Is it too late to fix this team?
The Pittsburgh Pirates have been the laughing stock of Major League Baseball as of late. The drink ad replacing Roberto Clemente’s name and number in right field lit national media ablaze, and the “Bucco Bricks” scandal has been equally embarrassing as the team is seemingly falling apart before our eyes. To add insult to injury, the Pirates are currently one of the worst offensive teams in baseball, sitting below the rest of the MLB in the stat sheets.
This season, the team’s performance has unfortunately been just a nasty continuation of the disaster that was last season.
In 2024, the Pirates did not rank higher than 20th in any offensive category except for steals and walks. Otherwise, it was a nightmare for batting average, hits, homers, and every other offensive stat. To make matters worse, the team ranked fourth for most strikeouts in baseball.
As previously stated, this season has not been going any smoother. The offseason saw the team hire a new hitting coach, with hopes that the team would be able to take their production to the next level with the new members on staff. However, there has been little to no changes on the stat sheets.
Currently, the team is ranked last for home-runs and batting average, and falls into the bottom half of all other offensive categories except for triples and walks. The squad also has the third most strikeouts in baseball. So far, there are 10 players on the team with a batting average below .200, with veterans like Adam Frazier and Tommy Pham being anchors in the batting lineup.
Still to this point, players like Oneil Cruz and Ke’Bryan Hayes have not turned that corner in their development and are not living up to their All-Star caliber status. The first game in the Washington Nationals series was the exception of the season, because other than that game, the team has been mediocre at every turn.
The construction of this roster is laughable, and the team is just plain unwatchable. There are no signs of this getting any better, with every sign possible pointing to this situation getting worse. This is not a team that is going to be able to compete for a playoff spot, or a division title. The canons won’t thunder, there’s nothing to plunder, and the Pittsburgh Pirates ship have sunk to the deep, dark depths of baseball purgatory.