MIKE BURKE
Allegany Communications Sports
Admittedly, it sounds like a broken record every year at this time, and no one is tired of hearing it more than loyal but terribly skeptical fans of the team, but this really could be the season that the Pittsburgh Pirates begin to move the needle and move up in the National League Central Division standings. Certainly, they have not been this well-armed – literally – to do so in a very long time.
As has been the habit of the past several years, the Pirates were competitive through July before sliding out of contention for good in August and finished last in the Central at 76-86, 17 games behind division champion Milwaukee and 13 games out of the wild card.
The season had more downs than ups, naturally, but the ups for the Pirates in 2024 were significant, as rookie starting pitcher Paul Skenes overpowered hitters from the beginning through the first four months of what has the makings of being a dazzling big-league career.
Skenes had a 1.96 ERA in 133 innings, allowing just four earned runs in 35 innings over his final seven starts. Opposing batters produced just a .442 OPS during that period, and the former No. 1 pick held a strikeout-to-walk rate of 26.8%, the best by any rookie pitcher to throw at least 100 innings since 1920.
The National League Rookie of the Year turned in the best rookie season in franchise history, going 11-3 with a franchise rookie record 170 strikeouts in 23 starts.
Skenes shouldered the largest work load of his life magnificently last season, and that work load is certain to increase since he’ll be on the Pirates’ roster for the entire season this year. Already he is being counted on to anchor the promising rotation of Jared Jones, Mitch Keller, Bailey Falter and Johan Oviedo that finished 10th in MLB ERA at 3.95.
Starting pitching is a funny thing now in MLB, and not funny ha-ha. Fewer innings now go to starters in general, and starters no longer carry the workhorse loads they did up to 20 years ago. In fact, last season, MLB starters threw just 59% of all innings and averaged just 5.2 innings per start.
Yet when it’s time to hand out the money, unless your name is Juan Soto, most of it has and always will be handed out to the starting pitchers, because good starting pitchers make even a mediocre bullpen better by shortening the game, and this Pirates rotation has the potential to create a lot of short bullpen games.
The Pirates added and subtracted over the offseason, trading for first baseman Spencer Horwitz and utility player Emmanuel Valdez, re-signing Andrew McCutchen and signing free-agent outfielder Tommy Pham and second baseman Adam Frazier to one-year deals, all of whom are pretty good players, as Horwitz, a Maryland native, showed left-handed pop in Cleveland, while Pham and Frazier have proven themselves to be solid players on good teams.
One of the biggest moves of the season came last August when the Pirates moved Oneil Cruz from shortstop to center field, a move that benefits the Pirates’ lack of organizational outfield depth, improves their infield defense and could make Cruz a big-time star because his arm, his speed and his power make him perfectly suited to transition from one premium position to another one.
After playing only nine games in 2023 due to a leg fracture, Cruz bounced back with a 20-homer, 20-stolen base season and, one would think, given the Pirates’ history of extending their own, will soon be a candidate to be extended himself.
The Pirates locked up outfielder Brian Reynolds, Keller and third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, so why not Cruz? The move to center could finally unlock his huge potential and the best could still be to come.
Speaking of Hayes, last season, of course, was a nightmare for the former Gold Glove third baseman, as he was limited to 97 games due to chronic lower back issues. When he’s healthy, he’s one of the best defenders in the game and a line-drive gap hitter who drives in runs at the plate. If the Pirates can get him anywhere near 100%, it will be a huge boost to their season.
Naturally, much more must go right than is likely to go wrong, with the bullpen being critical to the entire plan. Yet when you have the starting pitching to run out there every day that the Pirates will have, a rotation that is just now approaching its promise, it sure makes things easier.
It seems we say it here every year at this time, but there are legitimate possibilities with this team, and with Skenes leading that rotation, there is no better time to extend those possibilities than now.
Hopefully, rightly frustrated and justifiably skeptical Pirates fans will finally be happy not to have to say they told us so.
Mike Burke writes about sports and other stuff for Allegany Communications. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984, serving as sports editor for over 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X @MikeBurkeMDT