Pittsburgh Pirates Offseason To-Do List with Noah Hiles

Pittsburgh Pirates Offseason To-Do List with Noah Hiles

Our [Music] buddy Noah Hiles is going to talk about the Pittsburgh Pirates right now in their offseason to-do lists. You can check out Noah’s work in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette where he’s their sports enterprise reporter and also the brand spanking new Bucko Territory which is out there and he’s one of the three superstar hosts. So, make sure you check out that show QR code side of your screen. Noah, great to have you on, man. you want to lay out the list for us of what you think the Pirates should accomplish this off seasonason? Absolutely. I’d be happy to. Thanks for always having me on. Um, I think the list can really be boiled down to one item. Back up your talk. The last couple of weeks, we’ve heard more about how the Pirates intend to try hard than we’ve heard them say things of that matter in the last three years. So, now it’s time to do it. Uh, that’s probably bullet point number one is just, yeah, back up the talk. You talked about how you want to spend. You talked about how you want to bang it bring in a big name. Well, go do it. You’re attached to all of these sexy free agents, right? Kyle Schwarber, JT Romeo, Ryan O’Harn, Jorge Palanco, a couple of guys uh coming over from Japan. Land one of them and land one of them early enough where you can continue to build. I think that’s the first step. Uh point number two in the checklist is is nail the Mitch Keller trade. We’ve been hearing for a year now about how they intend to trade this guy. The rumors started last year at the winter meetings. Uh they flirted with the idea of moving him at the deadline. It didn’t make sense. I intend or I expect him to be moved uh sometime this off seasonason. I think the winter meetings make a lot of sense. And when they make that move, they have to get it right. It cannot be something underwhelming. It can’t be a project. It has to be a return better than their big return last year, which was Spencer Horowitz, who for all intents and purposes was the best hitter on their team. But they need a little bit more for Mitch Keller. If you’re going to give away a Mitch Keller, you got to get Mitch Keller value in return. This guy is a valuable piece to this team. I think a valuable piece to the rotation, which is the team’s greatest strength. If you’re going to part ways with them, you need to make it a worthwhile move. Third thing is just keep going. just because you might sign one free agent. Let’s say they do. Let’s let’s say they sign an O’Harn or a Palano and let’s say they they get the Keller trade right. They get a pre-arb player uh of equal value, someone with years of control, someone who’s also a little proven. That is not enough. That plus Connor Griffin is still not enough. You need to keep going. You need to keep spending. You need to keep building around this pitching staff if you have any chance of being competitive because that is what teams who are seriously trying to compete do. And that’s what the Pirates claim they’re trying to do. They’re trying to do things different is what they say. They’re trying to be competitive. Back up all that talk. Let’s see it happen. All right. No, let’s just start with the first one. Are they really going to do this? Because we we’ve seen it, right? And listen, we make fun of them all the time because they don’t spend and we get it, but they Oh, we were in on Josh Naylor. We were just $15 million below what Josh Naylor got. So, oh, we tried fans. Is this going to be like we also made fun of the Red Sox? Because the Red Sox are always, “We were in it, guys. We were in it.” So, are the Pirates going to give the old We were in it, but oh no, he got $20 million more because if I’m the Pirates, I know I have to overpay. So, if I’m Bob Nutting and I’m Ben Sherington, I got to overpay. They know this going in. Will they actually do it or are they just going to do the old college try? We tried guys, but oh, come watch us play because we have Paul Ske and Paul Ske. Yeah, they better hope they find a way to get it done. Uh I I think of last year’s Pirate Fest, which is a free festival for all the fans to come down to the convention center in downtown uh right before spring training starts. Last year was a total debacle for the organization. In addition to selling expired soda and spelling Andrew McCutchen’s name wrong on a on a name sheet right in front of where he was signing autographs, they do this annual Q&A with friend or with fans of the team and they bring up the manager, they bring up the team president and the GM to answer questions. And that session was not a good time for anyone on stage. Fans were really upset. And if they do all of this talking this off season and show up to Pirate Fest 2026 without the likes of a Jorge Palano, a Ryan O’Harn, a Kyle Schwarber or someone of that caliber in a Pirates jersey ready to sign autographs for fans. It’s going to be an absolute disaster. This front office or whoever has been expressing their desires to to do things differently and make a big splash, they’ve written a lot of big checks. Well, not technically yet, but hopefully these checks can be cashed because if this is just all talk, which history shows it’s it is all talk until they actually do something. If this ends up just being a whole bunch of words and nothing else, it is going to be a nightmare of not only just Pirate Fest, but just a nightmare of a season because this fan base is fed up. They had three sellouts last year. All three games resulted in sell the team chance. You can expect a lot more of those chance if they sit on their hands and don’t get any big deals done this off season. No, not to pile on, but I’m going to. You forgot about the bricks