Pirates free agency rumors: Ryan O’Hearn, Jorge Polanco and Kazuma Okamoto power sources to watch?

Pirates free agency rumors: Ryan O’Hearn, Jorge Polanco and Kazuma Okamoto power sources to watch?

Hello everybody. It is Tuesday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My name is Adam Bitner, assistant sports editor for Multimedia at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, joined by Colin Beasley, our Pirates Insider for our latest Pirates offseason podcast. We’re talking about reports today that the Pirates intend to spend spend money this off season. Do we believe them? Um how would we qualify significant spending from Ben Cherington and Bob Nutting in this moment? We’re going to dive into all that. We also have some names from Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic and Fox Sports um in terms of connecting them to the Pirates, Ryan O’Harn, Jorge Palanco, Kazuma Okamoto, and then a couple of DFA candidates uh the Pirates haven’t specifically or excuse me, non-tender uh casualties that the Pirates haven’t specifically been connected to, but um may potentially be interested now that they’re available. Before we get into all that, we want to remind you that this show is presented by FanDuel. Okay, Colin. Um, yeah, there’s there’s been multiple reports this week saying the Pirates are going to spend this off season. Some putting that number over the hundred million dollar mark. I have a couple questions for you about those reports. A, is this just the classic Pirates accounting trick of where they classify money that’s coming off the books as new spending? Um I they love to do this going back over the last handful of years. I remember one year Frank Kunley in particular uh when they had a bunch of of free agent money coming off the books. They said they were going to spend more and it was really just arbitration money that they were going to it that was going to boost the payroll that they were going to have to pay out to people anyway. Um that’s a classic pirates tactic to make it look like they’re spending more than they are. They’ll they’ll basically say from the bottom of where the payroll could bottom out to the top of where it goes is what you should give them credit for regardless of what last season’s payroll was. Which brings me to part B here. Uh spotra had them at 84 million for the final payroll for 2025. So if if we’re talking about a hundred million, do you look at that that threshold more as symbolic is is hitting those triple triple figures there in the in the million-doll category? um as as a you know kind of just a threshold the Pirates don’t crack, but it’s also only 16 million more than where they were a year ago. Is it that significant if they get to 100, let’s say maybe even 105, 110? Well, first off, the the 84 million that they ended at, that was after they got a number of their bigger contracts a off the books of the deadline. That was after dealing Gabbrrian Hayes. That was after dealing or getting rid of Isaiah Kiner Falefa. That was that was kind of like like that that wasn’t their beginning of the year number. That was once the season was over and they realized you might as well shed some contracts and trade some guys. As for as for the 100 110 million, whatever it ends up being, those aren’t necessarily numbers that I’ I’d heard and they’re a little bit different than what we’d reported earlier. I don’t know if something’s changed. Maybe maybe they maybe they took the message from Paul Skins and decided to spend money now, but it’s definitely something I’ll have to see to believe. As for the overall spending money, the 30 to 40 million was something that had been reported earlier this off season. That’s I don’t make much of that because that’s what they’d have to spend to get back to roughly what they were last year. That’s what they’d have to spend because they don’t have Cabrian Hayes. They don’t have IKF. They don’t have Cutch and FAM and all that right now. Um 30 to $40 million that that would just get them back to where they were. Obviously, if they end up spending if it ends up being 40 to 50 or 50 to 60 and you get more into like the 100 110 range, then great. The payroll has actually ra gone up. It has actually been raised. But until they do that, I’m not sure I buy it. Well, I also I don’t I don’t buy the notion that that that they’re even where they should be even if they get to that threshold because 100 million’s about where they were in 2016, Colin. Um before they started kind of tearing things down a little bit when they started having those losing seasons in 201617, uh leading into 18, the last winning season. Um that’s that’s where the threshold was. They tore it all the way down to the studs. And now with all of the extra money flowing into the sport, it seems like they very much are trying to message that, oh, we get back to 100 million. That’s that’s symbolic of our commitment to win with Paul Skins. I’m I’m not I’m not there. It there’s been there’s been so much new money in the game that going back merely to where you were a decade ago to me is you don’t deserve credit. That should be the starting point for the conversation, not the ending point. Um, so do I believe that they could hit 100 million? Yes. Am I ready to say, “Go crazy, folks. The Pirates are serious because they’re going to get to where they were in 2016.” No. I I’m I’m not prepared to give them credit even if they get there. Let me see the composition of the team first. But but the number value does not impress me. Um, let’s talk about some of these names. