The Pirates are pulling star closer David Bednar out of the ninth inning, manager Derek Shelton told the Pittsburgh beat before tonight’s loss to Cleveland. The team will go with a committee approach for now (X link via Alex Stumpf of MLB.com).
Bednar was one of the best relievers in the majors each season between 2021-23. He posted a sub-3.00 ERA with plus strikeout rates in all three years. Bednar worked as a setup option in 2021 before assuming the closing role in ’22. He made the All-Star Game in both 2022 and ’23 and topped the National League with 39 saves just last season. That’s particularly impressive on a team that finished 10 games below .500.
This year has been far less consistent. Bednar was torched for more than 11 earned runs per nine through the end of April. He turned in an excellent 2.01 earned run average in 23 appearances from the start of May through the All-Star Break, though his modest 20.7% strikeout rate suggested he still wasn’t back to peak form.
The wheels have come back off since the Midsummer Classic. Bednar has given up 16 runs (15 earned) in his last 14 2/3 innings. Opponents have teed off at a .328/.434/.531 slash in 77 plate appearances. Bednar’s strikeouts are still down (20.8%) while his walk rate has spiked to an untenable 14.3% clip. His season hit its nadir on Wednesday. Shelton called upon Bednar to protect a two-run lead against the Cubs. He allowed three hits and two walks (one of which was intentional) while recording two outs. Chicago tagged Bednar for five runs — two of which were inherited runners who scored after he was replaced by Jalen Beeks — and went on to a 14-10 win.
For the season, Bednar now carries a 6.32 ERA through 47 innings. His 22.9% strikeout percentage is six points lower than last season’s mark, which had been the lowest of his career. He’s giving up home runs at an elevated rate of 1.53 per nine innings. Bednar’s 97.2 MPH average fastball velocity is still as strong as ever. Opponents have nevertheless feasted on the pitch, connecting for six homers with a .286 average and .527 slugging mark.
Aside from Bednar, Aroldis Chapman and Colin Holderman have been Pittsburgh’s primary high-leverage arms. Holderman has been out for a few weeks with a sprained wrist, leaving Chapman as the favorite for most of the closing work. Dennis Santana and Carmen Mlodzinski are potential options to pick up save chances if Shelton wants to turn to a right-hander.
How the Pirates handle the ninth inning for the next few weeks isn’t as significant as determining whether Bednar can recapture his lockdown form. A disastrous August has tanked their playoff hopes. As the focus turns toward the offseason, the front office could face questions about Bednar’s future with the organization. Pittsburgh rebuffed trade interest when the big righty was at his peak form. They had an extended control window and probably had some designs on agreeing to an extension with the Pittsburgh native. That’s a tougher call to make coming off the worst season of Bednar’s career.
The 29-year-old is playing on a $4.15MM arbitration salary. The process is designed to escalate salaries even amidst down years, so Bednar’s price tag next year should top $5MM. His track record makes a non-tender difficult to envision, but the Pirates could entertain trading his final two seasons of arbitration eligibility.
They should have done that at least 30 or so losses ago. Replace him with Tellez.
Women might be from Venus but good 2024 closers aren’t from Mars
I’m not defending Bednar, he should have been removed as the closer long ago, but he was also injured during spring training and it was apparent during the early part of the season that the injury didn’t fully recover
Im tired of the excuses. He sucked, flat out. Everyone gets hurt. Spring training isn’t some time where they sprinkle magical pixie dust on everyone and if they aren’t there, they forget how to play.
My brother of the app this is the best written comment of the year
Had they done it 30 days ago, even with his struggles, the market was such that he could have been turned in to something decent.
Your absolutely right. Look at what San Diego gave up for Tanner Scott. Granted Scott is having a much better season, but Bednar’s track record and how he was pitching could have netted the Buccos a nice return.
Whatever happened to this guy? He still throws hard. No loss of velocity I can see. It’s really strange.
Loss of control of his secondary pitches. Hanging splitters, unable to get his curve consistently over. Batters sitting on the heat which he’s also been off on location.
From what I seen, looks like he has no command or confidence. Throws his off speed all over the place like the other comment said and teams just teeing off on his fastball. Didn’t play in spring training but had more than enough time to ramp up. Even when he was getting saves, he wasn’t dominant like season’s past.
*closes barn door after all of the horses had already escaped*
Wondering the same. Maybe tipping? Nibbling too much(walks are up)? Bad framers?
Time to walk the plank matey, yo ho ho.
I’m curious if this is on Shelton or GMBC.