and covering up the one of the greatest pirates of all times wall and Roberto Clemente because they wanted to sell some vodka soda. I don’t know, something that AJ drinks. Uh, yeah, I’m I’m in therapy because I want to forget those things. Crap. So, thanks for bringing that up. I’m going to have to add a couple hundred dollars onto my therapist bill now. But yeah, I mean that’s that’s it. And when all of those things happen, when the onfield product takes a step back after a 76 week win season, it still takes a step back. When you have off-field issues like they did with the bricks, with Surfside, with, you know, a whole bunch of other things that went along with it and and everyone’s frustrated, including the players, you have to do something different. It’s not going to be different personnel-wise as far as the people running the show. this the manager who got promoted after Shelton was fired in early May. He got extended and I think he’s the right guy for the job. The general manager’s back, the team president’s back and the owner still the same guy. So, if you’re not going to change the people running the show, you have to change the way things are being ran. And yeah, the pressure is on. I I I can’t imagine how bad things are going to get if things remain the same heading into opening day next year. All right. Well, the second point on your list was trade Mitch Keller. And you also said don’t screw it up. So, as Pirates fans, people are going to roast me because they’re like, well, that was a different regime. But I bring up Garrick Cole, Tyler Glass, now Shane Bos, Jameson Tyion. What did they ever get from them that made them a winning team? And yes, it’s different regime. I get that. But it’s the same ownership. And when you sell a piece like Mitch Keller, fans need to understand. The ownership has to approve that. They’re not just like, “Oh, we traded Mitch Keller. Okay, great. I hope we got something.” That has to be approved by the Bob Nutting. So, how do they not screw this up? Because in my opinion, with this pitching staff, I don’t think the Pirates are as far as the history of the Pirates will tell you they are. I don’t think so either. I I don’t think that they’re incredibly far away. I think they’re a couple of bats away from being, I don’t know, maybe something similar to what the Reds were this past season, which for a lot of fan bases, you would laugh at that and say, “Well, that’s not good enough.” Well, in Pittsburgh, 500 is good enough for some fans because it’s only happened four times in the last 30 plus years. So, and I know the bar is much higher when you have Paul Schemes on your roster, but you’ve got to take some steps forward. And yes, nailing the Keller trade is a huge piece to this. you you have to bring in uh I I think either a veteran hitter equivalent to Mitch Keller, someone who’s going to be a two to three win player, someone who’s going to play every day, someone who might not be the centerpiece of your lineup, but someone who can certainly lengthen that lineup and and just be an above league average hitter because they only had one of them all of last year. Uh or you go the other route and you try to get two young controllable pieces. Obviously, that’s a bigger gamble. I don’t know what kind of value Mitch Keller has for that type of uh trade return. And you just look at their their history of returns under Cherington, they have not won a lot of trades, especially in trades that bring back young prospect hitters. So, if you’re going to go and try to acquire a guy who’s major league ready, but isn’t proven, you better be darn sure these guys are not only ready to play, but play a lot. be an everyday starter because this lineup needs to have at least three to four new faces as far as everyday contributors are concerned. I would say, but you watch the Pirates more than I do. Like you make it to 83 wins, that’s what the Reds got to to get into the playoffs this year. If you make it to 83 wins and you have Jared Jones and you have Paul Ske pitching two of your games in a fivegame series, you saw what Terrick Scoo’s done. So, yeah, if they trade Mitch Keller for two possible future prospects, isn’t that a fail to the fact that you’re going to lose Paul Schemes in two years anyway? Potentially. I mean, it depends on what type of prospects you’re getting. If you’re getting someone like, not to say that this is going to be the exact thing, but you look at a team like Baltimore, per se, and you get a guy like Kobe Mayo who didn’t have a great rookie year, but could come in and and has that upside potential. If you could get two players like that for Mitch Keller, then yes, that that’s that I think that that’s worth the gamble because you could potentially get guys who can a impact your team now and b help you further down the line. Now again, I think the safer route to travel is by just getting a one for one. Get your Mitch Keller hitter equivalent and and take that win because you’re already getting an upgraded shortstop with Connor Griffin and apparently you’re going to spend some money on some free agents. So, if you can just sign two free agents, get a position player for Keller, and then you up uh you promote Connor Griffin, that’s almost half a new lineup right there. And there’s still more work to be done, but I think that’s the route to go. And you talk about the pitching. I mean, yes, Keller is going to be their number three, but you got to remember you got Bubba Chandler here who I think is poised to contend for a rookie of the year award this upcoming season. And you’ve got some other young arms who can cover a lot of innings as well. Keller is a luxury on this team. He’s going to be their highest paid player. And if he sticks around, there’s a chance that he might be their number four in the