The Pirates checked an item off their offseason to-do list when they acquired Spencer Horwitz in hopes that he can serve as a long-term option at first base. They’re still not done hunting for bats, however, as Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports within a broad-reaching piece on several Winter Meetings takeaways that the team is looking for a corner outfielder, with a likely preference to operate on the trade market. The Bucs will also likely be in the market for a low-cost reliever or two, Hiles adds.
Corner outfield help isn’t a new need for the Pirates. They sought to address the issue with their deadline acquisition of Bryan De La Cruz from the Marlins, but he turned in a disastrous .200/.220/.294 slash in 44 games with Pittsburgh following the trade. The Pirates chose not to double down on an acquisition they’d come to regret, non-tendering De La Cruz rather than paying him a projected $4MM salary in arbitration (courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz).
With De La Cruz now on the open market, the Pirates’ outfield alignment includes Bryan Reynolds in left and converted shortstop Oneil Cruz in center field. Right field options include Joshua Palacios, Billy Cook and Jack Suwinski, the latter of whom looked to have broken out as a key bat for the Pirates in 2023 before struggling through a disastrous 2024 season (.182/.264/.324 in 277 plate appearances). There’s been some talk of Reynolds logging some reps at first base (link via Alex Stumpf of MLB.com), but the Horwitz trade pretty clearly indicates that’s at best a backup plan for the time being.
Cruz will be getting the lion’s share of reps in center field. Reynolds can technically play either corner, though his once-premium range has eroded substantially. Reynolds still posted better-than-average sprint speed in 2024, per Statcast, but his reaction times and jumps in the outfield graded quite poorly. As recently as 2021, Statcast credited Reynolds with 98th-percentile range in the outfield; in 2024, he was at the very bottom of the league, in the first percentile. His arm strength on his outfield throws actually ticked back up after a down year in 2023, but he’ll need to make some adjustments regardless of which corner he roams (though it’ll presumably be left, based on recent usage).
There are a handful of known and obvious corner outfield trade candidates on the market. Pittsburgh was never going to pony up for Kyle Tucker, who just went to the Cubs, as ownership wouldn’t be willing to spend the necessary money to keep him long term. But names like Taylor Ward (a deadline target for the Bucs), Wilyer Abreu, Jake McCarthy, Alek Thomas and Mike Yastrzemski have all been bandied about the rumor mill this offseason. The Pirates will surely look into some potential under-the-radar options as well. Budget-strapped teams with some outfield depth (e.g. Twins or, if they’re comfortable dealing within the division, Brewers) could make intriguing partners, as could a team like the Orioles, with plenty of interesting young hitters but less supply in terms of quality young starting pitching.
Of course, if trade efforts fall flat, the free agent market does have some affordable names. Max Kepler, Alex Verdugo, Jesse Winker and Austin Hays are among the interesting and affordable free agents who could fit even a small-payroll club like Pittsburgh.
On the bullpen front, there’s little use speculating on specific targets, given the sheer volume of possibilities. Hiles cautions against the chances of another relatively significant splash like the one the Bucs made when signing Aroldis Chapman last year, instead positing that the Pirates will be shopping at far lower rates. Typically, the best way to find bargain options is to wait out the market and see who’s left without a seat when the musical chairs stop in February. The Pirates could also try to convince a potential trade partner to include some pre-arbitration bullpen help in any deal netting them an outfielder.
The Pirates currently project for a payroll of about $74.5MM, per RosterResource. That does not include an expected reunion with designated hitter Andrew McCutchen. Pittsburgh finished the 2024 season with a roughly $87MM payroll and peaked with a franchise-record $100MM outlay back in 2016.
What a pathetic franchise this is, run by a profit-obsessed carpetbagger
Have to give MLBTR credit. Early on, they listed names like O’Neill and Conforto as potential FA targets. Now they’re gone. After this current list goes by, we can focus on guys you’ve never heard of, which is more in keeping with Nutting is looking for
Taylor Ward for Braxton Ashcraft or Thomas Harrington.
