It’s early May - no, you’ve heard enough about 20-8, how about mid-June? It’s the morning of June 15th, 66 games into the season and the Pittsburgh Pirates are in first place of the NL Central.
They lost SS Oneil Cruz after just nine games to a (presumably) season ending ankle fracture, offseason acquisition 1B/DH Ji-Man Choi also went down after nine games with an Achilles injury and would not return until July.
They had lost two MLB starters — J.T Brubaker and Vince Velasquez — to season ending elbow surgery, and Roansy Contreras and Luis Ortiz are really struggling.