Part of me thinks they wanted to keep running him out there in hopes that he’d return to form and drive his value up for a off season trade
Keep running him out there is fine. But when its clear he doesnt have it that night, have another guy ready to go.
Take Wednesday for example… rocket, rocket, rocket for an out. Up 10-8, one out with two runners on. No movement in the bullpen, nothing, when they should be stalling to get someone warmed up in a hurry. And its not the first time this year he’s come in and obviously has nothing. But ol Shelty leaves him in there to continually blow games. No wonder he has awful numbers. Shelton just hangs him out there to struggle and give it up.
Shelton did it again last night when he left a reliever in after having given up a 2 run homer and didn’t have anyone warming up in the bullpen
So what happens?, the Guardians score 4 runs, lead blown and the Bucs lose
Shelton not only doesn’t know how to manage the bullpen, he doesn’t know how to manage games
He and other coaches seem like they now care more about managing their pristine little bullpen arms than actually winning games.
In the universe timeline where I come from, Shelton was ejected and Don Kelly was the manager last night.
Shelton is the problem. Takes an experienced 1b in Tellez out, puts Joe in. Ball hit to Joe that easily should’ve been a DP. Joe doesn’t step on first before throwing to 2nd. Do it right and it’s 2 out, no one on. 6 runs eventually scored before that 3rd out.
Cherington and his entire staff need to lose their jobs
Star closer? Stars don’t have an ERA over 6, next year if say Ryan helsey played that bad he wouldn’t still be a star
My expectation for Helsley is different. The Cardinals will likely go to arbitration with him this winter. If he doesn’t get the raise he wants, he will likely take a page from the Jack Flaherty playbook and manage to stay injured most of next season. Then he will walk in free agency and leave the Cardinals front office wiping the drool off their bow ties and wondering how it all went wrong.
That would be sad, but I could also see a story like that happen
Helsey is the best closer in the game, his 100+ mph fastball on top of that hard slider is unhittable
I’m not saying Helsley isn’t awesome. He is. But also amount of saves opportunities can vary. He’s been on a team that has been ahead often enough with few blowouts, so a closer like him would get more chances (which he’s been amazing at converting!) than if the exact same pitcher was the closer for say the Dodgers or the White Sox.
Emmanuel Clase fans would like to mention 0.71 era.
Helsley isn’t the best closer in baseball…
Cutch fans would like to remind Clase fans that before last night he had only given up one homer all season
what the article was referring to was his previous saves from other seasons and his 2 AS selections
you can’t be that ignorant
Evidently, yes.
Clase is the best closer this year, in the year 2024, I meant it as like a broad topic
I don’t see clase throw as many immaculate innings, I don’t see clase have as much ride on that slider
It’s a topic reasonable people can disagree on (even though people probably think I have downs-syndrome)
The best closer argument depends on the situation. You will do fine with the guy with the lowest era most of the time. But some times you would want to take the guy with a higher era but much better strike out numbers.
Idea of a closer is another discussion. Many times the best bata come up in the 8th inning. Or the best hitters in the 9th are all from the side of the plate that hits your closer better. Seems primitive to ignore matchups and just have a guy designated for the 9tb inning no matter what. Apparently analytics haven’t taken over baseball yet. “But pitching in the 9tb is different” Agree. Getting the final 3 outs is the hardest. But pitching in the 8th as a setup man seems just a stressful? Where do closers come from? Do former 7tb 8th innings guys who become closers always struggle and take years to become closers? If we don’t score 1 run I will use my closer. But if we score 1 run it won’t be a save situation so I won’t. It’s the bottom part of the pirates lineup that has 3 hits and 16 strike outs lineup. I won’t be able to use him tomorrow. But I want to get him another save stat. Idea of a closer is a awful idea to me.
Dream- The Indians used their best reliever Andrew Miller very successfully in this regard..
Do you really think that Cherington and Shelton are smart enough to be able to do that if they have only one closer if he is pitching well?
The biggest thing with a closer is being cocky enough and having the stuff to be able to get the LAST three outs.
But that confidence has to apply to coming into a very tight game with men on base too.
It puts the manager into an awkward situation if it does not work out,however.
Hopefully Francona is fully mended and would consider coming here.
They lost their chance on getting Shildt.
Francona is gone for good, extremely unlikely for him to pull a Bruce Bochy or Tom Brady
Cherington and Shelton would have been fired already is most or all other franchises. Complete idiots.
“It puts the manager into an awkward situation if it does not work out,however.” Only weak managers who need to be fired. When you are good at something you know it and have confidence. Ideal manager wouldn’t care at all what fans and media think.
