PITTSBURGH -- After taking a good look at his swing last month, Billy Cook determined it was time for a change. If it wasn’t a feel thing, the results on the scoreboard was enough to go back to the lab. After a breakthrough campaign last season that got him onto the Pirates’ roster and the organization’s list of their top prospects, Cook (No. 18 per MLB Pipeline) was hitting just .182 with Triple-A Indianapolis at the end of April, with a near 30% strikeout rate.
So for three days, Cook went back to the cage. He wasn’t in the lineup. He needed a change. Throughout the process, one thought stuck with him:
“Just stick with it. It’s going to work.”
“You want to find success, and sometimes that’s just trusting what you’re doing and the work, and sometimes it’s tinkering,” Cook said in Detroit during Pittsburgh’s most recent road trip. “Obviously for me, it was a little bit of tinkering.”
That tinkering led to a wider stance for Cook, something that is hardly foreign to the 26-year-old outfielder. Cook had a wider stance throughout most of his pro journey, but he had a “tall” season in 2024, getting closer together. The results were encouraging last year, enough so that the Pirates acquired him in a prospect swap with the Orioles just before the Trade Deadline. Cook was promoted to the Majors in September, and he showed some flash and the knack for the big play, especially in the field.
You have to be able to produce offensively to stick in the Majors, though. Cook had a chance to crack the Opening Day roster this spring, but his slow start at the plate got him optioned to the Minors on March 22. After a rough April, he opted to move off of the taller, more narrow stance that helped him hit 20 home runs across the Minors and Majors in 2024. The hope was a wider stance would help with his timing and get his mojo back at the dish.
“It’s definitely freed everything up a little and kept it more consistent,” Cook said.
So far, it’s worked, and Cook was hitting .444 (24-for-54) in June with Indianapolis before being recalled on Wednesday, and he followed that by picking up two hits in his first three games with the Pirates, including one off the bench in the club’s 6-2 loss to the Rangers on Friday night at PNC Park. He acknowledged that his swing is still a work in progress, with the most obvious omission on his statline being that he is still yet to homer, but it’s a really good start that warranted the promotion.
“Tried to keep everything simpler than it was,” Cook said. “That’s been the approach: keep everything really simple and just find a way to get the bat on the ball. It’s been working well this month.”
How long Cook is in The Show is up in the air. He was recalled because Bryan Reynolds was placed on the paternity leave list, so this could theoretically be just a cup of coffee back in the Majors. Considering where he was a month ago searching for his swing, a cup of coffee sure beats a wakeup call.
During his time up in the Majors last year, Cook fully realized the value of consistency. It’s great to show potential, but nothing compares to showing a team what you can provide each game.
“That’s part of this change,” Cook said. “Last year I felt a little inconsistent. There was a lot of good, a lot of things I needed to work on. The wide stance has definitely helped find a little more consistency. That’s, I think, the biggest thing, especially for me. You kind of have some speed, some power, but how can you do it day in and day out and not show flashes here and flashes there? Have it show every day.”