Kevin Gorman's Take 5: Signing Jarrod Dyson will force Pirates to make an interesting move

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Pittsburgh Pirates declared one important move Wednesday when manager Derek Shelton named Keone Kela the closer but are waiting to make a formal announcement on another.

Their search for a center fielder to replace Starling Marte brought about an agreement to sign Jarrod Dyson, whose one-year, free-agent deal won’t become official until the 35-year-old passes a physical exam.

To say he has speed is shortchanging Dyson. His Twitter handle, after all, is @mrzoombiya. (Say it in syllables).

That made for a busy morning at Pirate City, where the Pirates had their first workout for pitchers and catchers. We also got a medical update from Todd Tomczyk, director of sports medicine and performance. And Shelton spoke to the media for the first time at camp, conducting a 12-minute post-practice interview.

In that sense, it was a ‘Special’ day.

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1. Took them to Jarrod: The emphasis with Dyson is on his defense, baserunning and postseason experience.

It’s certainly not for his bat.

Where Dyson has ideal speed for a leadoff hitter, he slashed .230/.313/.320 last season in Arizona and is more likely to hit much lower in the lineup.

Although his age and past injury issues could be perceived as a problem, Dyson played a career-high 130 games last season and made 91 starts.

That he’s considered a slight defensive upgrade in center over Marte — a two-time Gold Glove winner — is a bonus that should help improve the Pirates’ play in the field.

2. Usual suspects: Shelton wasn’t shy about saying that All-Star Josh Bell would be the starter at first base, and naming Kela the closer was no surprise.

But Shelton hasn’t committed to naming any other Pirates starters, isn’t ready to select starting pitchers for Opening Day and the home opener or unveil his batting order.

Of course, the first full-squad practice isn’t until Monday and Shelton set the tone by personally informing Kela that he would be the closer before making it public.

“We’re coming in with kind of a blank thought process,” Shelton said. “I have general ideas of where specific guys are going to be, and I have specific ideas of where specific guys are going to be.”

Keone Kela talks about why a walk-out song has never been important to him. Now that he’s been named the Pirates’ closer, he’s open to suggestions. Let’s hear them. pic.twitter.com/uj87CtoxZV

— Kevin Gorman (@KGorman_Trib) February 13, 2020

3. Next move: Once the Pirates officially sign Dyson, they will need to make a corresponding move to clear room for a spot for him on their 40-man roster.

That should lead to an interesting decision.

The odd-man out could be someone like Kevin Kramer, a 2015 second-round draft choice as a shortstop out of UCLA. The 26-year-old was moved to second base and now the outfield, and Dyson could make him expendable.

If the Pirates focus on a pitcher instead of a position player, Dovydas Neverauskas could be a target.

The 27-year-old reliever had a 10.61 ERA and a team-worst 2.36 WHIP over 9 1/3 innings in 10 appearances last season for the Pirates.

4. Good news: Gregory Polanco has yet to arrive at Pirate City, but Tomczyk shared encouraging news when he reported that the Pirates anticipate him to be healthy.

Polanco played only 42 games last season, as he had a rough recovery from left shoulder surgery.

Tomczyk was asked if he was surprised to see how long Polanco’s injury lingered.

“Yes and no,” Tomczyk said. “In my humble opinion, there’s no such thing as a perfect rehab. There will be challenges. … Sometimes it just creeps up on them. As much as we assess, as much as we’d like to think we’re ahead of it, the unknowns are there. In Gregory’s case, as hard as he worked and as diligent as he was with everything he was asked to do and then some, the volume, the intensity eventually caught up with him.”

5. Bad news: The Pirates had 27 players spend time on the injured list last season and their 1,850 man games lost ranked third in baseball, according to spotrac.com.

Those players, who combined for $23.75 million in salary, included starting pitchers Jameson Taillon and Trevor Williams, catcher Francisco Cervelli, shortstop Erik Gonzalez and outfielders Marte and Polanco and Corey Dickerson. The IL proved to be devastating.

Only the New York Yankees (2,776) and San Diego Padres (2,134) had more man games lost last season. The Yankees reacted by firing their strength and conditioning coach.

Tomczyk said he attempted to create more open communication and dialogue with Pirates players, their personal trainers and physical therapists in the offseason for feedback on how they can recover most efficiently.

“I take that personally,” Tomczyk said. “We really peeled back the layers as a team, as an organization and tried to identify reasons why. There wasn’t one specific variable and one specific reason. I don’t believe it was bad luck.”

Even so, the Pirates should be crossing their fingers in search of some good luck this season.

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