Analyst Offers Intriguing Solution to Pirates' Offensive Woes
The Pittsburgh Pirates are absolutely loaded with impressive young pitching, but unless they can add some bats, they are probably going to struggle.
While the Pirates have an incredible job stocking their organization with live arms, they haven't exactly succeeded in terms of developing hitters.
The problem is that Pittsburgh doesn't spend any money in free agency, so it's not like the Pirates can just go out and buy offensive talent, either.
So, what can they do?
Griffin Floyd of Pittsburgh Baseball Now offers a potential solution: trading out of the surplus of young pitchers to bring in some bats.
"For some of the Pirates’ pitching prospects, their trade value is the highest it will ever be," Floyd wrote. " ... Bullpen woes aside—which are notoriously fickle from year to year—Pittsburgh has the makings of an excellent pitching staff. With more arms than they know what to do with (and well-documented financial restrictions), they’ll need to turn to the trade block in order to overhaul an offense that posted the fourth-worst OPS in all of baseball this season."
The Pirates ranked near the bottom of the majors in every major statistical offensive category in 2024. Not a single player in Pittsburgh's lineup finished with an OPS of .800 or better, with Bryan Reynolds topping the list at .791.
Outside of Reynolds and Oneil Cruz, the Pirates don't have any hitters that will truly strike any fear into opposing pitchers, and with minimal protection in the batting order, Reynolds and Cruz don't exactly get a ton of pitches to hit.
It would certainly behoove Pittsburgh to explore the trade market this offseason and find pitching-needy teams that would be willing to surrender young hitters in return.
The Pirates won 76 games this year and have not made the playoffs since 2015.
