2026 Pittsburgh Pirates

2026 Pittsburgh Pirates / Franchise: Pittsburgh Pirates / BR Team Page

Record: , Finished in NL Central Division (2026 NL)

Managed by Don Kelly

Coaches: Tony Beasley, Cibney Bello, Tarrik Brock, Jordan Comadena, Matt Hague, Gene Lamont, Christian Marrero, Stephen Morales, Bill Murphy, Kristopher Negron, Miguel Pérez, Chris Truby and Jonny Tucker

Ballpark: PNC Park

History, Comments, Contributions

There was some hope for the 2026 Pittsburgh Pirates heading into the season due to their busiest offseason in many years. They traded for All-Star slugger Brandon Lowe and signed another couple of All-Star power hitters, Ryan O'Hearn and Marcell Ozuna. They joined a team with a young staff that had some promising arms, including reigning Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes.

Catcher may have been the Bucs' biggest area of concern; former #1 overall draft pick Henry Davis had been a pleasant surprise defensively but had struggled mightily at the plate and Joey Bart had regressed from 2024 to 2025. Spencer Horwitz returned as a solid option at first base, Lowe took over for Nick Gonzales at second and Gold Glove winner Jared Triolo was slated for somewhere on the left side of the infield. The other spot was a question going into spring training, with the big issue being whether 19-year-old Konnor Griffin (rated baseball's top prospect) would win an Opening Day roster slot. O'Hearn was projected to join Oneil Cruz and Bryan Reynolds in the outfield. The toolsy Cruz had been inconsistent, with flashes of brilliance, and was still young enough that there was hope he might take a step forward, while former All-Star Reynolds had faded. Gone was team legend Andrew McCutchen, replaced by Ozuna at DH. As spring training was winding down on March 21st, the Bucs decided to reassign Griffin to minor league camp, alongside OF Jhostynxon Garcia, a top prospect acquired from the Boston Red Sox in the off-season, the latter in spite of batting over .400 with an OPS over 1.000 in camp; the issue was that the team already had four outfielders for three positions between Reynolds, Cruz, O'Hearn and Jake Mangum. That meant Gonzales and Triolo would start on the left side of the infield, with Nick Yorke the only backup infielder.

The young arms on the staff alongside Skenes included Braxton Ashcraft, Bubba Chandler and Jared Jones (coming back from surgery) while Mitch Keller had been a workhorse. Gregory Soto joined Isaac Mattson, Dennis Santana and Justin Lawrence in the bullpen. Carmen Mlodzinski was battling for a rotation spot (while Jones was rehabbing) with free agent signee José Urquidy; Mlodzinski was declared the winner, though he had performed much better in relief than as a starter in his career.

The opening game on March 26th showcased the new offensive additions as Lowe homered twice and O'Hearn once, but Skenes had the worst start of his career to that point (being chased in the 1st) and Cruz's defensive gaffes in center cost several runs in a 11-7 loss to the New York Mets. The bullpen, counted on to be to a strong spot, fared little better than Skenes. They then went 16-10 for a strong run but lost their last five games of April to finish the month at 16-16, at the bottom of a strong NL Central. The staff was again pretty strong, 4th in the NL in ERA to that point, though the defense had let them down, being third in errors. Keller (2-1, 3.18) actually was tied with Skenes (4-2, 3.18) in ERA; they were both at a 134 ERA+ with Ashcraft (1-2, 3.71, 115) and Mlodzinski (1-2, 4.13, 104) also above 100, with Chandler (1-3, 4.97, 20 BB in 29 IP) the lone starter under (86). Soto (2-0, 1.84, 235), Yohan Ramírez (2-1, Sv, 1.83, 235) and Santana (2-2, 2 Sv, 3.07, 141) had all done well overall out of the bullpen, though Lawrence and Urquidy were struggling (Urquidy having been sent down). The offense was above the league average in R/G, showing significant improvement. Newcomers Lowe (.252/.339/.551, 8 HR, 143 OPS+) and O'Hearn (.306/.394/.481, 142 OPS+) were both excelling though the third big pick-up, Ozuna, was looking possibly washed-up (.162/.224/.242, 2 HR, 27 OPS+). Horwitz (.250/.353/.381, 107 OPS+), Gonzales (.317/.366/.365, 105 OPS+), Reynolds (.246/.387/.377, 114 OPS+) and Cruz (.256/.321/.512, 9 HR, 10 SB, 26 RBI, 127 OPS+) were all doing fine jobs. Other than Ozuna, offensive struggles came at catcher with Davis hitting .154/.247/.200 (26 OPS+) and at short, where Griffin had wound up getting the call-up (and the biggest contract in franchise history) and the youngster who turned 20 during the month was batting .231/.290/.341 for a 75 OPS+ while going 7-for-7 in steals.

