while batting .328 in 61 games with the team.
When he was called up to Pittsburgh in late August, Lambo batted .256 with no home runs and just one RBI in 21 games.
Hopefully, Lambo will get more playing time in 2015 with the Pirates, as he is one of their best prospects who looks poised to break out soon.
Still, he has not shown a power surge at the Major League level yet, blasting just one home run in 39 career games between 2013 and 2014.
Grade: B
Travis Ishikawa, First Base
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Travis Ishikawa is another example of a former Pirates player who is now playing in the World Series. But he etched his name in baseball lore when he blasted the National League Championship Series-clinching home run that sent the San Francisco Giants back to the Fall Classic for the third time in five seasons.
Pirates fans may have temporarily been disappointed that Pittsburgh let him go when he blasted that home run, until it was considered just how poorly he had performed in Pittsburgh.
Ishikawa, who had failed to land a starting job with a team since 2010, when he also was a member of the Giants, batted just .206 in 15 games with the Pirates in 2014 and collected just one hit in his final seven games with the team. The Pirates let him go, as things simply weren't working out between the two sides.
Ishikawa went on to bat .274 in 47 games with the Giants in 2014, which was clearly a major improvement and a great move by the Giants. However, his grade here is strictly based on his performance with Pittsburgh.
Grade: C
Jaff Decker, Left Field
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Jaff Decker was traded to the Pirates from the San Diego Padres during this past offseason.
In 13 games with the Padres in 2013, Decker batted .154 with one home run.
This season, he played only five games with the Pirates, serving as a pinch hitter and failing to collect a hit.
He did perform well in Indianapolis, but he did not do anything spectacular, batting .257 with six home runs in 104 games.
Due to his minimal amount of playing time at the Major League level in 2014, we cannot give him a fair grade here.
Grade: N/A
Matt Hague, First Base
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Matt Hague made his Major League debut in 2012, batting .229 in 30 games for the Pirates.
He then spent the entire 2013 season in Indianapolis, batting .285 with eight home runs.
This season, he was given just two at-bats with the Pirates, going hitless and eventually being claimed off waivers by the Blue Jays.
If Decker's five at-bats were too small of a sample size to grade him on, then Hague's two at-bats surely are as well.
Grade: N/A
Chase D'Arnaud, Pinch Runner
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Chase d'Arnaud appeared in eight games for the Pirates in 2014.
Unfortunately for him, he was never given an at-bat, serving as a pinch runner in all eight of those games.
In 2011, he batted .217 in 48 games for the Pirates, the most games he has ever played in a single season at this level.
Grade: N/A
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