MLB Network Doubts Pirates' Competing in NL Central
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates start their regular season in less than a week with optimism, but not everyone believes they're ready to breakout this year.
MLB Network host Robert Flores and analyst Anthony Recker spoke on MLB Tonight about the starting rotation and the opening day lineup for the Pirates and Recker casted doubts on the Pirates competing.
Recker said that while he liked the addition of free agent outfielder Tommy Pham, he believes the Pirates didn't add enough to a team that finished in the bottom third of runs scored in 2024.
He also wants to see players like centerfielder Oneil Cruz and third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes breakout and even praised players like catcher Joey Bart and second baseman Nick Gonzales.
Still, Recker doesn't think that the Pirates have enough offensively, even with a strong starting pitching rotation, to compete in the National League Central in 2025.
“Look [Pham]'s a good addition, but they finished 24th in runs scored last year. We have all these fancy statistics and analytical numbers that try to encapsulate how good a team is offensively. What it comes to down to is how many runs do you score? They weren’t good at it last year.
“Joey Bart went deep last year, but where are they going to get the offense. Look, Oneil Cruz has to take a step forward, we thought it was going to happen last year, didn’t happen. He has to take a step forward."
“Ke’Bryan Hayes, I just talked about him. He has to take a step forward, but it’s been a long time and we just haven’t seen it yet."
“Actually, I like Nick Gonzales as their second baseman. From an offensive standpoint he can do somethings, but I just don’t see enough right now to make me say right now, they’re going to be better than the Cubs, they’re going to be better than the Brewers and they’re going to be better than the Reds, because those three teams, I really like the Reds, but I think the Cubs are better and I still think the Brewers are a good team.”
