{"id":670229,"date":"2026-04-08T12:45:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T12:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/670229\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T12:45:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T12:45:16","slug":"pirates-29-million-contract-decision-looks-wise-already","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/670229\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates’ $29 million contract decision looks wise already"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pirates’ $29 million contract decision looks wise already<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There were two ways this could’ve gone for the Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Either their surprisingly spent money this offseason could turn out to be a wise investment, or it could backfire and scare the Pirates off from shelling out cash in the future.<\/p>\n

So far, it’s been mostly positive. That’s especially true with Ryan O’Hearn, who they signed to a two-year deal worth $29 million.<\/p>\n

That’s chump change for some franchises, but not the Pirates. Giving O’Hearn that deal was a big-time investment for Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

“O\u2019Hearn made his first All-Star team in 2025, posting solid numbers with the Orioles before being traded to the Padres last summer,” MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand recalled in a new article<\/a> on Wednesday. “The 32-year-old signed a two-year, $29 million deal with the Pirates during the offseason, part of Pittsburgh\u2019s effort to bolster its lineup.”<\/p>\n

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MORE:\u00a0Yankees outfielder once battled ostrich in 11-plate spaghetti-eating contest<\/a><\/p>\n

O’Hearn is pictured atop this article in the home run celebration helmet that the Pirates use. He’s gotten used to that fit already.<\/p>\n

“Through his first nine games, O\u2019Hearn paid dividends for the Pirates, hitting three home runs with 11 RBIs and a .364\/.463\/.697 slash line (1.160 OPS) while reaching base safely in every game,” Feinsand writes. “His 11 RBIs have accounted for 24.4% of Pittsburgh\u2019s 45 runs this season, and while he has played right field in seven of those games, he\u2019s also given manager Don Kelly the ability to put him at first base when needed.”<\/p>\n

The Pirates have a strong pitching rotation and knew the offense needed to be better. O’Hearn has helped make that happen.<\/p>\n

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“The Pirates are averaging 4.5 runs per game through their first 10, putting their offense right at the league-average mark,” Feinsand writes. “That might not seem like a big deal, but considering that Pittsburgh finished last in the Majors with only 3.6 runs scored per game last year, it\u2019s clear that the offseason additions \u2013 led by O\u2019Hearn \u2013 have been effective early in the season.”<\/p>\n

There’s still work to be done in Pittsburgh, but at least as far as O’Hearn is concerned, that seems to have been money well spent.<\/p>\n

More MLB news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pirates’ $29 million contract decision looks wise already originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2402],"tags":[5,6452,13815,4,10,776,64,4297,63907,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-670229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-pirates","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-don-kelly","10":"tag-mark-feinsand","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-pirates","13":"tag-pittsburgh","14":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","15":"tag-pittsburghpirates","16":"tag-ryan-o39hearn","17":"tag-yankees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116369157315157424","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}