Francona is from Pittsburgh and he might be convinced into coming back from retirement to manage his home town team
Closers are a luxury. Should have traded him for a ransom when they had a chance a couple years ago.
Dumbest management team in baseball. Easily.
Dreadful for my fantasy keeper league. I removed him from the closer role a while back. Same with A Diaz on the Reds.
Another example of why rebuilding teams should sell high on relievers
Good. Guy’s cooked.
On the other hand, I bet Nutting regrets hiring Cherington in the first place 5 years ago
This will be the 5th consecutive season finishing at below .500 and a very good chance of a last place finish
He certainly would be if that rumor was true.
He shouldn’t regret hiring him. Might regret extending him. Probably not. Is anyone going to be surprised if Cherington is gm 2025? If so Nutting doesn’t have any regrets whatsoever.
Cherington did ok with the rebuild. Failed at rebuilding development. But did well other areas. Fine job. But like in Boston another gm is needed to finish what he started. Unfortunately there is no DD out there and even if there was they wouldn’t be interested in working for Bob Nutting. But any gm can’t do any worse short term and could possibly do better. Keep firing and hiring until you get the gm needed to build the farm system that’s needed.
if the rebuild was that successful where’s the future first baseman?
Anywhere. It’s the easiest position to find. Better ? is where is the cf rf 3b ss 2b catcher dh? Cruz can take one of those spots. Bart looks to take the other. Still a lot of holes to fill before you get to 1b. Good thing is they found Santana. Found Rowdy. Should be able to find someone again even if it’s Santana Rowdy. Barts your 1b though if they ever find a catcher.
They should really make sure that Bart gets lots of reps at first base in ST.It is a much easier position to play than catcher and I think that as such his hitting can much more easily come even more to the forefront.
It is a similar idea as to why I think that Davis should be taught to play RF,and should have played there in AAA this year.
Mendoza’s and Dream’s suggestions to turn certain players into first basemen are good but probably not likely.
This franchise doesn’t think that way and only sent Cruz to play center due to his erratic play at shortstop
Instead first base will continue to be held by one year free agents.
By the way, AAA didn’t seem to help Davis at the plate.
Don’t closers on bad teams have more save opportunities due to their team not blowing out the opponent more often?
I forget who once said “You can’t save a loss”. Perhaps it was me. Or Ben Franklin.
MLB one of the few jobs where you can do an awful job and still get a raise from the arbitrator. I remember the Pirates had a pitcher who was 0-10 or something and he got a raise.
MLB arbitration rules don’t apply to bad stats, it applies to years of service
That’s what the players union agreed to
Maybe the Red Sox can trade Teel and Mayer for him, claiming that with a little work, Bednar can return to be a star closer.
He’ll be fine next year. This happens with closers. The list is long.
Always-That May or May not come to pass but I would not try to trade him now as he is at his lowest level.
Possibllities for his incompetence?
1.loss of confidence with bringing in Chapman
2 overconfidence based on previous success
3 Injury affecting him like it did in spring training
4 awful management in that he was demoted much later than even when MLBTR posters generally agreed that it should be done
5 just plain having a bad year with lack of feel for off speed pitches
I saw the same thing with Jack Suwinski this year.The Pirates are horrible at developing young players.They are also bad at getting young players back on track.
It is pretty obvious to everyone but Nutting that all or most of this crew has needed to be replaced yesterday.
It is a fundamentally flawed organization,and it has nothing with Nutting not spending money.
So I guess the Pirates will be sort of a placeholder team?
Never any expectations of being a contender, or even having a winning season, but they have a beautiful ballpark where major league teams will come to and play.
This season was the closest they’ve been to an “all-in” year in quite some time. Acquired talent and were relevant until the trade deadline. I think BC needs to be on a scalding hot seat because if this group doesn’t work, what then?? Another tear down? Not much to tear down. Acquire a decent 1B or OF, another reliever, and find the right lineup mix for the guys they have. Yinzers think money solves everything but guys usually are free agents for a reason. Their old team didn’t want to pay for them. They need to develop their own and hit on a fa or two. Because someone like Soto or Bregman will never sign here.
or free agent players don’t sign with their former team because it’s too costly
Can anyone say “ ohtani “?
Hole- I actually think that the Pirates have young talent that if developed properly can provide a winning team if the relievers can come back to pitch well next year.
C Endy
1b Bart
2b Gonzalez
SS Williams or trade
3b Hayes
LF Reynolds
CF Cruz
RF Davis
DH Cutch or trade
Inf utility Triolo and IKF
Out utility Suwinski and De la Cruz
C Delay
I wouldn’t count Hayes for next year not knowing if his back problems will heal and Delay is out of options, he might take the free agent route this winter
Hopefully Hayes will be recovered by then but he should not play the rest of this year.
