Good and bad of the first half for the Pittsburgh Pirates
A look back at the first half of the season for the Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates recently crossed the halfway point of the regular season (ended on Tuesday), with a record of 32-49 through the first 81 games played.
It’s been as rough a stretch from a team in possession of that record as you would expect.
With half a season left to go, let’s take a quick look back at what we have seen so far.
Offensive struggles plague first half
Plain and simple, the offense has cost this team several wins. They ranked 27th in average, 30th in slugging, 29th in wRC+, and 28th in fWAR.
Some of the more notable names that the Pirates were counting on going into the season have fallen well short of expectations.
The steady and consistent Bryan Reynolds has an OPS of .677 and an 86 wRC+. Oneil Cruz has the eighth-worst average among qualified hitters.
Spencer Horwitz, for whom the Pirates traded Luis Ortiz, Michael Kennedy, and Josh Hartle to the Cleveland Guardians, hasn’t been horrible, and missed time due to an injury, but an 85 wRC+ isn’t what they were hoping for.
Joey Bart was expected to provide some pop in the middle of the order after hitting 13 home runs in 80 games last year, has just one in 50 this season.
While most of his value comes from his defense, Ke’Bryan Hayes has sunk to a new depth of offensive deficiency. Among qualified hitters, Hayes has the fourth-worst wRC+, the third-worst OPS, and the worst slugging percentage.
Mitch Keller and Paul Skenes have proved to be as efficient as you could hope for from a pair of starting pitchers. Of their 32 combined starts in the first half, 23 have been quality starts. Despite having 23 quality starts, they have a combined 5-16 record (now 5-17 when counting the second half).
The hitting has been so bad that it may put the Cy Young voting to the absolute test as to how important wins are in this age of baseball.
You could pick apart a lot of things; there is usually no shortage of issues on a team with this kind of record, but what it all boils down to is offense, or the lack thereof.
While there have been plenty of bad, there have been a few things that have stood out this season. Here are a few:
The David Bednar rebound
This, perhaps, is the biggest positive to come out of the season so far. David Bednar did not have a good 2024 season, and it looked like it was going to be more of the same when 2025 kicked off.
Then, the Pirates optioned him on April 1st. He spent a couple of weeks in the minors and has looked like the former All-Star closer that he once was. Since coming back up with the Pirates, Bednar has posted a 2.03 ERA with 38 strikeouts in 26.2 innings pitched.
Even though he had to win back the closer role, Bednar has a save in 10 of the team’s 31 wins.
It also opens up the possibility for them to get some value back in a potential trade, since Bednar is set to become a free agent after the following season.
Nick Gonzales’ sample size
He started the season with a bang, hitting a home run in the first game, but it came at a cost as Nick Gonzales headed to the injured list with a non-displaced fracture in his ankle.
Gonzales was placed on the injured list on March 28th and didn’t return until June 3rd. So, it’s only been 20 games that he played among the first 81, but it’s been a very encouraging small sample size.
Among those games was a five-hit contest on June 23rd. He followed that game up with a three-run home run the following day.
In an offense that is among the worst in baseball, Gonzales is slashing .316/.345/.519 with three home runs, 10 RBI, and a wRC+ of 134.
It’s a small sample size, but Gonzales is starting to morph into the exact player that the Pirates needed him to be when they drafted him in 2020.
The pitching staff
Andrew Heaney has had a couple of rough starts, but for the most part, the rotation has come as advertised. Starters have the seventh-best fWAR in baseball and the 13th-best ERA.
Skenes, despite the lack of wins, continually makes his case as the best pitcher in the game. Bailey Falter has remained as steady a back-of-the-rotation pitcher, and Keller is among the leaders in quality starts.
They’ve shuffled guys around, but the bullpen has perhaps been better than expected. Dennis Santana slid into the closer role when called upon and did well. Chase Shugart was acquired for a lower-level reliever after being DFA’d by the Red Sox and has been a solid find. As has Isaac Mattson, another reliever scooped up by Ben Cherington.
The pitching staff has kept them in many games they probably shouldn’t have been in, only to be let down by the offense on several occasions.
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BA has a list of standout hitting prospects for June. I’m sure anybody here can guess who heads the discussion.
Among other things, BA notes the sharp drop in the K rate. “His improving plate skills over the course of the spring are a reason to buy into Griffin’s ability to adjust on the fly.”
With the Oneil Cruz breakout now muted a bit by an abysmal June, Nicky Gonzales really stands out as the bright spot.
Seasonal sample size noted, but this is a continuation of what we saw from him last year. Tracking like a 2+ WAR starting second baseman in this league, which is a healthy improvement from the path he was on when he graduated. Minor star Neil Walker was only appreciably better than that for a year.
Super happy to be wrong on this guy.