Yes. Cats have nine lives.

But we don’t know how many lives failed Pirates management teams have. We do know the current Travis Williams/Ben Cherington regime will send its seventh roster into an MLB season

At last season’s post-mortem, team president Williams said that their attempts to fix a bad offense in 2024 hadn’t succeeded in 2025.

“We think we missed the mark in being aggressive last offseason,” Williams said. “We didn’t add to the offense the way we needed to in order to support the pitching staff that we had.”

Next time, ask somebody…anybody.

The 2025 team finished last out of 30 teams in home runs, OPS, runs scored, and slugging percentage; 28th in batting average; and 27th in on-base percentage.

Cherington et al use “aggressive,” “offense,” and “urgency” in speech, but not in action.

The team’s level of success since 1979, when Jimmy Carter was President, has consisted of three failed league championship series (1990-1992) and three botched tries to win a first-level playoff series (2013-2015), two of which ended with decisive wild card exits.

Each year offers the same promise. “We’re going to fix this (insert concern here).”

So their first move last off-season: sign Jack Suwinski to a $1.25 million contact.

However, they did spend some money to bring in actual players not coming to Pittsburgh because absolutely nobody else wanted them.

And while none of the acquisitions were top-tier, neither were they snatched from the bottom of the baseball barrel.

According to multiple reports, the Pirates offered Kyle Schwarber $125 million and were linked to Framber Valdez, but Schwarber re-signed with the Phillies for $25 million more and Valdez signed with Detroit for $115 million over three years. Japanese star Kazuma Okamoto went to Toronto for $65 million over four years. The Pirates said they “were ready to offer” $78 million to Josh Naylor, who got $14 million more to stay with Seattle.

The Pirates did land Ryan O’Hearn on a two-year, $29 million deal—the largest free-agent contract for a position player in franchise history.

Think players all over the league haven’t noticed that.

The Pirates are reaping the seeds sown in a long history of mis-treatment of signed free agents.

I’m looking at you, Rowdy Tellez. Even players like Ketel Marte invoked no-trade clauses to avoid Pittsburgh.

The Pirates have abandoned the custom of “bringing the best 26 players north” for too many years.

Their treatment of drafted youngsters has been no better. In an attempt to get an additional year out of Paul Skenes, they kept him in the minors until his call-up could not give him the 172 days required for a full year of service.

And last Saturday, they played that game with Konner Griffin, baseball’s top prospect, dangling a roster spot until shipping him to AAA, despite having no one on the roster who would start for any of the 29 other big-league clubs.

Just as bad, they also dangled the 19-year-old before the fans, allowing us to think baseball’s top prospect and the talk of the spring had a chance to join Skenes during the pitcher’s dwindling time in the ‘Burgh.

But don’t worry; he will be here…when there are just 171 days left in the season.

As it begins, here’s how the season ends:

NL Central: Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, St. Louis.

NL East: New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami, Washington.

NL West: Los Angeles, San Diego, Arizona, San Francisco, Colorado.

AL Central: Detroit, Kansas City, Cleveland, Chicago, Minnesota.

AL East: Toronto, Baltimore, New York, Boston, Tampa.

AL West: Seattle, Chicago, Houston, Texas, Los Angeles.

World Series winner: Toronto over Detroit.

Three Parting Shots

Andrew McCutchen will knock in the winning run in one of the three Pirates-Rangers games in Texas next month.

If Aaron Rodgers hasn’t signed with the Steelers by Easter, Pittsburgh should say bye-bye.

Only the catcher should be allowed to challenge a ball-strike call. The pitcher always thinks it’s a strike; the batter always things it’s a ball. The catcher is the person with the best view.

‘til next time.

This is the second entry of Jim Sankey’s current project, Man on Second, an occasional commentary on the Pittsburgh Pirates.