PITTSBURGH -- The Pirates’ longest road trip of the season couldn’t have started much worse than it did, with a 17-4 loss in St. Louis on May 9, but Pittsburgh returned home on Sunday night with seven wins in 11 games and one of those if-the-season-ended-today Wild Card spots. While the club enjoys a day off, let’s answer some of your questions in the Pirates Inbox.

I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, but could Josh Bell truly follow in Andrew McCutchen's footsteps as the face of the franchise and the next Pirates Most Valuable Player Award winner?
-- James L., Pittsburgh

Josh Bell just earned National League Player of the Week honors, and he’s starting to get national recognition for his incredible start. He’s not just a nice story for the Pirates as the switch-hitting slugger who rediscovered his power stroke. Bell has been one of the most productive hitters in baseball, full stop.

Bell leads the Bucs in WAR, according to Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs. Entering play on Monday, he owned the Majors’ third-highest OPS (1.101) behind only current NL MVP Award favorite Cody Bellinger and reigning NL MVP Award winner Christian Yelich. He and Bellinger entered Monday tied for the Major League lead with 44 RBIs apiece.

There are some things that suggest Bell won’t maintain his absurd .333/.404/.697 slash line. His batting average on balls in play is .366, well above the typical league average, and even Miguel Cabrera has never put up a single-season OPS as high as Bell’s mark.

But Bell’s performance has not been a fluke. Just watch what he’s doing, first of all, and it’s obvious this is a different hitter than we saw last year or even in 2017. Bell is more confident, and that shows from his authority in the batter’s box to his markedly improved defense at first base.

Bell is hitting everything -- fastballs, breaking balls, offspeed stuff -- and he is crushing all of it. As of this writing, he has the Majors’ third-highest average exit velocity, fourth-highest hard-hit rate and fifth-best rate of barrels per plate appearance. Bell's expected batting average, expected slugging percentage, expected weighted on-base average, average exit velocity and hard-hit rate all fall in the Majors’ 97th percentile or better.

Is Bell the face of the franchise? I don’t know. I think we all (myself included) got too eager to fill that void immediately after the Pirates traded Andrew McCutchen. That stuff happens organically over time. Bell is everything you want in a star, though -- incredibly hard-working, thoughtful, a team player, well-liked, and let’s not forget, very good at mashing baseballs to locations that others can only hope to reach.

I’m not going to get too far ahead of myself when it comes to the NL MVP Award race, either. I’d love to look back at who we were projecting to win at this point last year, before Yelich turned into peak Barry Bonds. But at the moment, Bell is absolutely a candidate to be taken seriously.

So what on earth are we going to do with these open rotation spots? Mitch Keller time? More openers?
-- John S., Youngstown, Ohio

I would get used to seeing “TBD” listed to start when it’s not Chris Archer, Jordan Lyles or Joe Musgrove. Jameson Taillon won’t return until July, at the earliest, and we don’t know the severity of Trevor Williams’ right side strain. The Pirates moved Nick Kingham back to the bullpen, and Steven Brault followed opener Montana DuRapau on Saturday in San Diego.

The Bucs' next “TBD” start comes Wednesday. That could be recently acquired right-hander Chris Stratton. It could be an opener followed by Stratton, Brault or Kingham. It probably depends on how much bullpen help Pittsburgh needs behind Archer and whether its preferred opener option has to pitch on Tuesday.

The opener is probably the Pirates' best option at the moment. Brault and Kingham have struggled as starters, but maybe they’ll benefit from the advantages afforded by that strategy, like not having to face the top of the order three times. The back end of their bullpen is taking shape with Felipe Vázquez, Kyle Crick and Francisco Liriano while Keone Kela works his way back, potentially freeing up DuRapau and hard-throwing Geoff Hartlieb to “open” games.

It seems Mitch Keller’s time is drawing near. The Pirates bumped his scheduled Triple-A start from Sunday to Tuesday. The front office is closely monitoring Keller's starts for Indianapolis, looking to see how he incorporates the new slider/cutter into his arsenal.

The Bucs don’t want to call up an unfinished product, though, if they have that choice. Trouble is, they’re getting close to the point -- especially with a doubleheader looming Monday in Cincinnati -- where they may not have much of one.

If Corey Dickerson and Lonnie Chisenhall were to come back, what would the Bucs' outfield look like? Would they be forced to make a trade? They have four really good options as it is. It would be a shame to send Bryan Reynolds down, but that seems inevitable.
-- Jason D., Richmond, Va.

This is a great question, but it doesn’t sound like the Pirates will have to answer it anytime soon. Corey Dickerson is still strengthening his previously strained right shoulder, and he hasn’t yet begun a rehab assignment. Lonnie Chisenhall is healthy, but he took a break from his rehab assignment to “get some things in order,” general manager Neal Huntington said Sunday on his weekly KDKA-FM radio show.

Whenever Dickerson returns, he won’t play every day -- much like Gregory Polanco hasn’t played every day since coming off the injured list. Same goes for Chisenhall, who also has some positional flexibility at first and third base. They’re mindful of Melky Cabrera’s workload, understanding that the veteran is better off in the long haul as a semi-regular who can pinch-hit in big spots. It’s hard to see them sending down Bryan Reynolds unless he really cools off.

Maybe there will be another injury that clarifies things. Maybe they’ll make a trade by the time everyone gets healthy. For now, the Bucs will continue with their four-man outfield rotation. And considering the way this season started, I will continue to be amazed that “too many outfielders” might become a real problem.

Any chance Jung Ho Kang can play shortstop for Indianapolis during his rehab stint, and then, if he finds his swing, do the same for the Pirates? Then Cole Tucker can go back to Indianapolis and fine-tune his skills. He would also delay when his arbitration year would be and when he would eventually be a free agent and no longer playing for the Pirates.
-- Jim W., Dayton, Ohio

I don’t see it happening. Could Jung Ho Kang get a game or two over there to make sure he can handle shortstop in a pinch? Sure. But he hasn’t spent much time at shortstop since 2015, and they already have plenty for him to work on at the plate whenever he gets back into game action.

Colin Moran has been better than Kang, but he isn’t exactly lighting the world on fire offensively. There’s room for both to work at third. One thing Cole Tucker has shown is the value of a plus defender at shortstop, so why downgrade there with Kang’s glove? If anything, it’s more likely that Kevin Newman eats into Tucker’s playing time while Erik González remains sidelined.