Rebuilding Pittsburgh Pirates for 2026
The Pittsburgh Pirates 2025 season was done before it even started. But after a mid-season managerial change, they played much better baseball down the stretch. Now the pressure is on for the front office to capitalize on the skins era. And today I’m playing GM. Hello, my name is Avery Taylor and welcome to Rebuild October, a series where we rebuild every single team across the month of October. So whether you’re looking for your favorite team or just generally curious as to how every team could approach the off season, then this is the series for you. And with that being said, let’s jump into the Pirates. As you can see from the war by position, we’ll have our work cut out for us. The pitching staff as a whole was very good in 2025, but the position players were a rough watch. Players who are set to return from the unit include Horwitz at first, Gonzalez at second, Triolo at short, Cruz and center, and hoping for a bounce back from Reynolds and Wright. The Pirates have three players about to hit free agency. Tommy Fam, Andrew McCutchen, and Justin Lawrence are all intriguing players in their own right. And in a weird twist, we’ll see them all back in Pittsburgh next year. Fam’s mid-season turnaround was impressive enough to earn another contract in Pittsburgh. He makes a solid left fielder, and truthfully, I’m not sure the Pirates can do much better. If McCutchen’s return was purely based on roster construction and performance, I probably wouldn’t have him back. It’s hard to bring back a guy who only hits left-handers well and can’t play the field. However, considering the other stuff that comes with McCutchen’s name, we’ll bring him back to platoon at DH versus Lefties. And then the Pirates will bring back Justin Lawrence, who performed admirably for the Bucks in limited time. This could be an opportunity for the Pirates to get a plus reliever on a cheap deal. For potential prospects that could have their impact throughout the season, the Pirates have a number of prospects who seem to be fizzling out. Names like Tamar Johnson, Thomas Harrington, and Mitch Jeb were all names that pirate fans used to dream on. Now they seem more like afterthoughts after rough 2025. Raphael Flores was the headliner prospect the Pirates got back for David Bednar, and so far he hasn’t disappointed. He’s a power overhit type catcher that has a good arm. He isn’t defensively impressive and might be a first baseman long term. If he had just a little bit more time in AAA, he definitely would be in consideration for the opening day roster. The super fun prospect to dream on is Connor Griffin, who has lit the prospect world on fire with his combination of speed and power at just 19 years old. I would normally have my skepticism about making the majors next year, but he’s yet to slow down. He’s already made it to DA and looks even better there. If the number one prospect in baseball keeps this up, it’ll be hard to keep him out of Pittsburgh. However, with the focus on opening day, the prospects in the Pirate system will have minimal impact. It leaves a major question mark at catcher, third base, and the platoon with McCutchen at DH. Before we can talk about the fixes the Pirates need to make, let’s fix my wife’s Christmas budget. For every subscriber I gain over the month of October, I’ll be adding 50 cents to my wife’s Christmas budget. So, we’ll be starting out at $150 and go from there. So, every subscriber counts. And with that being said, let’s try to fix the pirates. Catcher for the Pirates is extremely weird because they have three internal options that all have major faults. Henry Davis can’t hit but plays good defense. Joey Bart can only hit lefties and can’t play defense at all. And Indie Rodriguez has looked lost at both while barely staying on the field. This unit needs change. Henry Davis cannot be the everyday catcher in 2026. So, who return as a backup option? Joey Bart will transition to first base and platoon with Horwitz and Indy just won’t make the opening day roster. This leaves room for the Pirates to get a catcher in free agency. That’s where the team will grab Victor Keratini. Keratini isn’t a defensive wizard by any means, but he is a much better hitter than the other Pirate options. He hits both righties and lefties and should be a nice offensive boost for the unit. At third base, there is a massive hole after the departures of Kabrian Hayes and Isaiah Ker Falefa that the Pirates desperately need to fill. Here’s where we’ll have to get creative. The Pirates will swing a trade with the Phillies for third baseman Alec Bone. Boom has consistently been a plus option with the bat with double-digit homers. The defense is a little hit or miss, but the offensive boost would be greatly appreciated. It would be a one-year rental, but the Pirates need some changes. In return, the Pirates will have to deal from their pitching death and give up Hunter Barco as well as Omar Alonso. Barco is a top 100 prospect and will make a solid starter one day. It’s just someone who is blocked within the Pirate system. And with the Phillies making big changes, they’ll want some value back. But the Pirates trades aren’t done there. If you’ve already watched the Rockies rebuild, then you’ll know they’ll swing a trade for Mickey Moniac to platoon with McCutchen. Moniac has consistently mashed double-digit homers and the plus OPS. His main issue is that his defense is atrocious, especially as the Rockies keep pushing him into center field. With the Bucks, it’ll be mainly DH and some fill in for the corners. In return, the Rockies will get Mike Burroughs. Out of the young, talented pitchers already on the roster. Burroughs probably has the least pedigree. That doesn’t mean he isn’t solid, and he should at least help some with the disaster of the Rocky’s rotation. Unfortunately, the way this roster is constructed, there isn’t much flexibility amongst the position players. So, the Pirates will need to grab the ultimate utility man in Kik Hernandez in free agency. Hernandez isn’t much of a hitter, being only serviceable against lefties, but his value to the Bucks would be as the ultimate utility man. The rotation is going to look familiar to last season. Skins at the top, no explanation necessary, followed by Keller and Oedo, who should be solid with young guns Ashcraft and Chandler bringing up the rear. Ashcraft really shined in his role, bouncing between the bullpen and rotation, and I would love to see him build up more into a starter role. For Chandler, he might very well still be considered a prospect by the time this video releases, and having that extra data from his final outings would be nice. However, with his track record, Chandler should be able to bounce back as a starter in the major leagues and show why he was so highly touted. The bullpen will also look very familiar. Returning Dennis Santana, Isaac Matson, Evan Cis, Carmen Majinsky, Dari Mereda, Johan Ramirez, Kyle Nicholas with the affforementioned Justin Lawrence. This unit has a good combination of strikeout artists, lock down relievers, and guys who can deliver multiple innings. And that’s going to do it for the rebuild. This roster brings considerably more offensive firepower to the table to help better complement that pitching staff, which we all know is so good. the platoon will be better in place and allow them to get more production out of positions than they probably should. They will sacrifice some defensive flexibility and just some defense overall, but that’s the price they’re going to have to pay to move further up into competition, especially whenever you consider the cost restraints of being well the Pittsburgh Pirates. Hello, post editing Avery here again. We’re just going to give you guys an update. We started the month at 2360 subs and that has climbed all the way to 2378, gaining 18 subs on the month and giving Kylie an extra $9 in her Christmas fund. Thank you guys so much for all of that. I know across three days maybe 18 subs doesn’t sound like a lot to you, but to me that’s 18 people to decide to join this community and, you know, be a part of it. Watch all these videos. I appreciate you guys so much, especially those of you who are coming back every single day watching every single one of these videos. It really means the world to me to see the support on the channel. I appreciate you all so much and thank you guys for watching. Hope you have a wonderful day.
The Pittsburgh Pirates were very poor in 2025, but after the managerial looked much better. Now with talent still on the roster, will they finally turn the corner as a team, or will they stay a bottom feeder.
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1 comment
I need to see a Padre rebuild vid. Hope that’s the next video idea