In seven days the Pirates will open the 2025 Major League Baseball season in Miami. This is the most pessimistic I have been in a long time heading into a season. I stirred things up on X. I said the Pirates would lose 100 games. They would come close to having a season like the White Sox of 2024. Do I really think the Pirates are going to lose 100 games? No. I will say this, there is more of a chance of them losing 100 games than winning 80+ games. Is it possible for this team as it presently sits, to play meaningful games in September? For me, the season would be a rousing success if the Pirates played meaningful games in September. Missing the playoffs by about 3 or 4 games would mean they would be in it until the last week of the season. What must happen if the Pirates are going to do this. Maybe not as much as you might think. However, they will need to show a lot of improvement in certain areas.
None more so than the anemic offense, which was not improved at all by any moves in the off season. The Pirates obviously are hoping that a lot of players are going to get better at the plate. This team was 24th in runs scored last year. The Pirates need to make a 20 point improvement on OPS+. I am not interested in who brings the number up. This has to be a team effort. The Pirates do not have a player capable of putting a team on his back. No one can carry it for 2 months. Oneil Cruz comes close to such a player. However, it is way too hopeful to expect him to have an MVP type of season. The Pirates have a new hitting coach. I am not too sure he will improve this club’s offense by 20%. If September baseball is going to have any meaning this has got to happen.
The bullpen must perform better than it did last year. The Pirates added pitching guru Brent Strom as assistant pitching coach. I assume he is going to be out in the bullpen. The Pirates did nothing to really bolster the bullpen. They added two lefthanders via free agency. Both of them are above average relievers and certainly better than any lefty they had last year. Ryan Borucki is another lefty option. When healthy, he pitches well. However, he rarely makes it through a season without something going wrong. The bullpen overall last year ranked 21st in baseball. If the Pirates are going to have any chance, the team will need to improve to a top 10. No matter who winds up being the closer this year, the Pirates must do better than having 29 blown saves. That put them 3rd worst in baseball.
They need to improve defensively. Seems like we say that every year when discussing the Pirates. Except for 3rd base and when Jared Triolo plays, every position player is an average or below average fielder. There is hope that Oneil Cruz can become an average fielding center fielder. I believe that can happen. The rest of the position players are set in their roles. I do not see much of a way for them to improve. Jack Suwinski is a horrible fielder. The same can be said of Henry Davis. Both have a chance of being on the opening day roster. If that is the case, there is no way the defense is going to improve.
That brings us to the strength of this team the starting rotation. I will not question this statement for the moment. If this team is going to contend, the rotation must perform better than the hype has generated. This means the starters need to pitch more innings. They must go deeper into games than just 6 innings. Seven to eight inning starts are going to have to be commonplace. This will ease some of the pressure for the bullpen and give Derek Shelton less chance to mismanage the bullpen. Hopefully some young arms not starting the season on the roster can come up quickly. They will aid the cause. Already bad news for the Pirates as I write this. Jarred Jones has elbow discomfort. Nothing more needs to be said. Next start June 2026.
This is what the Pirates will have to do if they are going to be relevant in September. That is if they stay in their current state. It is still not a given on who will make the 26-man roster. The Pirates already do not have their best pitchers on the team. It is unlikely that the best 13 position players will be on the team. Is it possible that the aforementioned elements for a successful season will happen. As the old saying goes anything is possible. In the next blog I will discuss what could happen in a disastrous season for the Pirates. I will also talk about one intangible that would be the biggest factor in such a season. Even though I think that this is the most likely thing to happen, I still cannot wait until opening day.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 