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic threw them out there. Um Jeff Passen had mentioned a couple of them as well going back to last week, but there were a few new ones in in the Ken Rosenthal reporting that I that both of us found interesting while we were prepping the show. Um Ryan O’Harn of the you know formerly of the Orioles is one 17 home runs last year just over an 800 OPS. Uh first baseman and corner outfielder can kind of play both spots. Obviously, the the Pirates have needs kind of in in both territories depending upon what you’re doing with Spencer Horwitz on a given day. Um, is he a good fit with what this team needs in your eyes? Well, yeah, he’s he’s got positional flexibility, so he’s he’s a perfect pirate already. That’s that’s great. He can play a lot of spots. Done. Pirate. No, but that’s I think that is a good fit. I think he’d represent a player that would improve the team. He would represent a proven major league bat. He’s got some pop. He’s had major league success. I think you’d probably see him as more of an outfielder than a first baseman. Yeah, he can play some first base, but with Spencer Horitz being the Pirates best hitter at first base, you’ve got a greater need in left field. That’s where I’d slot him in. Rhino Hearn is a name that I’d heard too. That’s that’s something that that’s didn’t necessarily come out of out of left field for me. I’d kind of heard a little bit of talk of that and I I think it’d be a good signing. I think it’s something where you’d have to go into the multi-year range to to get it. You’d have to offer him probably two years, potentially even three, but it’s something where it would have to be a multi-year deal, but it wouldn’t be too too cost prohibitive. I think it would make a lot of sense. Yeah, I think the question is it two, three years, what what is the dollar value going to be? Because I think um when I had the stats up earlier, it was a little over two wins above replacement. I mean on the open market calling that easily is worth like 45 50 million just back of the envelope. Um you don’t think so? I mean by that math or by one war equals 8 million then yeah that add adds up there but all the contract projections I’ve seen for O’Harn are far below that. I’ve seen nine 10 11 million somewhere in there and that that’s something I think that should be doable. I don’t have the exact um MLB trade rumors or ESPN or athletic projections in front of me, but nothing I’ve seen when I did look at those were numbers that I thought, oh, the Pirates could not or should not do that. If Well, I guess that’s immaterial. Yeah, I mean, if it’s in that range, I I it certainly seems like that’s what should have been doable for the Pirates over a period of time. It’s exactly the contract we kind of contract we talked about last week that they haven’t signed in recent years that doesn’t seem like it should be out of their range. Uh it’s just a sizable commitment over a period of years if it doesn’t work out. But again, we as we talked about like Tommy Fam, he kind of never had the chance to to to really latch on. And granted, he’s he’s older, so how much runway did he really have? He was an example of a guy you bring in for one year. He has a couple bad months and that basically soured the whole contract for everyone even though he found things toward the end of the season. If you have a guy you’re investing a little bit more in, you have a little bit more runway. And hopefully you get a little bit more payoff even though you are spending a little bit more money than you were for a Tommy Fam type. Um, you compared this last time, but Tommy Fam is 37 years old. Like I I see what you’re saying there, but it’s it’s a little bit different when you’re comparing someone at Tommy Fam or Andrew McCussen’s age to someone like an O’Harn or someone like the guys we’ll talk about later where they have or where they’re um going to be around for longer just because they’re younger. With Tommy Fam, he’s kind of at the stage of his career where he’s only going to be signing one-year deals just because you have no idea how his age will affect him. So, Right. And I think what you’re saying there, but I I feel like I got to push back on that one a little bit. It’s a value judgment of why are you signing these guys that basically have to hit immediately for it. You’re right that he’s only going to be signing one-year contracts, but I don’t know that that was or should be a fit with what the Pirates needed with as many any needs as they proved to have on offense. Um Andrew McCutchen’s kind of his own special case. Um I don’t really consider him in that category. I consider more like a a Tommy Fam type deal because what let’s say you signed a Ryan O’Harn type this year would have cost you what maybe by the number we’re talking about maybe four or five million more to have a guy over the next three years that could still be a contributor for you um and and would have the ability to work through some of those struggles and still