I think that if you asked most Pirate fans which Pirate starter was most in danger of losing his job (or in need of being replaced), Jordy Mercer’s name would be the first to pop into a lot of minds. Somehow, though, the Pirates have pretty decent prospects at almost every position other than short (let’s see, Elias Diaz/Reese McGuire at catcher, Josh Bell at first, Alen Hanson at second and/or third, Austin Meadows and Harold Ramirez in the outfield, and a passel of pitchers). The prospects the Pirates do have that can play short are either recently drafted (Cole Tucker, Kevin Newman, Kevin Kramer), or fringey in one way or another (Max Moroff, who recently moved to second, Adam Frazier, Gift Ngoepe). The starting shortstop’s job is Jordy Mercer’s to lose for the near future.
Mercer’s defense at shortstop is good, but it’s hardly spectacular. When you’re trying to compete in a division that has teams like the Cubs and Cardinals and in a top-heavy National League with five playoff spots for seven really good teams, it’s not easy to carry a 0.5 win player at any position. The Pirates obviously love to put good defense at shortstop, but it’s hard to wonder the limits of that sometimes.
So let’s get all of the caveats out of the way; Jordy Mercer does not have to be a great hitter to be a good shorstop. His 92 wRC+ in 2014 is obviously below average, but it’s more than good enough at shortstop with his defense to be a productive player (he was a ~2 win player that year). He’s started both 2014 (a .400 OPS through May 7th) and 2015 (.423 on May 23rd) really terribly and finished both seasons relatively strongly (.753 OPS from that point in 2014, .688 in 2015, which isn’t great, but would be a good-enough full season output from him). He really hits lefties hard (career .864 OPS). In 2013, he put together a season that would be considered “good” and not just “good for at shortstop” at the plate, when he hit.285/.336/.435.
And so we get a bunch of ifs, “If he can improve against lefties” “If he can start the season better” “If he can find some pop again,” and so on. If he can do those things, he’s fine. The Pirates have no shortstop concerns in 2016. But what if he can’t?
A lot of that depends on Jung Ho Kang, I think. Kang’s health is obviously the big question here, and I’m not sure we can answer it yet. Leaving that question aside, though, part of me wonders if the reason the Pirates signed David Freese wasn’t just to give them insurance for Kang’s recovery, but to get insurance for the occasion that Mercer fails to hit for a second straight year. I wasn’t overwhelmed with Kang’s defense at shortstop last year, but that was mostly a function of his range, because his arm and mechanics are fine. That range should be helped a bit by putting Freese on his right and Josh Harrison on his left; certainly Aramis Ramirez and Neil Walker weren’t doing his lack of range at short any favors. It’s an incredibly small sample size, but his defense graded out as average at short by DRS and about the inverse of Mercer by UZR (Mercer is ~+6 UZR/150 and Kang was ~-6). That’s a difference that can be made up by Kang’s bat, I think, if his injury doesn’t hold back his range or his bat (which, again, is a different story).
To be honest, I find the Pirate infield carousel fascinating. Every year it feels like they go into the season with one or two too many infielders, and every year someone unexpected or somewhat unexpected steps up while someone else falters and you realize that they hit the season with exactly what they needed (last year’s triple-whammy of infield injuries notwithstanding, of course). On Opening Day, Mercer will be the only infield holdover from the 2013 Pirates. If he can’t get his bat back on track, I’m not sure he’ll end the season there.
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