2025 Pittsburgh Pirates

2025 Pittsburgh Pirates / Franchise: Pittsburgh Pirates / BR Team Page

Record: 71-91, Finished 5th in NL Central Division (2025 NL)

Managed by Derek Shelton (12-26) and Don Kelly (59-65)

Coaches: Tarrik Brock, Radley Haddad, Matt Hague, Don Kelly, Mendy Lopez, Oscar Marin, Christian Marrero, Miguel Pérez, Mike Rabelo, Brent Strom and Jonny Tucker

Ballpark: PNC Park

History, Comments, Contributions

The 2025 Pittsburgh Pirates were coming off back-to-back 76-win seasons but made few changes to improve the team. Their biggest move involved trading one of their top pitchers, Luis Ortiz, plus two prospects, for first baseman in Spencer Horwitz, who turned out to be injured. They also signed 37-year-old Tommy Pham to allegedly address their outfield gap, even though Pham had been below average offensively and defensively in recent years (shades of Yasmani Grandal from 2024), as well as carrying a reputation as a clubhouse cancer.

The biggest hope for the Bucs came from their starting rotation, anchored by 2024 Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes as well as another solid rookie, Jared Jones. Mitch Keller and Bailey Falter had also done a reasonable job the year before. Unfortunately, Jones began the year injured and projected fifth starter Johan Oviedo had a setback in his return from Tommy John surgery so free agent Andrew Heaney and converted reliever Carmen Mlodzinski rounded out the rotation when the season began. The bullpen was a bigger concern as David Bednar had been terrible as the closer in 2024 and Aroldis Chapman had departed via free agency.

The offense had not been very good in 2024. Catcher Joey Bart, second baseman Nick Gonzales, outfielders Oneil Cruz and Bryan Reynolds and designated hitter Andrew McCutchen had been reliable producers but there was a glaring hole in the third outfield slot which Pham seemed unlikely to fill; shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa was a question mark and third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes had struggled while battling health problems after having been a solid hitter in 2023. There was no one to cover first until Horwitz got healthy; on Opening Day, they went to catcher Endy Rodríguez, who had only played one spring training game there. He promptly made a defensive gaffe (as did Cruz) while Colin Holderman and Bednar blew a lead Skenes had left them for 2024 déjà vu. They were 12-19 and in last place through the end of April. The pitchers were the strong point, with a 4.11 ERA being a bit better than the league mark; Skenes (3-2, 2.39, 4 BB in 37 2/3 IP) and Heaney (2-2, 2.50) were anchoring the staff and Justin Lawrence (1-0, 0.79), Chase Shugart (1-1, 1.42) and Dennis Santana (0-1, 3 Sv, 1.46) were providing fine relief. Their offense had the second-lowest OPS in the loop; Cruz (.253/.367/.535, 149 OPS+, 12 SB, 8 HR) was easily their top offensive performer but was the worst defensive center fielder in baseball to that point (he had only started playing the position in the final weeks of 2024), while Bart (.297/.416/.405, 131 OPS+), McCutchen (.277/.368/.458) and 1B Enmanuel Valdéz (.227/.329/.424, 109 OPS+) were their only others with an OPS+ over 100. Veterans Reynolds (.236/.294/.350, 79 OPS+), Hayes (.245/.310/.311, 75 OPS+), Frazier (.244/.305/.314, 74 OPS+) and Pham (.170/.248/.213, 31 OPS+) were all struggling.

On May 8th, the Pirates' front office made the logical move of firing manager Derek Shelton after six seasons. The team's record was 12-26 and they had lost all seven games they had played so far in May. He was replaced by bench coach Don Kelly. They broke the 1908 Pirates' franchise record of 18 consecutive games without scoring more than four runs in a contest, worse than any Deadball Era Bucco team, the 1952 Rickey Dinks or any of the other terrible offenses in the team's 144-year history. The team stretched that streak to 26 games, tying the all-time MLB record. And then, out of nowhere, they completely reversed that trend at the end of June when they became the first Pirates team to win four consecutive games by seven or more runs since 1925. This included a sweep of the New York Mets by scores of 9-1, 9-2 and 12-1, and a 7-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals behind the pitching of Heaney on June 30th. Thanks to that late surge, they managed to complete June with a winning record - 14-13 - after playing well below .500 in March, April and May. They could not keep up the streak of winning by 7 or more runs, but they shut out the Cardinals over the next two games as well, giving them a six-game winning streak with a combined score of 43-4. No team since the 1884 Cincinnati Outlaw Reds had ever scored that many runs over a six-game period while allowing fewer than five.

Things quickly turned around for the worse in early July as they were shut out in every game of a series against the Seattle Mariners; the last time the franchise had been shut out in every contest of a series three games or longer had been the 1888 Pittsburgh Alleghenys. They lost seven straight entering the 2025 All-Star Game, with their 38-58 record being the third-worst in baseball. They were last in the league in runs, ruining the great efforts by their pitchers who had allowed the 5th-fewest runs in the NL. On offense, only Gonzales (.273/.329/.438, 112 OPS+), Cruz (.209/.318/.412, 102 OPS+, 16 HR, a NL-high 29 steals) and McCutchen (.256/.337/.384, 101 OPS+) had OPS+es over 100 - or even over 90. Pham (.250/.322/.333, 84 OPS+) was as bad as expected, Reynolds (.225/.288/.368, 82 OPS+) was well off his usual pace, Kiner-Falefa (.264/.308/.338, 78 OPS+) and Hayes (.235/.281/.290, 60 OPS+) were punchless on the left side of the infield (though at least Hayes fielded well), Horwitz (.238/.301/.338, 78 OPS+) had not hit well since his Bucco debut and Bart (.236/.333/.293, 77 OPS+) had fallen off from the prior year's performance. The staff was clearly anchored by Skenes, who had a 2.01 ERA but a 4-8 record due to the pitiful support - but was still named to start his second consecutive All-Star Game as the Pirates' only representative in the contest. It was a similar story for Keller, 3-10 despite a 3.58 ERA, while Falter (6-4, 3.79) and Heaney (4-8, 4.59) had also done fine as starters. Santana (2-2, 5 Sv, 1.60), Isaac Mattson (2-1, 1.89), Braxton Ashcraft (2-0, 2.05) and Caleb Ferguson (2-1, 2.77) were all solid relievers and Bednar had rebounded from his rough start (2-5, 12 Sv, 2.61).

The woes of the recent Pirates came into full view when they were swept at home by one of the few MLB teams with a worse record, the White Sox, in their first series after the break. That dropped the franchise all-time record under .500 for the first time in 122 years.

Awards and Honors

• All-Star: Paul Skenes
• NL Cy Young Award: Paul Skenes
• NL Gold Glove: Ke'Bryan Hayes (3B)

Further Reading

• Alex Stumpf: "Shelton out as Pirates manager; bench coach Don Kelly takes his place", mlb.com, May 8, 2025. [1]
• Alex Stumpf: "Heaney flirts with no-no for Pirates, whose romp harkens back to 1925 club", mlb.com, July 1, 2025. [2]

2025 MLB season by team