Jack Suwinski was one of the biggest talking points surrounding the Pirates during the first half of the season.
Though he was just one of many underperforming players that the Pirates rostered at the time (and still do today), Suwinski’s struggles were particularly frustrating to watch.
The outfielder appeared in 88 games for the Pirates, and frequently was a disaster at the plate. He slashed .182/.264/.324, and looked absolutely lost in the major leagues.
He had 9 home runs and 26 RBI during that time, and perhaps the prospect of Jack hitting a long ball kept him around far longer than it should have.
He was very briefly optioned by the Pirates in May, but was only in Triple-A Indianapolis for a week as injuries and other temporary departures forced the Pirates to recall him.
He improved modestly to a .193 batting average from June 4th onward, but he was still constantly tabbed as one of Pittsburgh’s most struggling batters. The option was not long enough for Suwinski to have any time to actually work on any aspect of his game, both offense or defense.
But, unfortunately for Suwinski, a much longer stint in Indianapolis would not yield any better results for the 26-year old.
Suwinski was optioned again days before the MLB trade deadline, as the Pirates had, at the time, been well suited to make some mid-level additions to their roster and, if all went well, snag a wild card spot in the National League.
The changes that Pittsburgh made to their outfield have not worked out; Bryan De La Cruz has been massively underwhelming, both at the plate where he is a strikeout machine, and in the outfield, where he has a bad habit of fumbling the baseball.
However, getting Suwinski out of there was still probably the right call, given the way his Triple-A tenure has gone ever since his second option back to Victory Field.
Heading into yesterday’s Indians game in Columbus against the Clippers, Suwinski had appeared in 14 games for the Pirates’ top farm team and had recorded a miserable .083/.224/.146 slash line.
He had gone 4-for-48 against Triple-A pitching since his demotion, and saw his playing time reduced more and more as he routinely failed to hit. Suwinski had also been hitless in his last half a dozen games, and had notched a single hit inis most recent 39 at-bats.
I really don’t want to pile on, but if you’ve been keeping tabs on his time with the Indians over the last few weeks, it’s almost unbelievable what is going on with him.
But, in a month that has been full of doom and gloom for Suwinski, he finally caught a break. Yesterday Suwinski snapped those bad streaks with a deep shot into right field vs Columbus.
Despite a truly solid performance by pitching prospect Mike Burrows, the Indians lost against the Clippers, 5-1. Suwinski’s solo homer was Indianapolis’ only offense on the day.
His stat line yesterday might not have been all that much but sometimes all it takes is one hit to start a turnaround, and the Pirates better hope that becomes the case.
Suwinski’s ability to hit at the major league level is crucial, especially at a time where a majority of their best hitters are not homegrown, and the organization looks less and less able to develop any hitters on their own.
Suwinski looked like he could help buck that trend. Last season, he embraced the role of power hitter, leading the Pirates in home runs while putting up only a .224 batting average.
He still had some work to do, but a player that is in the 30 home run range will always have a spot in your lineup.
This year, though, was nothing short of astonishing in how quickly Suwinski had fallen. Look, somebody who hits 26 home runs in a season clearly has talent, and enough of it to compete for a major league roster spot. But this year’s version of the Chicago native looked like a complete stranger to us all, and to the sport of baseball in general.
Suwinski will be one of the names that we should keep an eye on as the minor league season starts to wrap up. Unlike current Indy players Nick Yorke, Billy Cooke, and Henry Davis, Suwinski won’t be all that high up on anyone’s recall list when MLB rosters expand. So, there’s a decent chance that Suwinski is stuck in Triple-A for the remainder of the season.
If so, he needs to prove that he can turn things around down there, and rather quickly. It’s the first of several steps he needs to eventually get himself a ticket back to Pittsburgh.
(Featured photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images)
Fifth Avenue Sports 
Leave a comment