pay off the contract. you know, that that’s kind of how I’m looking at it is you’re giving five million, you know, for one season to one guy rather than paying just a little bit more to have a little more consistency there and have um some runway for a guy. Uh so that’s more how I’m comparing them and not apples to apples. Let’s get into another name. Jorge Palanka was on Ken Rosenthal’s list. 26 home runs, 821 OPS. Good numbers, especially for a guy up the middle. Um, however, Colin, I can’t believe we’re talking about them potentially signing a guy to significant money considering all of the draft picks and investment they’ve made uh in the middle of field in recent years. And considering Conor Griffin, you know, many people are hoping we’re going to see him at some point in 2026. Yeah, Jorge Palano is not necessarily a name that I buy as much or I I can see them going after. I Good that they’re interested. the Pirates should be interested in any any major league hitter that’s going to help the team, which is like they they should be interested in just about everyone on the free agent market. So, good that they’re interested in a guy like Jorge Palanco, but I just I don’t necessarily see him going anywhere after what they did in Seattle. I think that he will have offers to play places for either more money than the Pirates are going to offer or at a bare minimum places that have been more competitive than Pittsburgh in recent years. I think that the Mariners will probably try to keep him. And if the Mariners keep him and it comes down to the Mariners or the Pirates, the Pirates would have to offer a whole lot more than the Mariners would. They’d have to overpay for the guy in order to get him to come somewhere that hasn’t had the playoff success, that hasn’t had the the culture, that hasn’t just hasn’t had as good of a season as the Mariners have had in quite some time. So, I’m glad the Pirates are interested. I think it’s worth showing interest in all of these guys, but I don’t expect much to come of that one. Yeah. And I mean, you do have to have some kind of bridge to to Connor Griffin. It’s just, you know, when we’re sitting here in the offseason doing doing things on paper and you’re saying, “Oh, when if Connor Griffin’s here at some point in the summer, who else is going to be in that, you know, second base spot?” So many people have been talking up Nick Gonzalez for seemingly my entire life. uh and what they’re just going to move on from from him. I I think that’s still an open question of whether he can be a contributor on this team. So, um yeah, I’m not as as enthusiastic about that as I would be about a Ryan O’Harn type, but but we’ll see how that unfolds. Uh before he’s he’s primarily a second baseman. He wouldn’t I wouldn’t expect him to be playing shorts stop for whoever he ends up signing with. And I do think that second base is a spot that they can that they should be looking to upgrade at some point. Not necessarily. I I’m fine with giving Nick Gonzalez another year to prove that 2025 was a rough season. That said, he hasn’t he he wasn’t quite good enough in 2025. No. And if we were if we weren’t talking about the Pirates, then different conversation about whether, you know, he’s a guy that you need to replace. I just don’t look at that as a position that um just seems as deficient as some of the others. So um and yeah, you’re right. He’s more of a second baseman by trade, but you never really know how the Pirates are going to attempt to use their guys defensively. So um we we’ll monitor that situation. We’re going to move on here in a second. Before we do, just want to remind you that uh FanDuel has the offseason um futures odds. The Pirates are currently plus 10,000, Colin, to win the National League. Um, if you’re feeling froggy about these reports that they’re going to spend some money, maybe head over there and spend some money of your own um to put your cash behind the pirates, though I would certainly not recommend that myself. Uh, but otherwise, check out our friends at FanDuel. Colin, uh, Kazuma Okamoto is one of the big names expected to come over from Japan. Nearly 300 home runs over there. Still hasn’t turned 30 yet. Um, I would imagine he’s going to have some level of market over here. Uh, is he a viable target for the Pirates? I think he should be. He’s someone who plays a position of need at third base. He’s someone that again, he he he probably won’t be out of the Pirates price range, but you would have to you would have to pay a fair amount for him. I you don’t necessarily know what you’re getting when you sign a player out of Japan. You don’t know whether he’s he’s going to have immediate success or will take time to adapt or anything there. So there is some inherent level of risk there. But Okamoto is someone who does a lot of things that the Pirates need. He plays the position of need. He hits for a lot of pop. He’s someone you could put in the middle of the lineup and kind of just set or uh forget about it. And um I think the Pirates should be interested in him and and would be a very good addition if they’re able to sign him. Yeah. What is the industry um comparison? A lot of times I’ll hear people say what it’s like the equivalent of double A over there. U but when you have a guy who’s almost 30 