The Pirates are among the teams that have shown some recent interest in free agent outfielder Tommy Pham, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. He again lists the Padres as a potential fit for Pham as well. San Diego has been connected to Pham at multiple points over the past few weeks.
Pittsburgh has Bryan Reynolds locked into left field and Jack Suwinski in center, but right field is more open at the moment. Connor Joe, Edward Olivares and Joshua Palacios could all see some time at the position. Each is on the 40-man roster and remains in camp. Pham has played far more left field than right field in his big league career, but he did log 78 innings in right with the D-backs just this past season. His arm strength clocked into the 69th percentile of MLB outfielders, per Statcast — well ahead of Reynolds (and thus making a shift of Reynolds to right field seem unlikely).
The 36-year-old Pham had a solid year at the plate in 2023, hitting .265/.328/.446 with 16 home runs, 27 doubles and three triples in 481 trips to the plate. He walked at a strong 9.8% clip and struck out at a 22% clip that was a bit lower than the MLB average. Despite being in his mid-30s, Pham also swiped 22 bases in in 25 tries (88% success rate) and landed in the 61st percentile of MLB players for his sprint speed, per Statcast.
The Pirates were one of MLB’s least-productive teams against left-handed pitching in 2023, hitting .246/.318/.383. That .383 slugging percentage was the fourth-lowest among all MLB clubs, and the 89 wRC+ resulting from that line ranked 25th among the league’s 30 teams. Pham’s career .271/.381/.453 batting lien against lefties (.245/.322/.465 in 2023) would help to address that deficiency.
Pham has been linked to several teams beyond the Padres and Pirates over the winter, though several of those clubs have since made other moves. The Twins acquired Manuel Margot from the Dodgers, adding the righty outfield bat they’d been seeking. Arizona paid Randal Grichuk a $2MM salary to fill their own need for a right-handed bat. The Braves signed Adam Duvall to a $3MM deal just yesterday. The Red Sox have been linked to a possible Pham reunion and haven’t added a right-handed outfield bat since that time — though they did bring righty slugger C.J. Cron aboard on a minor league deal. Boston also announced yesterday that fellow righty outfielder Rob Refsnyder would miss time with a fractured toe.
Let’s go Pirates…sign TP!!!
We are Pham-ily
He’ll w/ Pittsburgh if the strip clubs are better there.
They’re not though… at least that’s what “my friend” tells me. LOL
Tommy’s everywhere, he comes and goes like Wham-bam thank you Pham
Yes sign him Pirates, before the Padres do!
That’s a lot of doubles for his amount of PAs
Which means he will sign elsewhere
I like Pham’s numbers but I feel like he is a powder keg.
Tommy Pham has been an above average hitter for much of the last 2 years. That being said, he lets his big mouth and combustible temper ruin several baseball playing opportunities for himself.
He’s cost himself millions.
“Cost himself millions”… Pham becomes a short lived media darling for exposing team’s dirty laundry, but teams and companies bend over backwards to avoid these kind of mercurial, combustible players. He’s one of the truly bad actors of MLB, so he’ll probably end up on “Fox baseball” when his playing career is over.
I don’t see the Bucs signing him, Cherington doesn’t like players who cause problems in the locker room. He wasn’t interested in Bauer either and for the same reason
Or an anchor on Fox News
But he signed Grandal and Chapman. I’m beginning to subscribe to the idea of “trust none of what you hear and less of what you see”
Or an anchor on CNN
Or an anchor on OAN or Newsmax
pardon me while I throw up
Oh you made a partisan funny? Way to go man! Go team blue!
Those aren’t anchors on Faux News, they are commodians. Yes they do thier best impersonation on the commode.
And they font need a 36 year old malcontent on a young team
“Faux News”..Said the phoney and hypocrite who’s literally joined at the hip to Hollywood & MSM, right bucco?
Just don’t get into a fantasy league with him. That’s a non-starter.
Pham’s hitting has been an exactly average 100 OPS+ over the last 3 years. His WAR has averaged 1.1 over the last 3 seasons. At 36 years old not so sure expecting him to maintain that level of play is realistic.
If he is signed on a Profar level contract that might be worth it, but he is not one of those guys that is an uplifting influence in the clubhouse and on the field like Profar. That is probably whey the Padres have not even contacted him.
All of these ML quality FA available shows that baseball is ready for expansion.
Manfred needs to stop holding teams ransom for taxpayer funds.
Yuck, no thank you
They need to sign Bauer before the Reds do
JD, did you notice that not a single team sent a scout to Bauer’s latest exhibition against Dodger’s minor leaguers. Bauer has said that no MLB team has contacted him and he isn’t playing in the NPB this season either. He burned his bridges and isn’t coming back. Time to stop mentioning him.
