Ben Cherington has mostly been a background piece since he signed on as captain of the Titanic four years ago.

We all knew the deal. Cherington was going to sink to the bottom and start over, just like predecessor Neal Huntington 12 years earlier. It was the only sensible move.

Cherington was going to work in relative anonymity, too, because almost nobody pays close attention to the Pirates. His counterparts in town were always going to get far more attention because their teams always try to win. Those men included Jim Rutherford, Ron Hextall (remember him?) then Kyle Dubas for the Penguins, and Kevin Colbert then Omar Khan for the Steelers.

Every once in a while, Cherington would pop up with some convoluted quotes we’d all heard before, from years of listening to Huntington — both of them constantly forced to talk around the fact that the team owner doesn’t spend enough money.

One of those quotes jumped off the page, however, and fairly threw down the gauntlet for 2024, which will be Cherington’s fifth year as Pirates general manager. He was doing his radio show in mid-September when broadcaster Joe Block asked him if the Pirates could compete for the playoffs in ‘24.

“We’re very optimistic in the direction we’re going,” Cherington said. “We believe that if we do our jobs well enough — by we, I mean literally all of us, starting with myself down to every member of our staff (and) our players — we all have a job to do to help us get better and get into the position you’re talking about. Not just the position you’re talking about, but frankly, beyond that position.

“We want to win more than 84 games. That’s what we’re building toward.”

Wow. OK. Here’s hoping none of the bad offseason news has altered that plan. None of it should. This is the year Cherington’s work must begin to show. This is the year he must recreate some of what Huntington did in working toward the magical 2013 season and run of three straight playoff appearances.

That would include some luck, of course. What might be forgotten about Huntington’s rebuild is that A.J. Burnett and Francisco Liriano did not just take serviceable, Jose Quintana-like turns here. They were dominant.

Liriano was 16-8 with a 3.02 ERA in 2013 after signing for a pittance. He finished top-10 in Cy Young Award voting. Burnett, upon arriving in 2012 in a back-page trade, won 26 games and struck out 399 batters over the next two seasons and lent the team the kind of kick-butt personality this one so sorely needs.

Will newly acquired Marco Gonzales make a Liriano-like leap now that he’s in a National League ballpark? That would be nice. I have my doubts. He’s coming off a rough, injury plagued season.

I also have my doubts about newly acquired first baseman Rowdy Tellez, who turns 29 in March and has one high-quality, full major league season to his credit (and it surely wasn’t last season, when he hit .215 with 13 home runs and a .291 on-base percentage). This smacked of another flea-market signing — hoping for a one-year bounce back on a cheap deal.

The kicker, of course, is that if Tellez regains his form of two years ago, when he hit 35 homers for the Brewers, he probably won’t be back.

Can’t the Pirates go shopping, just once, at a high-end department store? Their payroll likely will be a joke again. Cherington says they will top last year’s opening day figure of $72 million, which probably means $72 million and 10 cents.

Meanwhile, Cherington has been gifted with four top-10 picks, including two No. 1 overall picks, in his four drafts. He’ll pick in the top 10 again in June (ninth overall). It’s time for some of those guys to provide major punch, but questions abound.

Why did the Pirates pick Henry Davis first overall as a catcher if they didn’t believe in his catching abilities? It seems the season-ending injury to Endy Rodriguez is the impetus for putting Davis back behind the plate this season after he played almost exclusively in right field last season.

Then again, if Davis displays the kind of bat befitting a top overall pick, he can leave his glove at the hotel. He better start hitting. The Pirates need him as a middle-of-the-order bat right now. Cherington better have been right.

Nick Gonzales, who turns 25 early in the season, is another issue. He was the seventh overall pick in Cherington’s first draft (2020). He struggled in his first big-league stint last season, which is normal. But is he going to be the starting second baseman this season? Is he going to be a factor at all?

Cherington has been cautious in discussing this past year’s top overall pick, fireballer Paul Skenes, but let’s be very clear about this: Unless Skenes completely flames out in spring training, he needs to be in the rotation within a month of the opener. Preferably Day 1. Nobody cares about saving money down the road or saving a year on his deal in 2029.

Losing starter Johan Oviedo was a blow, but nothing that buying a veteran pitcher shouldn’t fix — and Cherington needs to find the right guy, in addition to hoping Marco Gonzales pans out.

Now is finally here for the Pirates. The bar is competing for a playoff spot. Cherington said so himself. It’s Year 5. We can finally start to fairly evaluate this GM’s early draft picks, his development system, his trades (mixed bag so far) and his ability to strike the right notes at the right time.