rotation. So, it makes sense to move him. But if you’re gonna move him, you’ve got to get it right. Okay. When you say keep going Noah, what are you talking about? Because you know McNeel has been possibly linked and Brandon Laauo and JT Bomuto and Kyle Kyle Schwarber is not going to the Pirates unless you grossly overpay him. Okay. I mean, yeah, cool. Sounds like a cool story. JT probably not going there either. Most veteran guys aren’t going to go to the Pirates because they don’t see it. So, you’re going to have to do it in trades. And I get Connor Griffin could be a special player, but and Mitch Keller can get you, you know, if you’re saying Kobe Mayo, I mean, okay, but he hasn’t proven anything, right? So, what can they what else do they have to trade to keep going? Because once you trade Mitch Keller, then you’re going to have to trade. If you want veteran guys and you’re Bench Arrington, you’re Bob Nutting and you’re the Pirates organization, you’re going to have to trade from your surplus, not just Mitch Keller. Do you have the prospects to go out and trade? because more than likely Bob Nutting is not going to want to pay the price it’s going to take to get a JT Rial Muto or someone like that because they want to go somewhere where they’re guaranteed they’re going to have a shot and the Pirates are not a guarantee. I totally agree. Uh and and when I say keep going, I mean they’ve got to keep going in a direction that they haven’t gone before. I mean it’s it’s going to require more than just one multi-year deal, which hasn’t happened in Pittsburgh since, you know, since I was a senior in college like seven years ago. So, it’s it’s been quite some time. You need to just sign deals that to the rest of the baseball world might not seem remarkable, but finding guys who can just be a serviceable player on half the league’s rosters, the Pirates have been lacking those guys. You need some veteran presences. You need just some steady, consistent at bats, one through nine in the order. You need guys who know how to win baseball games. So, yeah, you might only be signing one marquee free agent if that. But when I say keep going, it’s adding the pieces around them. The guys who’ve been missing, guys who are well within their price range, even with this this low budget that they have. I mean, if they move Keller, they’re going to have hardly any money committed to their payroll next year. They’re going to have to spend money just to get back to that $90 million mark that they were last year on opening day. So, signing a few two-year, $20 million deals shouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility. Maybe trading a couple of other prospects. They have some really high ranked guys who are years and years away from reaching the major league level. If you’re Ben Cherington, you have to ask yourself, why am I hanging on to these guys if I won’t even be able to likely enjoy their talents? Because if they have another losing season, he’s probably gone. So maybe you explore the idea of trading a Seth Hernandez, an Edward Florentino, or even some lower ranked guys, an Esmer Valdez, an Antoine Kelly. They have a ton of great young pitchers that I anticipate being top 100 prospects one day. Trade them early. get something in return for him. Again, just find a way to get seven league average hitters in this lineup and this team can probably contend for a wild card spot. Wait, no. The reason he can’t get rid of those guys is because somebody told Bob a long time ago, yeah, prospects are capital and we do not trade those. So Ben Jerry sees a writing on the wall. He’s like, they’re never getting rid of the owner. They’re gonna get rid of me and other GMs get the blessing to get rid of their prospects. But their biggest prospect, has he been turned into a salesman also? Paul Skins trying to recruit guys to come to Pittsburgh. Is that a Is that a team ploy? Is that a Paul Skins is so focused and utterly just focused on being a pirate and winning as a pirate that he wants to do that? or is this just is it hogwash? I think it’s the latter. I I not hogwash. I think Paul Ske is just a guy who wants to win, I think he is very cognizant of how hard it will be to win here in Pittsburgh. I think he knows he only has a few more years left to try to win in Pittsburgh. And he rather than sitting here and pouting and and being upset about the situation he’s in, he says, “You know what? Screw it. I’m going to try to recruit some people to come here and we can be legends. We can be heroes.” I mean, the 2013 wild card team, a team that ultimately ended up winning just three playoff games, gets talked about in the same light that like Steelers Super Bowl teams and or Penguin Stanley Cup teams get talked about in this town. That’s how starved for baseball success Pittsburgh is. So, if they could just bring people here, who knows what will happen. It’s just been an issue of not being able to bring anyone here for reasons that we’re aware of. So Paul Skins, yeah, he’s going to do his part for as long as he’s here because Paul Ske is going to try to win on any team in any environment that he’s placed in because that’s just who he is. Okay. I just have one question before. Can they do it and will they do it? I I keep going back to this, you know, because I just don’t You got to go off history of people, right? Yeah. Will they So give me your yes or no. Will they actually go all in and do what they need to do to make this team competitive? And will they make the fans happy? Because last year I remember opening day people were like Bob Nutting walked through the crowd and they were like sell the team in his face and he like ran away. So he knows what’s at stake. Cherington knows what’s at stake. Everyone knows what’s at stake. The Pirates fans are pissed off