BRADENTON, Fla. — The Pirates haven’t revealed much of their plans for the batting order this season.
Part of that is probably due to the team’s typical reluctance to be too open with their plans about anything much before they need to be.
But another part of it is because it’s not exactly a simple construction this year. The Pirates legitimately have a ton of options when it comes to lineup construction and a lot of ways they could go about it.
So far, manager Clint Hurdle has declared that Jordy Mercer will hit eighth, the pitcher will bat ninth, and Josh Bell will man the cleanup spot.