The Pirates continue to add outfield depth, trade for Billy McKinney and Edward Olivares

How the two new outfielders fit into the system.

The Pittsburgh Pirates acquired a pair of outfielders over the last couple of days via trade to try and bolster their depth at the position.

They first added Billy McKinney from the New York Yankees in exchange for International signing bonus money. Then, on Friday, they acquired Edward Olivares from the Kansas City Royals for minor leaguer Deivis Nadal.

The Royals needed the 40-man roster spot after making several signings, including former Pirates Chris Stratton.

Henry Davis moving back to catcher in 2024 opened up some space in the outfield that the Pirates are looking to fill.

Billy McKinney

Last year - McKinney split time between the Yankees in the majors and their Triple-A affiliate in Wilkes-Barre. He batted .227/.320/.406 with six home runs and 14 RBI in 48 games in the majors, hitting another nine home runs in 160 plate appearances in the minors.

What he brings - The interesting thing about McKinney is that he had a higher wRC+ and WAR than Rowdy Tellez did last year, which isn’t saying too much.

There are some things to like in McKinney and a noticeable trend with some of the signings they have made. He has a fairly strong approach at the plate, posting high rates most of his career, and he doesn’t chase out of the zone much.

He can also barrel the ball up, posting elite barrel and sweet spot rates last year. He also has an 86.5% career zone contact rate.

Although some pieces of his game are intriguing, he still has a career OPS of .674 in 915 plate appearances.

How he fits - McKinney is a left-handed hitter who has played all three outfield positions and first base. He’s not on the 40-man roster, so he will likely start in Indianapolis.

Edward Olivares

Last year, Olivares played for most of his major league career for the Kansas City Royals. Last year in the majors, he hit .263/.317/.452 with 12 home runs in 385 plate appearances, posting a 105 wRC+.

What he brings - Through 771 plate appearances at the major league level, Olivares has posted a career OPS of .736 (98 wRC+).

While has more a tendency to chase than others they’ve signed this off-season (33rd percentile chase rate), but doesn’t miss much (64th percentile whiff rate), and he doesn’t strike out often (16.6%).

A noticeable thing that a lot of young Pirates’ hitters struggled with was making contact with breaking pitches, something that Olivares didn’t have trouble with.

Last year, seven of his 12 home runs came off of breaking pitches, and slugged .584 against, which was better than what he did against fastballs.

He also has the arm to replace Davis in right field, but doesn’t serve up as much of an improvement defensively, at least analytically. When it comes to Outs Above Average on Baseball Savant, there were only eight outfielders worse than Olivares last year. Davis (-6) actually finished with a better mark than him (-7).

How he fits - The immediate thought will be for him to work in some sort of platoon, although since he doesn’t play center field, it would be hard to split him with Jack Suwinski without having another outfielder in general to put out there against lefties.

His 2023 splits are a little bit misleading, as he’s done about the same against righties (career 96 wRC+) and lefties (104). If he keeps hitting lefties as well as he did last year (123 wRC+), great, but it looks like he’s a little more than just a platoon guy.

Olivares played primarily in left field this year, but with the hole left by Davis, if they don’t add any other outfielder, he could factor into the rotation in right a good amount in 2024.