Maybe, but it probably has more to do with him exposing everyone using the sticky stuff than the fact that he likes rough sex
I’d prefer Taylor’s D – but Pham could be better than Olivares so do it, BC.
I assume Ross Atkins is still asleep
@Digdugler
Shhhh… Him and Shapiro are dreaming of the waves of talent coming up from a 24th ranked minor league system.
The Bucs have plenty of options to form a decent platoon in RF, although he could lock down RF as his platoon splits are remarkably similar. I like Olivares as the 4th OF. I think I’d prefer the Pirates sign Taylor to be the regular CF and move Suwinski to RF. Better defense that way. Better offense with Pham signing.
Let’s hope this is an attempt to get MAT back in discussions with the Bucs.
The article was specific about the lack of offense during last year so signing a non hitter like Taylor probably didn’t make sense to BC or else he would have gone after him
I’m not sold on Pham either but mostly due to his age
It doesn’t matter how you add the wins up… elite D always plays down the middle and would help the suspect pitching.
Except that they had better than average defense last year and they only had one pitcher with double digit wins and his ERA was still over 4
DRS on fielding bible was 18th overall and 28th at CF.
BBRef had Bucs below average as a team in def efficiency and fielding%
Fangraphs had Pirates dead last in UZR/150 and 24th in overall team D.
By no measure were they better than average and Suwinski in CF was very poor. He’s a good platoon RF who can spot CF from time to time.
We got MAT! Sweet!
I’d like to think BC and MAT’s agent were reading MLBTR and thought… OMG – these cats are right!
I’d like to give a shout out to Billy McKinney. “I See You, Billy McKinney!” This guy is doing everything he can possibly do to make the Pirates roster. I know spring stats can be deceiving, but this dude can play 1B and anywhere in the OF. He’s had a great spring and if he doesn’t make our Pirates’ roster, I pray he gets picked up immediately on another MLB roster. Good Luck, McKinney!
He’s a lefty though, eh?
I see him up against CSN (already demoted), Palacios and maybe Bae for a spot as 5th OF. Taylor/Pham would be battling Celestino and Olivares (or Cutch if injured?).
I’d rather whatever money they would spend on Pham would go to Bauer.
But I wouldn’t be against signing Pham. when he played most of a season he has generally done above average offensively.
But since it appears they’re not making a real run at the division with more ‘sure thing’ players i’d rather stick with internal prospects and then throwing Cutch in right every now and then when depth may not be very strong on the mlb roster, injuries or something like that.
Yeah Pham would likely be a better defender than someone like Cutch but i think i’d be okay giving cutch a couple hundred innings in right if one of the prospects do not show up.
That would be a good fit. He’ll bring some energy to the Pirates.
I am a Padres fan.
I think SD could have signed either Jurickson Profar or Tommy Pham, and they already signed Profar.
Profar loves SD and plays better in SD and has more defensive versatility.
Pham brings a level of intensity which might really help SD. While Profar is jovial in the clubhouse, and that is cool, the Padres were noticeably lacksadaisical in 2023, and that really might have cost them the playoffs. Xander Bogaerts discussed being surprised by the blase attitudes of his teammates. If Pham is on the team, the team will be a lot less likely to have subpar preparation and effort.
replacing Melvin with Schildt solved the lackadaisical problem.
WHŸ…WE DONT NEED A FLIMPHAM
We don’t need a flimpham man
I’d rather have Taylor in Center and Suwinski in Right.
Please sign him Pirates!
Anything to keep him far away from my Padres.
Water over the “Pham”.
They should should have signed Duvall to play cf against lefties and DH when Cutch gets hurt.
He would have been insurance over the cast of thousands in right field too.
He would have gotten twice as much as an overpay but he would have been worth it.
They need to platoon Suwinski.
They’re really hitting the long ball this spring and that’s nice. And Cruz looks like he hasn’t lost his swing. But the big question over 182 games will be, again, where will run production come from?
Agree with your thoughts here. Maybe what we’re seeing will be the reality this season
Wonder if this is the agent leaking info in hopes of stirring offers
It’s Jon Heyman. You don’t have to wonder.
No reporter in sports history has so nakedly traded the occasional scoop in exchange for printing agent propaganda.
Pham would look so good in a pirates uni
We Are… Phamily???
He’s a jerk Sign a starter
Wherever he goes just know he’ll be playing somewhere else by the trade deadline
Someone sign him so we dont get stuck with him…
Exactly what I said. Can’t stand him..
Padres should have picked up Cron before the Red Sox. A minor league deal? He might have been the starting left fielder most of the time for the Padres. An opportunity lost.
Thank Gosh…..I can use a “Firm Hand” with my NFL Fantasy Team
Seems like “interest” was really more about leverage to get MAT at their price. Wasn’t thrilled about either guy, TBH, but would rather have MAT than Pham.