Let’s go.
That sounds fair for both sides
Taylor Ward’s 2025 salary is over 9 million and he’s 30?
Cherington wants an outfielder with a few years of control before free agency
He probably won’t trade one of our prized pitchers in the minors for Ward
Trading your better pitching prospects for a weak platoon would be stupid. Just sign Canha for Nutting. Rather bring back Joe. All for trading for Ward but with quantity lower prospects. Now Rooker Tucker I would trade both and more.
I think Ashcraft is out the door this off-season. Surprised he wasn’t in the Horwitz trade. Another trade I wouldn’t mind is Ashcraft and maybe another prospect for Heston Kjerstad. The O’s have a ton of young outfielders and just added Tyler O’Neill. Kjerstad could definitley be a name on the move for the right price.
I like that trade, but don’t really want Ward
His upside is capped and seems like a guy who’s just going to be hurt all the time
I’d take him over nothing tho
Pirates will sign whomever is left in the outfield market around the first week of March, about the same time last year they signed Michael A Taylor and touted him as an everyday player.
But i really hope they get in on some of these relievers now. Last year’s bullpen was a disaster and they need at least a couple more arms in there
Cherington has perfected the art of dumpster diving
Michael A Taylor and Rowdy Tellez both come to mind
If the Pirates wait too long, Bryan De La Cruz will be the only corner outfielder left.
They’ll bring Connor Joe back before De La Cruz.
Not sure why I’m surprised any more but I had a glimmer of hope that having the best pitcher in the world might make them wake up and try and bring in some real talent. I guess we’ll see but not holding my breath.
If they don’t enough people will still keep giving Nutting $.
Ben …” we are looking at 4-5 big name corners who happen to be in Korea, and should fit right in “
After overpaying with Ortiz, etc. on the last deal, they should stick with what they have. They have Cabbage, Cook, Gorski and Suwinski for Spring Training. Let them compete for a spot.
It will probably be Austin Hays.
Hays has a career .277/.331/.469 line against lefties. I would totally be fine bringing him and Max Kepler in as a platoon. I also think Randal Grichuk would be a realistic platoon option.
Suwinski can’t hit lefties, he might fair well in a platoon with Hays, no need for Keplar. That probably works out for the Pirates.
They need some depth at 3B.
Looks to me like Henry Davis will be ready in ’25, he is going to be the Pirates best hitter. They don’t look so bad. Don’t have a plethora of prospects beyond Davis and Bubba Chandler but those two will be impact players.
Will be an interesting season, the NL Central is stacked.
Exciting
Nutting has you trained well.
yeah let’s platoon Jack and his.151 batting average
When Jack was sent to Indy last year he still didn’t correct his swing or plate approach and their hitting coach helped several players
Jack’s best seasons are behind him
Suwinski hit around .240 with decent SLG against righties in ’24, was better in ’23, as good of an option as the Pirates have available. They can probably afford to sign an outfielder but Suwinski should be in the mix for ABs.
He is one season removed from his best season.
@bwmiller
To be fair, jack can’t hit righties all that well either, 2024 was brutal.
Well Jacks gonna have to take some at bats from the looks of the Pirates roster.
Hays made $6.3m last year so he’ll get scooped up for 2/$20m and be someone’s 4th OF. That’s too much money for Pitt.
Hays is injury prone
They paid 10 mil for Chapman so why not 9 mil for someone who plays every day & is under control. Ward hit 25 hr & 75 rbi
Cheap ass position players grow on trees, high leverage relievers don’t.
First thought heck no, second thought no way would I trade Jones for that, third thought, long term control and I have lots of quality pitching prospects…
Okay let’s talk.
Why don’t the Pirates move Cruz to RF and get a defense first CF?
MAT is the top free agent choice
The Pirates will never win as long as Nutting owns the team. Ben Cherington is terrible at making trades, but Theo Epstein Hisownself couldn’t succeed with Nutting as an owner.
