Easily the biggest strength of the Pittsburgh Pirates thus far this season has been the work of the rotation. The starting staff has been among the best not just in the National League, but all of baseball – keeping the team afloat while the offense tries to find its groove.
But while their success of their rotation – especially at the top – has been nice, the idea of going through an entire season without needing some extra help from the minor leagues is crazy. Pittsburgh has already had to dig into their farm system when they recalled Casey Sadler to make his first major league start, and by the end of the year you can expect them to reach back there more than once.
The options in the minors continue to dwindle, however, as the Pirates took a hit to their ‘organizational depth’ yesterday as one of their top prospects – Nick Kingham – became the second of their minor league options to fall victim to the dreaded Tommy John surgery.
Brandon Cumpton, who served as the team’s ‘sixth’ starter last year – bouncing back and forth between Triple-A and the majors and doing well in that role – suffered the same fate as Kingham just before the season started.
Kingham – who has yet to make his major league debut – was a consensus top-100 prospect around the ‘scouting’ circuits who was seen as a potential middle of the rotation starter who could eat up innings behind the team’s young rising stars.
Behind the trio of Gerrit Cole, A.J. Burnett, and Francisco Liriano – the Pirates have a rotation that can go up against any in baseball. Vance Worley and Jeff Locke were relied to fill out innings behind them, and in spurts, they have done so. Getting Charlie Morton back helps further relieve some of the pressure on the top dogs, but it’s hard to believe that the Pirates won’t need options beyond that as the season hits crunch time.
Team’s depth are tested all the time, but rarely are they so the way the Pirates’ are right now – away from the major league team. But no matter how they are tested, their ability to overcome such times will go hand and hand in how far they make it at the end of the season.
