The Pirates think they could still — maybe? — contend in 2018

At baseball’s winter meetings in December, Pirates general manager Neal Huntington suggested the team’s front office was in a bit of a no man’s land — not quite sure whether it was going to contend in 2018, or whether its own window had been pushed back until 2019.

The trades of Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole on Saturday and Monday seemed to indicate the Pirates were taking the latter approach.

Or did they?

On Monday night at PNC Park, Huntington, president Frank Coonelly and owner Bob Nutting didn’t exactly promise a World Series in 2018. But they did suggest that perhaps this season’s Pirates could, at the very least, surprise in 2018 — much like the 2017 Arizona Diamondbacks, Milwaukee…