The Pittsburgh Pirates made waves in the offseason when they signed Ryan O\u2019Hearn to a 2-year $29 million contract in January. That signing was the largest ever handed out to a free-agent hitter in franchise history and was the first free-agent signed to a multi year contract by the club in a decade. Despite the big splash signing that it was at the time and what the left-handed hitter has done to this point in the season, O\u2019Hearn finds himself on the outside looking in with regards to All-Star voting.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Hearn has quietly been exactly what the Pirates needed for their young team. O\u2019Hearn provides a veteran presence for what is a very young clubhouse and has gracefully embraced that role since signing with Pittsburgh. Although his role in the clubhouse is usually attached to a player that\u2019s over the hill, this couldn\u2019t be further from the truth in the case of O\u2019Hearn.<\/p>\n
Not only does O\u2019Hearn provide the steady mindset as a veteran player off the field, he also provides that on the field. The 32-year-old lefty has been one of the consistent performers in manager Don Kelly\u2019s lineup that has completely transformed this offense. 2025 saw Pittsburgh as bottom dwellers for homers and runs scored, but 2026 has seen the club completely flip the script and suddenly the bats have awakened. O\u2019Hearn has been a catalyst in that way. It hasn\u2019t been flashy or over the top, but it\u2019s been a steady driving force. On the year O\u2019Hearn is slashing .274\/.333\/.447 with a .780 OPS. At the plate O\u2019Hearn has gathered 11 homers, 65 total hits and 41 RBIs. He knocked in a career high six runs against the Athletics on June, 17.<\/p>\n
Despite the model of consistency that O\u2019Hearn has been, he finds himself not in the top percentage of players receiving All-Star votes. He\u2019s made significant impacts for the team at first base, right field and as a designated hitter, but still is not receiving the votes that teammates like Oneil Cruz (outfield) and Spencer Horwitz (first base) are receiving. Even with the time Cruz has spent on the injured list, he\u2019s still in the top 20 of votes for outfielders while O\u2019Hearn is nowhere to be seen.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Hearn has been named to the All-Star team once in his career. Last season as a member of the Baltimore Orioles, O\u2019Hearn was named to the American League All-Star team as the starting designated hitter. O\u2019Hearn is currently on pace to replicate those same numbers that made him an All-Star just a season ago.<\/p>\n
At the time of his signing, Kelly was very impressed with O\u2019Hearn\u2019s career path and said he could be a game changer for the Pirates.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe resiliency that he showed in that moment of going from being DFA\u2019d to starting in the All-Star Game, that\u2019s what Pittsburgh is all about, is that toughness and that grit,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cReally excited to add him to the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh and O\u2019Hearn seem to already be a match made in heaven as he really seems bought in to changing the organization and delivering a winner to the city. Even if he doesn\u2019t make it on the National League\u2019s All-Star roster, O\u2019Hearn has more than impressed to this point as a Pirate and could end up being one of those special signings that the Buccos have made in recent history. O\u2019Hearn has made his confidence in the team known since the minute he was signed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t be anymore excited to be a Pirate,\u201d O\u2019Hearn said. \u201cI love the stadium, I love the city, what it\u2019s about. I did my research before I made a decision, and it\u2019s a team that can pitch and just seemed like one or two pieces away from being a legit contender.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Pirates made waves in the offseason when they signed Ryan O\u2019Hearn to a 2-year $29 million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2402],"tags":[5,4,10,81062,60829,5493,776,64,4297],"class_list":["post-734338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-pirates","tag-pirates-player-analysis","tag-pirates-roster","tag-pirates-analysis","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-pittsburghpirates"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116805214135651029","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734338","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=734338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}