PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It’s all talk until there is action, but Pirates general manager Ben Cherington at least admits that the 2025 Pirates were not good enough.
“It’s clear to me we’ve got to improve the roster, and that certainly includes on the position player side,” Cherington said Monday as he confirmed he will return for the 2026 season.
That’s pretty obvious, the Pirates scored the fewest runs in all of baseball. Just to give you an idea, in the division, they were 106 runs shy of the Cardinals, who finished fourth in the NL Central in runs scored. They were so lacking power, the Pirates had the fewest home runs in MLB, by 31. The Pirates had 117 home runs, compare that to the Yankees with 274. They were dead last in slugging percentage (.350) and OPS (.655).
Cherington admitted to mistakes, he said he’s getting clearer on the types of traits in hitters that they need to make a bet on. You can see that in the draft, but it hasn’t manufactured itself in free agency. If you think they will be a player for established bats, think again.
“In Pittsburgh, we need to be making bets on guys who are not proven,” Cherington said. “We may be able to make some bets on guys that are proven, and we'll pursue that too, but some of the targets have to be guys who are unproven. And I believe we're getting more clear all the time on what the combination of traits are that we should be making the best bet on.”
That’s not the most encouraging news. That sounds suspiciously like they aren’t going to spend money. That it’s another year where the most expensive new bat free agent is a 37-year-old left-fielder or bringing back a 38-year-old team legend or a second baseman who once had big numbers but has been average recently.
So let’s bottom line this, will they have the money to truly make a difference after being 27th in MLB payroll in 2025 according to spotrac.com?
"We've got the resources to win,” Cherington said. “We've just got to execute. My conversations with (owner) Bob (Nutting) recently have been every combination of challenging, productive, difficult at times. I leave every one of them more clear on how we're both seeing this and what's important and how we're going to go about executing. I believe that and we've just got to go do it."
As Cherington sees it, the task is to build a total roster that is just more functional one through nine. A lineup that gives his manager more opportunities for better matchups and to avoid those horrific pockets of offensive ineffectiveness. He said it’s about the combination of the quality of players and the functionality of the roster.
Then he cautioned, some of that has to happen through internal improvement. In 2025 ‘internal improvement’ meant more Jack Suwinski (59 games, 3 home runs, .147 average, .534 OPS) and at the major league level, Oneil Cruz. The 26-year-old enigma who has all-star potential, finished with 20 home runs and 38 stolen bases, but also continues to swing and miss at an alarming rate. The batting average was .200 and the slugging was only .378 while his on-base percentage was .298 with 174 strikeouts.
"I think we've got to be ready to be aggressive in acquisition this offseason whether it's free agency or trade,” Cherington said. “In our situation we've got to be willing to assume the risks of trades because free agency is not an open ocean for us. We're going to be able to be targeted there and we will be and we'll try to be able to put ourselves in the best position to do that we possibly can, but if we want to give ourselves every chance, it's got to be the trade market also.”
“We've got to be prepared to chase down every single thing that we think has a chance to help this team win more games in '26, execute on the ones we can get to and just be dogged about it all offseason."
Last year they traded one of their starting pitchers for 27-year-old, first baseman Spencer Horwitz, who did hit .333 in September with four home runs, but overall 11 homers in 108 games. It helps that Luis Ortiz allegedly gambled on baseball and may never play again, but it’s not clear if they got an impact player to move the needle for this team. That’s what they need, impact. If they are going to trade some of their young pitching assets, they need to bring in power, that is major league ready.
The clock is likely ticking on Paul Skenes days with the Pirates. The window is now and while he admits he did not go a good enough job previously, Cherington said they are close to being a winner.
“We are simply not that far away if you look at some of the teams that got in,” Cherington said. “Now also certainly, 83 wins (Cincinnati Reds as last Wild Card team) is not the goal either, we wouldn't be satisfied with that, but in terms of being able to play in October, I do believe we are close and we've got really important work to do.”
“It's not just going to happen by being passive and hoping for it to happen."
It’s great talk. Makes a great quote, but what are they actually going to do to change the fortune of this franchise?