There have been several players who have impressed in spring training for the Pittsburgh Pirates, but no one has showed out quite like outfielder Billy McKinney.
McKinney isn’t your typical spring training standout. He isn’t some too young kid who makes you want to believe he’s ready for the majors, even when he isn’t. He isn’t someone coming off a career worst year who is all of the sudden back and better than ever.
He’s just Billy. A 29-year old, journeyman player who has earned his way onto the opening day roster for the Pirates.
McKinney spent last season up and down between Triple-A and the major leagues. In 48 games with the New York Yankees, he slashed .227/.320/.406 in 48 games, and hit 6 homers and 14 RBI.
In 40 games in Triple-A, he hit .274/.388/.511 with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, adding 9 home runs and 25 RBI.
That has kind of been the story of McKinney’s baseball career. With the exception of 2020, he has split every season of his career between Triple-A and the bigs. The term AAAA player was coined with someone like Billy McKinney in mind.
His highest games played total came in 2021, when he appeared in 116. However, that was spent between three different MLB teams: the Brewers, the Mets, and the Dodgers. He played remarkably similar amounts of games for all three teams during his US tour that season, but batted a poor .192 over the year.
McKinney has bounced around between six different organizations since his draft day in 2013. He got his major league debut in 2018 during his first stint with the Yankees.
He has not been an overly impressive major leaguer to date, and when a player is on the cusp of turning 30 years old, the odds of something magically turning around is very unlikely.
However, something has just clicked this spring.
McKinney has played in 16 games for the Pirates during Grapefruit League play, totaling 44 plate appearances (36 at bats). He is batting an absolutely insane .361 over that time, to go along with a .477 on base percentage and .583 slugging percentage.
He has hit 2 home runs and batted in 9 runs, the latter number is already close to what he did in the majors last season (14). Perhaps that was more a sign of a poor year in the majors, but McKinney is shattering the assumptions that were made about him when the Pirates acquired him.
In addition to hitting the ball well, he has also shown a keen eye at the plate. He has been walked 8 times to contrast with only 4 strikeouts.
Over his career, McKinney has had a 26.2% strikeout rate. This spring, it has plummeted to 11.1%. Small sample size, I know, but in 16 games now it’s more than just a complete fluke.
And some of his more powerful hits have come off of great talents pitching him the ball. He hit this home run off former Pirate and two-time World Series champion Charlie Morton.
There is some concern that McKinney’s rise this spring is not sustainable.
His spring training numbers are well out of whack for what he usually is. Over his major league career, McKinnney has slashed .209/.284/.390 with 34 home runs and 86 RBI in over 800 at bats.
At 29, he has very likely shown what his ceiling is as a major leaguer.
There is also a bit of worry about the quality of pitching he has faced. Though that homer off Morton was impressive, it’s not a full indicator of what he has faced.
Baseball-Reference has this really cool stat for spring training called Opposition Quality. It measures how strong of pitching a player in spring training has faced in an attempt to explain their performance. McKinney’s OppQual for all of spring is 7.2, which measures to just stronger than Double-A pitching.
There’s also his constant turnover from organization to organization. Now, you could look at that two ways: teams are giving up on him a lot, or teams are willing to take chances on him a lot.
No matter which side of that debate you would fall on, his absolute explosion this spring cannot go unnoticed. Among Pirates players who have played in 10+ games this spring, McKinney’s .361 batting average is behind only Jared Triolo (.379) and Ke’Bryan Hayes (.421).
With the addition of free agent Michael A. Taylor, the outfield competition got a lot tighter. Realistically speaking, one bench spot is open between McKinney and his competitors, Joshua Palacios and Edward Olivares.
Palacios suffered an injury during the spring, which has limited him to 5 games and 14 plate appearances. However, he has yet to record a hit this spring.
Olivares, meanwhile, has struggled as well. He’s batting .190 in almost the same amount of time/appearances as McKinney.
In fairness, both Palacios and Olivares have faced a higher OppQual than McKinney, at 7.5 and 8.0, respectively. Despite that, McKinney still is way outperforming of them at the plate.
McKinney also has a leg up on both Palacios and Olivares in versatility.
First base is still a bit of a question mark for the Pirates. Though the team expects to platoon it with Rowdy Tellez and Connor Joe, the former has had some struggles at the position.
McKinney could serve as an extra option for the Pirates at first base. He has played 20 innings at first base this spring, and does have prior experience at the position.
McKinney’s experience as a first baseman is limited, just 28 games, but neither Palacios nor Olivares have ever played there.
If McKinney does earn the role, that likely means both Palacios and Olivares start the year in Triple-A. If McKinney fails to keep up the momentum, then you can make the change and bring up either one of those guys instead.
McKinney has done more than enough to earn a spot, for at least the start of the season.
(Featured photo from the Pittsburgh Pirates)
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