sometimes we talk about apples to apples comparisons. You know you don’t hit almost 300 home runs at any level of baseball without having some level of knowhow. Um so how do you weigh that in in the conversation? How should we view because the the Pirates haven’t kind of gone this direction in some time. How should we view Japan uh and and the level of ball that he was competing at? You can see it in two different ways. You can there’s there’s some inherent level of risk obviously like I just mentioned, but you can see it either the Pirates are in a position where they need to be taking risk, which I I think they are. or I think they’re in a spot where you need to be taking a bet in some less proven guys or at the same time you can say if you only have this much money to spend you can’t risk a signing some guy to a big deal and it not working out. I think of those two I would go more towards the being um risk friendly like I don’t know whether that’s a term but going towards someone something that you don’t necessarily know will work out like an Okamoto just because if it does it’s something you need. so desperately. But I also could see something where the Pirates are worried about that and saying, “Oh, if we’re going to spend 60 65 million, however much he’s projected to get, then we want to sign someone who’s done it in the major leagues.” You can go either way there, but I think the Pirates are in a position where they need to take some risks, some swings. Yeah, I I don’t I’m not sure how I feel about it. I I look back at Jungho Gung and how that worked out for the Pirates as kind of a finishing piece to that 2015 team where you already had a solid team built and then you said, “Hey, we think this is one guy who who we could get maybe cheaper.” I mean, they got him pretty cheap. Um get get cheaper than the market rate um who carries a level of risk, but that if it pays off, things will work out. I felt like that was the right moment for them at that time. I don’t I think there are more proven commodities. We were talking about Ryan O’Harn earlier. I think even Jorge Palanco falls in that category of you know if you’re going to spend some money, don’t you want to have a little bit more uh proven major league experience because you have so many holes. If if you’re a couple years ahead in this process and and you only got two big holes in in your lineup and and he’s maybe the guy you want to spend on to fill one and you’re retaining your other players that I can see. I just worry that I if you’re still kind of building this thing, is that the risk you want to be taking at at this stage of the process? And granted, the Pirates should be further along. They shouldn’t have all these questions heading into year seven of Ben Sharington here, but they do. and we have to operate with where they are rather than where they should be. So, um I’m a little bit skeptical of that signing, but I can see why it would be appealing to the Pirates as a potential source of market upside as well. Yeah, I worry about that about that too with say just sticking with third base. You sign a guy like Eeneio Suarez, you know, he’s either going to be, you know, he’s probably going to be about a $60 million player at his ceiling. you know that that’s you’re probably signing him based upon as good as he can be. Whereas a guy like Okamoto, maybe he can outperform his contract more than say a Suarez can. Is that a risk you want to take? I don’t know. That’s not the decision for me to take. But I’d say there’s probably there’s probably more of a chance he doesn’t perform up to his contract, but there’s also more chance if you’re taking a swing that he overperforms his contract than a guy like Suarez. Yeah. Yeah. But again, with as many holes, is is that where you want to go? I guess we’ll find out what the Steelers or excuse me, what the Pirates want to do strategically. Colin, let’s talk about a couple guys who were non-endered across baseball. JJ Bled, uh, Adulus Garcia. Bed is what I I wrote in my notes here, a ghost of Pirates trade deadlines past, a guy that they were connected to multiple times, never actually finished the deal for. Um, Adulles Garcia has, you know, that great October in 2023, uh, that people probably remember and and if you haven’t been paying as much attention to him lately, sub700 OPS guy, do you look at either one of them as maybe unexpected candidates to help the Pirates fill some needs where, you know, we didn’t know that they’d maybe be available, but now that they are, where do they belong in these conversations to you? I think that every team in baseball that that needs needs slugging and needs hitting is going to at least take a look at Adulus Garcia. He’s someone who at his best can be so so good. I mean, we saw it we saw it in October of 2023. That was a legacy defining month for him where he just lit the postseason on fire and and kind of led the Rangers to that World Series title. He hasn’t been as good over the last two years. So, I do I do worry about it. And it’s definitely something where he’d come in and you you kind of you kind of have to fix him. You you’d have to figure out what went wrong over the last two years and tinker with him. Is that something that I necessarily think the Pirates are best equipped for? I don’t know. But