2021-22 Offseason: Winter Activity & review

[Cardinals]

One of the worst years for the Pirates in recent history. What looked like a 6-8 week injury for Trout in May kept him out inexplicably all year. As the timeline kept getting pushed back I kept asking myself if I had the horses to win without him - and the answer was no. This led to actually selling assets around the trade deadline.

The result was barely hanging on to the NL Central, defeating AZ in the NLDS but then being a few players short in the NLCS against Philadelphia. All 5 games were close but one, but we ended up on the wrong side of four of them. Getting to the NLCS itself was a minor miracle.

Going into the offseason with this in Pittsburgh:

C Garver
1B Belt
2B Baez
SS Crawford
3B Arenado
LF Rosairo
CF Trout
RF Luplow
DH Yuli

SP is a bit of a mess but features guys who will produce solid innings in Taillon, Wainwright, Bumgarner, Hill, Archer (ha!). We'll need to add SP and RP this offseason to compete for a championship in 2022.

The real takeaway from this year for me was being able to restock the farm. We've got six picks in the top 100, including the third overall selection. Added prospects that I am excited about in Kowar, Nootbaar, Otto, Schmidt, Tena, Yepez, Eder, Herz, Killian, Pfaadt and Vera.

As with most offseasons, nearly everybody is available so the list of players that I have going into the season in April may look quite a bit different, but this is the starting point headed into an important offseason for the Bucs.