PITTSBURGH — It’s been a challenging year for infielder Pedro Ciriaco, who has traveled from Pittsburgh to Triple-A Indianapolis six times this season. His last trip to the steel city, however, insured he would be staying until the remainder of the season.
“Obviously he’s dealt with a lot of challenges this year,“ Manager Clint Hurdle said. “I think there’s been a point in time this year where he’s made more flights than had at-bats. We’re trying to equal that out.”
Ciriaco has appeared in 13 games with the Pirates this season, just two of them starts. The 25-year-old said the lack of playing time has been challenging.
“It’s a little hard,” Ciriaco said. “Coming from the bench, hit the ball, you got to be prepared for any situation. It’s the National League, there’s a lot of change and moves so you got to be ready to hit everything.”
In 19 at-bats with the Pirates this season, Ciriaco is batting .318 with two doubles, one triple, six RBI and one stolen base. Ciriaco proved to be the hero in the Bucs 6-5 win last night, hitting a two-run double in the bottom of the 8th inning to plate the eventual winning run.
“When you’re here, you want to be here. You don’t want to go down. I just try to be more consistent, to be here and stay here,” he said.
Despite the lack of playing time, Ciriaco has kept a great attitude with the organization, keeping himself ready for when he is called upon.
“His attitude has been very, very good,” Hurdle said. “I think that’s very, very smart by him. I mean, when you think about it, you don’t have a good attitude and you’re getting big league [opportunities], it usually doesn’t play to your advantage. But he’s been smart with it. He knows what’s been asked. He understands the option probably as good as any player ever has, what the option means. And he’s just rolled with it.“
“Every time he’s been here, he’s looked at it as a learning experience. He’s prepared to play. Every time he’s gone down, he’s gone down with a little to do list. He’s marked things off and done them. He’s been proactive with his game. He hasn’t tried to figure anything out, played General Manager, played Manager. He’s just been player.”
Ciriaco played the majority of his games at shortstop but did appear in six games in the outfield this season. The organization originally said after spring training that they wanted to get him more playing time to make him into a super utility player. That idea has not been unplugged.
“More often than not, when he was here, he was playing shortstop at Indy because somebody else was [playing in the outfield],” Hurdle said. “[We] got him playing second still. We anticipate him playing some outfield in winter ball as well. Super U has not been unplugged. The interesting thing about Pedro is when you break down from a scouting eye, skill set, it is very difficult to find that player now. So that’s why I want to continue to make sure I try to take different looks at him, different opportunities here that we don’t miss something.”
Photo credit: Yahoo! Sports
Discussion about this post