and good for them. But will they actually do what they need to do? Probably not. I mean again like So see that’s why you were like no I we’re having this whole conversation and I’m just like all this sounds great. All this sounds wonderful, but at the end of the day, he has to actually do what he want he says, right? And and I’m sure, you know, people from the pirates are going to hear this conversation like they’ve heard all the other conversation. It’s it’s going to piss him off. And I’ll just say what I’ve always said. If it pisses you off, do something to to change it. Prove everyone wrong. Prove everyone wrong. No one believes that anything’s going to be any different. And they’ve earned that stigma. they’ve earned the the situation that they’re in where no one will ever believe them until something actually gets done. The way to fix that is by actually doing something. If they were to go out and sign a Schwarber, which I know is not going to happen, or someone maybe a tier beneath him, people are so desperate to buy in on this team. They would sell more tickets. They would have a more, you know, boughtin fan base. And I think it would also give a huge spark to the players in that clubhouse who have gone on record saying that they need help, that what they did last offseason was not enough. Everyone is desperate for this team to do something different, but you can’t believe it’s going to happen until it actually does. Andrew McCutchen, one of my favorite teammates of all time, my my son’s first ever favorite player when we played together in Indie. Andrew McCutchen, fake news, fake rumor, real rumor. Do you see him coming back just like it was Northshore 9 said it in a Reddit AMA? Alex Stump was asked if thinks Cut is coming back due to frustrations on both sides. He’s leaning towards no return. Do you want to see Cut back in a black and gold? And Cut responded, which we didn’t even need Josh Harrison to respond. Wow, that’s news to me, man. you you guys are going to get cut in my Twitter mentions now too by asking me this. So, I don’t appreciate that. But if I had to answer honestly, I I as things currently stand, yeah, I I think it’s probably less likely. I wouldn’t completely write it off, but toward the end of the season, I sensed a lot of tension on both sides. It seemed like Andrew McCutchen was very frustrated with the state of the organization and how they’ve continued to operate in the last couple of years. And it seemed like there was some frustration on the organization side as well with, you know, McCutchen’s comments. So, if those two sides can get over it, then yeah, I think a deal could be done. I think McCutchen wants to play here, but he doesn’t want to play in a place that was like the one that he played the last three seasons. He wants to play on a team that’s actually trying to win. I think he needs to be sold on that. I think the Pirates owe it to him to try to sell him on that. And after they make a couple moves, if there’s still space for Andrew McCutchen, I have no doubt that if he wants to be here, he’ll be there. But they’ve got to make him want to be there. It has to make sense for both parties. And just going off the vibes at the end of the season, I think there was a lot of work to be done and getting that relationship to a point where he would want to sign up for another year in Pittsburgh. Uh oh. You know, Cut is going to watch this. Yeah, I know. Oh, sorry. Yeah, there you go. And and we all love him. He’s He’s a lovable guy, right? And the things that like he’s even being quote faulted for is what? Wanting to be competitive, right? He wants to win. Yeah. He wants to see additional players come in and not force him to be the only leader for three straight years, the only guy who has any sort of voice in a clubhouse. there there needs to be a little bit more than than him. I think that’s a fair gripe on his end. I’m going to quote something that he definitely said, but I can’t prove it. Like I didn’t get this from anyone. I’m just guessing here. There were probably times last year where he was like, “Why am I the best hitter on this team right now?” I I wouldn’t I wouldn’t go against that bet. I mean, it’s more just why is this the same thing that we’ve just gone through? and and I wrote that it’s just you you look from it you look you go back to July 2024 the Pirates went on a little win streak they added a little bit at the deadline they were a couple games out of the wild card but from the moment August 2024 arrived nothing has gone right for this franchise and a few bad months to end the season that’s tough enough but when that ex same that same vibe continues for an entire 2025 campaign That’s exhausting. And few people want to bring winning baseball back to Pittsburgh than Andrew McCutchen. He’s done it once before. And to see him be a part of a team that’s kind of just seemingly going through the motions, or at least that’s how he probably felt the circumstances were, that has to be very frustrating.

Noah Hiles from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and co-host of Bucco Territory joins A.J. Pierzynski, Erik Kratz, and Scott Braun to lay out the Pittsburgh Pirates offseason to-do list. Noah explains why ownership has to finally back up its talk with real spending, what a successful Mitch Keller trade should look like, and how close the Pirates actually are if they add real bats around Paul Skenes and a deep young rotation. The crew digs into past front office misfires, the pressure from a frustrated fan base, and why this winter is a make-or-break moment for the organization. They also tackle the future of Andrew McCutchen in black and gold and what it would take to convince him to sign on for another year in Pittsburgh.

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