And Nutting will keep owning team until death unless you guys stop going to games and get rid of cable.
Eight years ago I pledged to never buy a Pirates ticket as long as Nutting owns the team, and I’ve kept my pledge. The real problem is that, with the low payrolls and the revenue sharing, Nutting is guaranteed a nice profit before a single fan walks through the gates at PNC Park.
He’s been living off the cable bill. If you pay for cable you are paying Nutting even if you never watched a game in your life. That’s died down last few years. Hopefully it keeps going or cable companies make it a add on. Then if he wants any local tv $ he will be forced to put out a good product. Ticket sales don’t matter. If 1.3m show up its a 50m payroll. 1.7 should up it’s ba 80m payroll. 2.3m show up its a 100m payroll. Payroll is determined by attendance. Only hope this year is tv deal is up and with Skenes some moves could boost attendance significantly so if he was smart 100m should be a option. Attendance would need to drop under a million to have a significant effect.
Well, read Madden’s column from today
He lost the local TV deal and is now hooked in with SportsNet Pittsburgh 360. And that was largely the Penguins thing. The Pirates got hooked onto it but he lost $
Rod’s right. The incredible revenue stream that comes from MLB makes ownership la cosa nostra of sports. Why change anything? And sell? Are you insane?
It’s like hitting the lottery every year
But we have apologists here who are enablers of his methodology.
Small market. Limited money. Not as great of profit as we think. Pours every cent back into team
Sheesh
ironically, you might be wrong, Dream
Nutting’s two children have no interest in owning the Pirates or in baseball at so I expect Bob to sell the team at some stage of his life ,probably not while we’re still alive though
You talk the kids? Or just believe what Nutting told you? Hopefully he sells it. Might just die and let them sell it if they aren’t interested.
Doesn’t matter. The new owner might spend 10 or 20 million more. Really not a needle mover.
You’re bouncing all over the place here, Dream
Look, we agreed long ago that your dissection of the TB model is the prescribed way small market teams must go
Milwaukee, KC, Cleveland, Detroit and although Samuel would disagree, Baltimore, all have adopted the methods
The Pirates did, too
You know this and were the original decoder for me
But unlike the aforementioned, who saw the rebuild to fruition and then augmented the areas that didn’t come though so well with legitimate major leaguers who could fit right in and produce, Nutting has refused to do the same
Instead, he’s opted to go low, lower and now with Horwitz, lowest
Not sure why you’re suddenly hedging your bets here. No one I read here is looking for the Pirates to spend like the Mets
But look at who KC added last year
Look at what TB did in the past
You can’t tell me this wasn’t—-this isn’t—doable. I’m somewhat amazed Nutting will continue with the myth he is propagating. He’s lost the media. He’s lost a big portion of his fan base
Pirates are awful. They wait years too long to fire everyone. They are idiots. Too stupid to be Tampa Cleveland Baltimore. They would like to be that smart. Think they are that smart. But they ain’t.
All they have to do is sign Goldschmidt Winker and a reliever or 2. Attendance will go over 2 million and they will be above 500. They just cleared 10.5m from Chapman. 3.5 rowdy. 8 perez. 3 Gonzales. 2 grandpal. Attendance went up so they have more $. Tv deal is up after season. You would think they would want to win so they can get a better one. Too expensive? Ok get Santana instead. Could’ve sign Tauchman. Try Hayes I guess. Probably should have splurged on Conforto. If Nutting took even a tiny amount of risk he would make more $. If he just did a lil bit of marketing he would make more $. Paid a bit of attention to the fans he would make more $. Guys stupid. Making $ just by chugging along. Only smart thing he did was buy a team. He doesn’t even have to spend $ to make $. If he hired a new gm they could have came in and traded more of these garbage prospects for MLB players.