They were 16-12 in May, despite plenty of bullpen struggles. The offense was going strong by averaging over 5 runs per game on the month. After no one had a 100 OPS+ or better in 2025, they had a slew of starters over that mark, some well over: Lowe (.260/.346/.529, 14 HR, 142 OPS+), Horwitz (.289/.389/.468, 140 OPS+), O'Hearn (.294/.371/.479, 137 OPS+), Reynolds (.276/.403/.438, 137 OPS+), Cruz (.255/.330/.464, 13 HR, 19-for-22 in SB, 120 OPS+), Griffin (.270/.327/.402, 14 for 15 in SB, 104 OPS+) and Gonzales (.303/.356/.364, 103 OPS+) all hitting well in regular action. Only DH Ozuna (.186/.271/.302, 61 OPS+) and the catchers weren't hitting. The starting pitching was also strong thanks to Ashcraft (5-2, 2.77, 150 ERA+), Skenes (6-5, 2.89, 144 ERA+), Mlodzinski (4-3, 3.76, 111 ERA+), Keller (5-2, 4.35, 96 ERA+) and Chandler (1-6, 4.85, 86 ERA+, 36 BB in 52 IP). That left a logjam when Jones returned after missing over a year, forcing Mlodzinski to the bullpen. He initially refused to report to the 'pen and was placed on the restricted list. The only relievers faring well were Soto (4-0, 7 Sv, 1.95), Evan Sisk (1.44 in 21 G) and (in limited time) Wilber Dotel (1-0, 1.32) as Ramírez and Santana had poor months; trying different options, they DFA'd Lawrence and sent Mattson down while guys like Cam Sanders, Chris Devenski and Brandan Bidois were all getting chances at times. They were still barely out of last, though, as every team in the division had a winning record, something no division had ever done before in MLB history through May, even though preseason predictions said it would be a weak division! The Bucs would've been first in the AL West.

They were only 11-15 in June to fall to .500, though they were over .500 after 81 games (41-40), their best mark at the halfway point in 11 years. They battled injuries to Horwitz, Cruz and Griffin but the offense was going well still. They were doing very well against righties (.265/.349/.435) but really struggling versus lefties (.239/.302/.375). Horwitz (.280/.386/.455, 133 OPS+), O'Hearn (.288/.345/.477, 124 OPS+), Cruz (.264/.350/.472, 124 OPS+, 14 HR, 21 SB), Reynolds (.282/.398/.466, 56 BB, 58 R, 137 OPS+) and Lowe (.239/.313/.502, 20 HR, 57 RBI, 120 OPS+) all had an OPS+ of at least 120 while Gonzales (.294/.350/.368, 98 OPS+) and Griffin (.271/.326/.411, 101 OPS+, 15-for-16 in SB) were holding their own. Catching remained an offensive black hole with Davis (.147/.241/.308, 50 OPS+) but Endy Rodríguez was healthy and hitting well (.270/.398/.472, 139 OPS+), letting the team trade away Bart. Ozuna (.200/.279/.324, 66 OPS+) was still struggling at DH and losing playing time. Esmerlyn Valdéz was at .311/.389/.771 with 6 homers in 48 at-bats, filling in well with Cruz and Horwitz out. The staff was still struggling, now with the starters also hitting the skids. Ashcraft was still going strong (8-3, 3.33, 130 ERA+) as was tough-luck Skenes (6-7, 3.10, 140 ERA+) while Jones was shaky since his return (1-1, 5.76, 76 ERA+). Other than Sisk (1-0, 2.23, 152 ERA+), no one was doing a particularly good job out of the bullpen as Soto even had a rough month, though it looked like Santana and Mattson were starting to bounce back. Surprisingly, Skenes was named the Pirates' lone All-Star even though Ashcraft had better numbers at that point, while Lowe was one of the top-hitting second basemen in all of baseball and Reynolds also had a solid argument. Skenes wound up having to withdraw due to a scheduled start too close to the Game, allowing Ashcraft to take his spot. The only other times two Bucco starting pitchers made the same All-Star Game had come in 1960 (Vernon Law and Bob Friend) and 2015 (Gerrit Cole and A.J. Burnett).

On July 7, O'Hearn had a three-homer, ten-RBI day to break Johnny Rizzo's long-standing single-game Pirates RBI record. At the same time, Pittsburgh got the bad news that Griffin would miss a couple more months due to injury.

Awards and Honors

• All-Stars: Braxton Ashcraft and Paul Skenes

Further Reading

• Jason Mackey: "Pirates reassign top overall prospect Griffin to Minor League camp", mlb.com, March 21, 2026. [1]
• Aiden Stepansky: "Above .500 halfway through? Bucs haven't been here since 2015", mlb.com, June 25, 2026. [2]

2026 MLB season by team