Pirates Opening Day 26-man roster breakdown

A deep look at the Pirates 26-man roster to start the 2024 season.

The Pittsburgh Pirates set their Opening Day roster for the 2024 season on Monday, and there were indeed a few surprising inclusions.

Here’s a positional breakdown of the Pirates’ initial roster and some thoughts on the team.

Catchers

Henry Davis

Jason Delay

This one was pretty obvious. I never actually believed that Davis would need to fight for a roster spot and that it would take him completely bombing in Spring for him actually to go to Triple-A.

He had a fantastic Spring, only cementing his status as the go-to catcher. Whenever Yasmani Grandal is healthy, he will take over the other catcher spot on the roster. It will be interesting to see how long it will take him to return.

Plantar Fasciitis is tricky, and while Grandal has been doing almost everything but running, it could still be a toss-up before he can.

Infielders

Rowdy Tellez

Jared Triolo

Oneil Cruz

Ke’Bryan Hayes

Alika Williams

The surprise here is Williams making the roster. Liover Peguero heads to Indianapolis despite having a solid spring, and he was good in his rookie year last year.

An illness slowed him down, which could help him catch up. The extra at-bats are nice, but at this point, he needs to prove he can hit and adjust to major-league pitching, which he isn’t going to do at Triple-A.

Williams has an excellent glove and did hit in Triple-A last year, but it didn’t translate to big-league success, at least on the offensive side of things.

Tellez will have to hit to make up for his defense, and the dynamic with Cruz will be interesting. Some of his throws from short tend to sail a bit, so can Tellez save some of those from being errors?

There is no doubt that Triolo earned his roster spot and a chance to play every day. They could still slide him to third to get his glove at other positions and give Hayes a day off, but he’s the second baseman for now.

Cruz may be one of baseball's biggest wildcards this year. There are few with his potential upside, but his floor is still a giant unknown quantity. He smashed seven home runs in the Spring but also had some rough at-bats against more established pitchers toward the end.

If Ke’Bryan can continue his late 2023 and Spring pace, he could throw his name into the All-Star game conversation, if not more.

Outfield

Andrew McCutchen

Bryan Reynolds

Jack Suwinski

Michael A. Taylor

Connor Joe

Edward Olivares

I have him listed as an outfielder, but Joe’s primary role will be platooning against lefties at first base. He also played some center field in the Spring, so there are plenty of options for utilizing him.

Reynolds struggled a bit this Spring but still hit the ball hard. He didn’t play much down the stretch, but as long as he’s on the field, you know what to expect.

It may take Taylor a bit to catch up, but he provides Gold Glove-level defense in center field and hit a career-high 21 home runs last year. I don’t think we should count on that again, but he brings plenty of value for his glove.

Suwinski has 30-home run potential but a strikeout rate that is always a concern for long-term success. He has also done a great job of improving defensively, grading out positively in most center-field metrics during the 2023 season.

Sliding over to left field should only increase his value defensively.

Olivares didn’t have a great Spring, but could have some success if you pick and choose his opportunities.

While he played in the field a few times, expectations would probably be that McCutchen remains mostly the DH.

Rotation

Mitch Keller

Martin Perez

Jared Jones

Marco Gonzales

I left the fifth starter out on purpose because I want to talk about it on its own.

Three of these were obvious and always known to be in the rotation going into camp.

Watching Jones pitch in camp became much more interesting when the Pirates announced that he was competing for a rotation spot. This put them in a position where if he performed well and was still sent back, it wouldn’t look good.

But he performed well and earned himself a roster spot.

Bullpen

David Bednar

Aroldis Chapman

Hunter Stratton

Ryan Borucki

Josh Fleming

Roansy Contreras

Ryder Ryan

This is also missing a name, just like the rotation. Stratton and Ryder made the team because Carmen Mlodzinski and Colin Holderman were starting the year on the injured list.

Contreras moves to the bullpen to continue to work on his control. He had flashes in Spring, but the walks were way out of hand to give him a rotation spot.

Fleming should be able to give you a couple of multi-inning outings, and Jones's different approach could make for an interesting tandem if they wanted to monitor innings.

Chapman will be the primary eighth-inning set-up guy, and depending on how comfortable they feel with Bednar right now, they could sneak in a save opportunity early on.

Bednar pitched twice in the Spring but showed enough to start the year active, but it is possible they will monitor his workload early on.

Luis Ortiz/Bailey Falter

The Pirates announced that Falter would be in the rotation to start the year, but they’ve set it up so that they could do something familiar on days he pitches.

On the broadcast for the final Spring Training game, Ben Cherington mentioned that Ortiz would be in a ‘bulk role’ out of the bullpen.

They could use Falter as an opener or mix and match the two, depending on the matchup.

Despite what the numbers said, I felt Quinn Priester looked like a better option as a starter over Ortiz, but if this is the approach they are looking to go with, this is the best combination.