Thanks for the comments. Agreed
But it’s done with mirrors. It’s a carnival shell game the way they conduct transactions. Even the A’s have stopped the shenanigans. That leaves the Pirates to play these games
I get that there are worse teams like the Rockies. But there is no worse franchise and worse owner
Or the new owner may move the team.
Doubtful. Mlb wants more teams not less. Pittsburgh hates philly Cleveland so the Pittsburgh market would be dead for baseball. If anything the let him leave and get a new Pirates team. They would force him to stay or sell. I guess if pnc becomes a dump and the city won’t pay for a new stadium they could leave but that doesn’t seem to be happening soon.
No mirrors. You hear me say all the time so so has just been unlucky and is due to break out. Well Goldschmidt was unlucky most of the season. Even though he is another year later his numbers should improve. Not a dumpster dive. When he signs you are going to see “wow” “overpay”. But he will be cheaper because he will sell tickets. Casual fans know the name and will be excited. As they should be. Not happening though. You get Horowitz Reynolds. What if one of them gets hurt? You know the answer to that. Paul would say insert Cherington dumpster dive. Goku bright eyes would say they have stud prospects like Cook and Yorke, they are just as good as Reynolds. Actually with this new awesome hitting coach they are better than Reynolds. Injury is good news! Opens up playing time for Jack and Davis they are going to be awesome.
A’s are only spending because if they don’t get their payroll to 105 million they will lose their revenue sharing! Nutting would spend to in that situation!
As is right now, they’re a 72 win team. At best. And their starting pitchers that go 5-6 innings are just an asterisk. Nothing more
Where will the runs come from?
They still have a Punch and Judy 3rd baseman
They have a hole at SS and in RF
They hope Bart and Nick will have similar seasons
They hope Endy will provide some uh, pop
They’re going to try to resurrect Suwinski and Davis
They’re going to try to squeeze out another season of Cutch
They have a defensive question mark in CF
They still have an inept manager who will not correct intangibles like passion, focus and hustle.
And with all due respect to Jason Mackey of the PG, his ‘what the Pirates moves at the winter meetings showed us’ article could have been re-written in one sentence: That they are going to do nothing
As constructed, this team takes steps backwards next season.
Still time.
IKF Peguero Triolo SS!
Well that’s why I wrote “as is currently constructed”
Yeah. There’s still time
But who are we fooling?
It’s a joke of a franchise
a few years ago there was an article in the Post Gazette about his children and both were interviewed.
Apparently Nutting offered both an executive position in the organization and both refused saying neither have interest in baseball
you know Nutting is cheap when the A’s payroll will be higher than the Bucs next year
Nutting would just as much as A’s if in their situation.
I am wondering how they will judge any new bat (or pitcher for that matter) in the setting of new hitting and pitching coaching. Will or could the hitting coaches bring out the talent already on the roster (like Suwinski or others) or will a couple of new names come in and perform better than last year’s group that they may replace? How would one really know? Making two changes at one time may result in one canceling the other out or (hopefully) a positive positive effect. The net effect will be hard to judge.
They have only added one guy. We will judge it on Hayes, Suwinski, Triolo, Davis, IKF, Cruz, exc.
If coaches could do all that they would be paid drastically more.
The Horwitz trade was proof enough that they aren’t interested adding to the payroll. Plus they have openly said they don’t plan on signing any significant free agents. You can forget about anyone that is in or past arbitration. Nutting is not interested in paying anyone else. Except maybe McCutchen and a couple $1M bullpen arms. Would be ecstatic at this point to land Wilyer Abreu or Heston Kjerstad but it would cost Bubba Chandler and/or Mitch Keller and likely still not making this a playoff team.
hey, there’s always the Pierogi races and fireworks night
I’m just genially curious as to why and how the pirates could be such a small market team. I mean they’re in the same city as the Steelers arguably the greatest franchise in the NFL. Same city, same fans. Is it just a cheap owner or is baseball not as big of a deal in Pittsburgh
That’s been a hot topic here the last few days. My opinion, cheap owner. All he cares about it lining his own pockets.