You are correct Delay is out of options but what that means is they could not send him down next year without putting him on waivers first.
Finally, this is something that should have been done at least three weeks ago. His stuff is still there, but his curveball command has been all over the place. I have never seen so many high and tight curveballs in one season from a reliever. But the bigger problem is Shelton being super subborn. Bednar and Holderman have combined to give up the winning run nine times this month. Perfection is unreasonable from any reliever, but the manager refuses to give guys breathers. Like how do you expect someone to turn it around when you put them in the least adventageous situations possible? I never thought Shelton was a horrible manager until this year, but I guess that’s what happens when you actually have a roster with potential and you mismanage it. He keeps doing it with Henry Davis. Pirates called him up when Bart hit the IL, and he’s still putting Grandal out there more often. If you’re going to keep Grandal as the primary backstop, then just call up Jason Delay. Davis needs regular reps. Cherington probably doesn’t want to call up Billy Cook or Nick Yorke because he knows that Shelton will start Billy McKinney and Alika Williams instead.
MLB- I have always thought that Shelton was clearly below average if not close to bad.
But everything you say,and it is all accurate,probably has BC’s imprint on it.
And Nutting evidently gave Shelton an additional year or years on his contract.
He did the same stupid thing to NH and Hurdle and had to pay them for two years for nothing,
I will say that Nutting really does not seem to have a clue about baseball and being in charge as he gives too much power to hIs GM.
All Nutting seems to care about is his profits and while I understand because he’s a businessman first and foremost, he still should care about the team that he owns
I would think he has to know how badly the Cubs beat them last week and that they are in last place in their division
I’ll give BC a little leeway, because I think he’s far from the problem. Shelton doesn’t want to play his own guys half the time and it feels like he’s throwing darts at a wall to see who starts and who gets called up next. I 100% believe that if roster management was all up to Cherington, Burrows, Yorke and Cook would have already been here, and none of Williams, McKinney, or German would have, and neither McKinney nor German would have even gotten the call.
Shelton certainly isn’t in charge of player development in the minors and I am referring to position players not pitchers
Name the last position player drafted by BC that became a solid major league hitter and Gonzalez can’t be included, he hired his own hitting coach to straighten out his plate approach
Cherington hired Shelton. Extended Shelton. Could have fired Shelton at any point. Sheltons still here! He’s always been a horrible manager. Only thing he is good at is teams mental happiness and attitude. They play for him. Don’t quit. Can basically bring anyone in and they get along. But his lineups, reliever usage, etc has always been the same.
What purpose does it serve to make such public declarations about the way you intend to map out and use your bullpen? Or position players too for that matter (Cruz in CF). Why not just use guys how you see fit on any given day and not put them in narrowly defined neat little boxes?
MLB1225, Shelton started McKinney in last night’s game over De la Cruz and Mckinney struck out twice in his three plate appearances
There’s no rhyme or reason for any of his line ups. Regardless if Shelton has ever been given a fair chance it serves this franchise no purpose to bring him back. Players need someone who will hold them accountable. Shelton is nothing more than a whipping boy for the front office. He needs to be replaced
To little to late but Chapman is about the only reliable reliever they had this year and he will have a lot of options next year so he won’t be back. Holderman was a borderline all star before the break but drastically fell off a cliff after that. A lot of questions going into next year about this pen and team. This is a make or break off season for the Bucs
there’s so many questions going into next season, you would need a 4 x 8 chalkboard to list them all
Pirates should let Bednar figure it out. Not like this decision is going to get them to the playoffs.
MFF-Generally that’s true but he has been so awful that even Pirates management is smart enough to say No Mas.
Goes to show you can have tons of pitching but still not have enough. Bullpen was supposed to be a major strength. He and Homderman out Shelton in such a tough spot because they were supposed to be 8th and 9th and he couldn’t rely on them at all. They’d sometimes get good games from Stratton, Nicholas, and Santana but they’re also young/fringe guys and not consistent to be leaned upon. Chapman was a rock for a long time after having some early hiccups.
With even an average bullpen, we’d still be talking playoffs.
It was actually fairly good for a 2-3 months but then Bednar and Holderman suddenly went from very good to awful and Shelton was too stupid to figure it out.