at the same time, with where the Pirates were, you can’t really you can’t get worse than being 30th in the major leagues in homers and in runs. the Pirates can afford to take a bet like that and bet on his upside. I don’t think he’d be too expensive either. The Rangers were not willing to pay him, I think, 10 million. So, he’d probably be somewhere for you could get someone you could get for maybe half that and give him a shot on a one-year deal. I think it’s a bet that might be worth taking. Yeah, I I tend to agree. Um I I think even at his, you know, trough of production here, he’s still like a 670 OPS guy. How many guys on this in this Pirates lineup and on this roster would you look at a 670 OPS and be like that’s exactly where he needs to be. Um you know, you would take that from so many guys that we’ve invested so much time talking about. So if that’s kind of your floor with an adulus Garcia and you believe that there is still some upside to mine there definitely has to be on the radar. Do you have any thoughts on Beday? Bed I you could also look at upside there. I mean he was a former fourth overall pick in 2019. He’s someone that hasn’t put it together in the major league. So I’m a little bit less interested in in him. I mean, looking at his stats, he hit 167 and 22, 195 and 23, 243 and 24, and then 212 last year. He hasn’t had major league success. He hasn’t had the the he hasn’t shown flashes of something really great the way that um Adoulles Garcia was. He is a left-hitting handed hitting outfielder. He did have 10 home runs in 23, 20 in 24, and 14 and 25. So, you can see that he’s got some pop and maybe there’s something there, but he’s one I’m less interested in. However, he’s also someone who will have less of a market and will come cheaper. So, maybe maybe he’s worth taking a swing on as well. But if you were saying to choose between the reclamation projects and betting on potential, I’d still much rather have Garcia. Yeah. I think my thing with Blade is what were we just talking about last week? bringing back Jack Sinsky and he’s in that category of if I could sign up in blood for an OPS in the mid60s. Um I’ I’d rather have that than than Jack Sinsky. JJ Bluet is exactly that. Uh even here at at maybe you know a trough in his value 698 OPS. Um the 212 batting average doesn’t look great, but it’s still 60 points better than where Jack Sinsky was Colin. So, um, that’s why that’s why I just I like I can’t scoff at anybody, you know, in these situations. And you, we can talk about the Pirates spending money, but the more spots you can address cheaply, the more you can invest in uh, difference making guys. And, you know, that that’s where I think you could get a JJ Blade. And is he is he good by objective major league standards right now? No. Would he still be a massive upgrade on where the Pirates have been? Probably. Uh, so, so I would consider it maybe a little bit more than you. I I I don’t mind considering it, but if the Pirates go into go into 2026 and their starting left fielder is either Jack Sinsky or JJ Blade, they have bigger issues. They have It’ll be the It’ll be the same thing over again. They need to be looking for something more aggressive. as a left-handed bat off the bench. Sure, you can give either guy a shot there, but you still need to go for a for a more major upgrade in left field than either of these two guys. I mean, I I agree with that, but I have watched this team for too much of my life to believe that they would not at least try to consider that. So, we will see how that plays out. Colin, thank you for your time and expertise today. Um, we’ll probably take some time for the rest of the week because of the Thanksgiving holiday here on the PG Pirates channel. If there’s some breaking major news, we’ll be back, but otherwise, we will probably see you again next week with uh whatever other headlines pop up in uh Pirates World ahead of the MLB Winter meetings. Thanks for joining us, and we’ll talk to you again real soon. Thank you for checking out this content from Postgazette Sports. If you watch this video on YouTube, please like the video and subscribe to our channel. For all of the sports coverage the Post Gazette has to offer, visit post-gazette.com.

Host Adam Bittner welcomes Post-Gazette Pirates insider Colin Beazley to talk through the latest offseason news and rumors with the MLB Winter Meetings looming. This show is presented by FanDuel.

What should we make of reports that GM Ben Cherington is planning to spend generously this offseason? And what counts as a sizable boost in payroll? Would Ryan O’Hearn make sense as a first base target? How much could Jorge Polanco help manager Don Kelley’s team in the middle infield? And should Cherington be in the mix to land Japanese star Kazuma Okamoto? 

Our duo tackles those questions, then ponders the potential signings of recent non-tender casualties JJ Bleday and Adolis Garcia and whether they could be the pieces that help put a roster that includes Paul Skenes, Oneil Cruz and Bryan Reynolds over the top for postseason berth in 2026. 

For more Pirates coverage, visit: https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/pirates

Visit our sponsor, Greenawalt Roofing at https://greenawaltroofing.com/service-areas/pittsburgh-pennsylvania/