If you put an entertaining product on the field, we will come. He thinks it should be the other way around.
@Bucco…yeah it has to be the owner. I’ve never been but I heard the ballpark is amazing, it’s a sports town w/ the most ICONIC football team. How can you run out a baseball team with a 70 million dollar payroll. It’s a disgrace
It’s a great sports town. Always has been
Too many apologists for a billionaire
Fans are easily disenchanted with losing teams. They’re easily angered by myths that keep getting pushed as rationales.
You can’t count the Steelers. They play 8 games here a year. Their games are like social events
Look at the Pens before Mario
Look at their attendance now
Look at Pitt football
And as stated above, look at what this franchise has put their fan base through over the last 40-60 years. Some good times. Many more bad times. Some ugly times
And this owner? The worst in MLB. You rebuild. You still have some holes. Look at what KC did. Milwaukee. Baltimore. You surround your kids with those missing pieces
But this guy? LOL. What a joke
Salary cap and much much better revenue sharing. No local regional sports network.
NFL is structured differently. There is little difference in what teams can spend and there is a cap. The NHL also has a hard cap. MLB doesn’t have a payroll cap though they have capped what teams can spend on the draft, where a little more money could go a long way. The Pirates employed that the draft avenue, outspending most teams and signing the “unsignable” (see Josh Bell signing). The league stepped in and stopped that as it was unfair.. They put a cap on draft spending. Umm. Kind of strange, that there is no cap on payroll spending while there is a cap on draft money. I believe that the league is happy having big market teams win and has created a system that favors big markets.
I follow the Pirates because I love the game of baseball and I was raised in the Pittsburgh area., not because I expect them to win. The game is the primary attraction, winning is optional.
@Skeptical that last paragraph is what it’s about for me too. I’ll never subscribe to boycotting baseball just because Bob Nutting makes money. I go to 8-10 games a year and at least half of those are because I want to see Ronald Acuna, Jackson Holliday, Bobby Witt, etc, play and has very little to do with whether the Pirates win that day though I prefer they do. Seeing things like how various batters prepare differently for an at bat in the on deck circle or watching a runner on first that you know is going to try to take second base are fun things to me that you cant always see if you aren’t there. Simply watching any pitcher battle with any batter has a different energy when you are watching it in the stadium than on TV. Go Pirates for sure but go baseball first and foremost.
Agree with both Jimmy and Skeptical here
Love the game. Born and raised with it
And truthfully, all I expect or want is a competitive team—one that hustles
.500 is all I hope for
But I don’t live in a vacuum
I can’t wear blinders to what ownership is doing here and how it has crushed its fan base
I had season tickets for home games for nearly 30 years, even when I lived in Florida and outside of Philadelphia, I kept them, but when it became more obvious that McClatchey wasn’t going to put a winning team on the field, and that was in the middle 2000’s, I had enough
I can’t imagine buying tickets for even one game under the current cheapskate ownership
Well stated.
Much the same story with me
Went to games with my dad for years.
Forbes. 3 Rivers. PNC
I love seeing the same things Jimmy notes in his post
But I’ll watch on TV if I have nothing better to do
Salaries and owner greed are one thing. What Nutting has done is another
At this point, I’d rather watch the kids play
More passion. More hustle.
And I’ll throw some money into the 50/50 raffles that go around as I know it’s needed and appreciated
I haven’t watched him lately but his worst tool was run, has he got faster? So far a platoon. Do they want more elite pitching or now looking for 4 5? I like him but not sure I would trade Jones for him. But ot doesn’t have to be a 1 for 1.
The Pirates come out of the Winter meetings with a platoon utility infielder. Great job again.
Jones has too much upside to trade him for a platoon player
We have enough of those already
Sick of this billionaire owner. Invest 20-30 million in a RF, a couple relief pitchers. Move Horwitz to 2B, trade Keller for Casas to play 1B & add Kepler or Winker or Kjerstad in RF. This would be a very competitive lineup. Just a thought