“ Shelton was too stupid to figure it out “
This should be included on his resume when he looks for another job
Shelton is THE problem; mismanages pitching, jacks with the lineup every day, & in game decisions suck. We should easily be locked in a playoff position already just with all the games they’ve blown late. Shelton has worried about the long term effect on a young.player more than winning for too long. He will never be a winner. If he took over managing the Dodgers; they’d miss the playoffs. Pulling Skenes after 80 pitches & 6 innings& a 10-3 lead
Sorry, didn’t mean to post an incomplete comment. Pulling Skenes then losing a 10-3 lead & losing 14-10 should have cost him his job already. With a month left, who else or what else can he destroy?
losing 18-6 that included 21 hits and 8 stolen bases last happened in the majors in 1912
They only have two players who can play first base and Tellez has had a far better offensive year than Joe
The people who haven’t fired Shelton yet are the problem. He’s going to keep managing until he is 80 years old until you tell him he can’t. Obviously gm president ownership is pleased with his performance. He’s the same exact manager he has always been. Instead of replacing him they extended him.
Triolo IKF Grandpal can all play 1b. And most infielders should be able to learn it fairly quickly. A catcher should be able to learn it. Outfielders are a different story but many of them used to be infielders at some point. 1b is never a issue. Lack of talent at all the other positions is.
The Bucs are 25th in baseball in total attendance this year with 1.5+ million fans averaging about 22k per game at home
They are around 25th in seating capacity and have Pittsburgh weather so the attendance rankings don’t have much room to go up.
Every city has weather in the summer Dream, and no different than Pittsburgh
Kansas City has drawn less fans to their stadium than the Bucs, and they have even worse potential bad weather since they are located in Tornado alley
Weather is just an excuse
Summer weather isn’t the problem. Weather isn’t the main problem. Seating capacity and demographics is the problem.
According to some estimates, Pirates have 26th largest market, so being 25th in attendance is a little better than one should expect. Bigger cities should have higher attendance. In evaluating a business, one often looks at market penetration. Teams such as Milwaukee do very, very well whereas the White Sox this year fail.
Pittsburgh has all kinds of problems other cities don’t. Population. The wealth of the population. Seating capacity. Those are the main ones. But put pnc in ny la etc and their attendance plummets. It’s just not big. Milwaukee has a dome. Packers not in same city. NY DC the ocean aren’t a easy drive away. Pittsburgh has another team in same state.
But the bigger problem that the Pirates have had for nine years is that they have been mediocre then awful then bad and who wants to pay money to see them.
Awful for 20 straight years. I would guess there was fans who never came back. And potential fans lost.
Gained fans in 2013 2014 2015. Failed to explain the Cutch Cole trains so casuals would understand. Failed to explain the 2020 2021 rebuild.
Pirates have too good of fans and too many of them. They don’t deserve it.
the outlying areas of the city are mostly rural with less population which also decreases television coverage and interest
Should’ve traded when his value was at an alltime high. No reason to hang on to a closer on a team that isn’t anywhere near competing for anything for a couple more years at least. Smh
2 seasons 2 trade deadlines 2 off seasons. His name in trade rumors was mentioned a lot. Missed opportunity.
Attendance per game pnc park
2021 10,611
2022 15,524
2023 20,131
2024 22,459
Sorry to inform you but you have a severe case of Nutting Derangement Syndrome
apparently you suffer from reading comprehension disorder, Dream but it’s not surprising
Person said attendance is dwindling,smaller and smaller. It’s obviously not. What’s your problem?
me? I don’t have a problem
Paul- Dream was responding to New Bucco with his Attendance per game post,not you.
That is why I generally headline with the poster’s name as I have found that there could be confusion during these long threads.
and the strikeouts continue
got a new job and havn’t gotten to see much at all this month. Even when Dave was doing “okay” it was always nerve wracking. He should have been pulled from the role early on but to be fair, the pen was also fairly shaky and there was no clear cut replacement.
At the deadline there was hope Daves non-total failures would continue to get better but it was soon clear it wasn’t. I believe I mentioned here a few times in July getting a stable pen arm at the break would be a good idea… if it wasn’t here it was somewhere 🙂
Dave still has an arm though, it just needs to be pulled out of action to find out wtf is going on and hopefully find a fix. I’d put 10 of TheMan3s dollars into that it has something to do with the coaching staff.
and the strikeouts continue through the 5th inning now with 7
And the strikeouts continue against a pitcher that isn’t known for striking out batters and now has 8 in 6 innings
Nice job, Andy
it’s September 1 and there’s no indication that they have made any moves from either releasing players or promoting them
Borucki off 60 day IL and Holderman off 15 day IL.
one of the most productive players recently isn’t in the lineup today, instead one of the least productive players is, Michael A Taylor
Shelton never plays to win and when they do win it’s not because of him