2026 MLB Preview Series: Pittsburgh Pirates

While spending my summer in Pittsburgh last year (having never lived there before), I realized just how important the Pittsburgh Pirates are to the city and its fanbase. The organization, alongside the other major teams in the Steel City, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pittsburgh Penguins, is the lifeblood of one of the nation’s most blue-collar cities.

However, despite the team being essential to the everyday lives of those who wander the streets and suburbs of Pittsburgh, the Pirates did not deliver good baseball for much of the season. For the fifth time in the last seven years, they finished dead-last in the NL Central. Though they were able to play some meaningful series at the end of the season, it was merely because the opposing teams were in a playoff hunt, not what Pirates fans want to see at all from their favorite team.

Pittsburgh Pirates

2025 record: 71-91 (5th, NL Central)
2026 FanGraphs projection: 82-80 (2nd, NL Central)

Last season was simply a fiasco for on and off-field reasons. Pirates fans who attended games at the beautiful PNC Park chanted for Bob Nutting to sell the team over and over again throughout the season, even just seven games into the season, when a plane flew overhead that suggested he do so. There were other series, like their embarrassing weekend against an also-abysmal White Sox club, where fans were vocal. Manager Derek Shelton was fired after an abysmal 12-26 start and replaced by Don Kelly, who saw some improvement in the team’s record by year’s end (59-65) but still struggled during stretches to turn things around.

Despite all of these negatives, there are, of course, a couple of positives to come out of this offseason and what could bring fans back to PNC Park.

First, the most obvious one: Paul Skenes.

Last year, Skenes was fantastic. In his second season in MLB, he started 32 games, pitched 187.2 innings, and finished with a 1.97 ERA. It was the first sub-2.00 ERA season since Justin Verlander with the Houston Astros in 2022. He recorded 216 total strikeouts — his first 200+ strikeout season and good enough to overtake Mitch Keller as the Pirates franchise record holder for single-season strikeout total —and, biggest of all, won the National League Cy Young Award. His 217 ERA+ was the best in all of MLB, and his 6.5 fWAR was the highest in the NL and only 0.1 behind Detroit Tigers ace (and American League Cy Young Award winner), Tarik Skubal. Skenes was the Bucs’ first Cy Young Award winner in 36 years, dating back to erstwhile Yankees up-and-comer Doug Drabek.

The next is a player whose name has been near or at the top of every major scouting list (and is showing why in spring training): Konnor Griffin.

Last season at the age of 19, Griffin shot through the Pirates’ minor league system, making it all the way up to the Altoona Curve in Double-A after starting at the Single-A level. He played only 21 games, but in 83 at-bats, he slashed .337/.418/.542 for an OPS of .961, after batting at least .325 with an OPS of .930 in A-ball. At 6-foot-4, 222 pounds, the Pirates’ ninth overall selection in the 2024 draft is lighting up spring training now and could be in contention for the major league roster, as the part of his game many say is the most impressive (outside of his physical capabilities) is his mature approach at the plate and in the field.

Bubba Chandler’s another young player looking to make his impact on the major league roster for the Pirates. After finishing with a record of 4-1, an ERA of 4.02, a 3.20 xFIP, and an fWAR total of 0.9 in 31.1 innings pitched, the 23-year-old is continuing to try to build a resume that can keep him around PNC Park.

Lastly, it’s worth mentioning that the Pirates, while they do have these young, up-and-coming names blasting through their minor league system, have actually spent money this offseason on known MLB commodities. Despite not landing Kyle Schwarber, the Pirates traded for two-time All-Star second baseman Brandon Lowe, came to terms with DH Marcell Ozuna (who’s hit 100 homers across the last three seasons), signed lefty reliever Gregory Soto, outfielder Jake Mangum, and lefty reliever Mason Montgomery, and inked 2025 All-Star first baseman/DH Ryan O’Hearn to a two-year, $29 million deal.*

*This is somehow the biggest free agent contract for a position player in Pirates history.

Will they be good next season? Despite FanGraphs’ somewhat-rosy 82-win, second-place projection, probably not. In particular, it’s hard to envision them finishing with a better record than the ever-innovative Brewers. Aside from the Andrew McCutchen-led mini-renaissance from 2013-15, the Pirates have almost exclusively floundered since the early ’90s, and more struggles would unfortunately be nothing new in the Steel City. But with Kelly at the helm, general manager Ben Cherington finally spending a little bit of money, and the continuing improvement of the young players in the rotation and around the roster, there’s potential for the Pirates to start making some noise in the NL Central.

More Pinstripe Alley MLB team season previews can be found here.