PITTSBURGH -- The focus of the Pirates’ offseason has been changes to organizational leadership, from the front office to the coaching staff. Now, recognizing the rough slide to end their 2019 campaign, the players are beginning to reckon with how to approach peer-to-peer leadership in the new season to start the year on a good note.

Sometimes, the “voice of the clubhouse” can have a cut-and-dry definition. Someone like Joey Votto with the Reds or Ryan Zimmerman with the Nationals commands respect by their pedigree and the years accumulated in their respective organizations. Some teams are young across the board, and leadership springs from the bottom up.

In 2019, the Pirates had a handful of potential leaders -- and maybe more on the way. There were veteran journeymen Francisco Liriano and Melky Cabrera, with a combined 29 Major League seasons. There was an injured Francisco Cervelli, before he was released and signed with the Braves in the second half. Then, there was a whole crew of newer guys -- Bryan Reynolds, Kevin Newman, Jacob Stallings and more -- trying to find their game as well as their role in the Pittsburgh clubhouse.

This year, the Pirates are prepared to worry less about defining the traditional roles and embrace the concept of collective leadership.

Starting pitcher Joe Musgrove, whom new manager Derek Shelton identified as a leader in his press conference Friday at PiratesFest, is on board with that mentality. He remembers the awkward feeling in the clubhouse as the club skidded out of the All-Star break, going 4-24 before recording two consecutive wins (Aug. 12-13).

“I feel like everyone was looking over to their right, to their left for someone to help,” Musgrove said. “We didn’t have any people that were able to step up -- myself included -- and kind of grab the reins of the team and get things back on track.

“We’ve made that very clear this offseason, at the end of last year, that if we want to get things right, it’s going to take help from everyone pulling in the same direction.”

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Though he doesn’t see himself trying to gain “the title or label” of a leader, Musgrove recognizes that as a veteran and a vocal member, he can steer the clubhouse conversation to promote a productive, cohesive environment.

“I just want to encourage my teammates and push them all to take the next step,” he said, “and for us all to hold each other accountable and have one big unit as opposed to feeling like there’s a leader in the clubhouse and a head guy that you’ve got to be careful around.”

Musgrove sees leadership as something that can take many forms, but, ultimately, it comes down to what you do. He pointed to Reynolds and Newman as great examples of players who have become influences on the team by giving their hardest every day.

“I’ve always thought that actions are stronger than words,” Musgrove said. “If you do things the right way and you carry yourself as a professional, those are the kind of things that everyone sees.

“You can be the silent leader that just leads by example and by how you carry yourself.”

That’s not to say that experience doesn’t matter. Jameson Taillon, one of the longest-tenured players in the Pirates organizations, will be rehabbing from his second Tommy John surgery for the majority of 2020, but he and the Pirates are actively carving out ways for him to stay engaged as a guiding presence. He plans to get all the advanced scouting reports and game-plan with pitchers -- a service to both him, as he learns new ideas from the new generation, and to them, providing an experienced voice.

“We’re kind of trying to get creative and come up with ways for me to be around the team,” Taillon said. “I think those guys in there will be better served going forward for what happened last year. I think guys are taking it kind of personally to try to change that and fix that.”

The fresh guiding force of this group, Shelton, can already see the branches of this emerging leadership system as the players have come together this week, some for the first time, and prepare to head into spring camp in a couple of weeks.

“I don’t know what my expectation of that was -- I guess I do -- but it’s further along than I thought,” Shelton said. “It’s a good core group, and they really like each other. And that leads to good things.”