What was expected?

The offseason was filled with some rumors of interest in arms like Shota Imanaga, Jack Flaherty and even Edward Cabrera but the cost of each of these options was too much for a rebuilding team as they settled on adding fringe arms for rotation depth (Martin Perez signed, Marco Gonzales traded for). They did make a couple of splashes. They spent $10.5 million to bring in Aroldis Chapman and extended young starter Mitch Keller for $71.6 million for four years.

Offensively they added guys like Rowdey Tellez (and controversially cut him before he fulfilled a contractual bonus for plate appearances), Yasmani Grandal and Andrew McCutchen.

Overall, they continued to show they are committed to the future. They only gave big money to Keller and they only gave one double-digit million-dollar deal to one relief arm for a single season.

How did it go?

They were, surprisingly, playing meaningful baseball entering the month of August, as they stood just 2.5 games back of the Wild Card. They made a couple of deals at the deadline by bringing in Bryan de la Cruz and Jalen Beaks. But they also sent Martin Perez packing. However, by August 15 they were 7.5 games back and then entering September, they found themselves 10.5 games back and pretty much out of the playoff picture.

The Pirates have to be happy about the progression of some key young studs, especially their rookie pairing of Paul Skenes and Jared Jones. They’re poised to join Keller as a very formidable 1-2-3 for the future in Pittsburgh. Luis L. Ortiz turned in some solid innings as he gave a good enough showing to be considered for the backend of their rotation in 2025.

Unfortunately, the offense wasn’t as successful. Nick Gonzales flashed some production, but remains just a middling, deep-league fantasy guy. Oneil Cruz had a strong second-half after a down first-half. However, Bryan Reynolds’ second half was pedestrian, aiding in their playoff hopes fading away. But the 37 wRC+ of BDLC is a bigger culprit. Connor Joe, Tellez and Ke’Bryan Hayes all had poor second halves.and/or poor seasons all around.

Unfortunately, one major young piece of theirs took a major step back. All-Star closer David Bednar had some struggles this year, ending the season out of the closer’s role and with an ERA of 5.77, a WHIP of 1.42. Eek. More on him later.

They ended the year 76-86 and a -74 run differential. However, they made a solid selection in Konnor Griffin in the draft as he is now their second-ranked prospect, per MLB.com.

Fantasy Stud?

How is the answer to this question not Paul Skenes?

Skenes was one of the best arms in fantasy this year, even in just 133 innings pitched. He was able to provide 170 strikeouts (only 32 walks) with a 1.96 ERA and 0.95 WHIP.

Oh, and he snagged 11 dubs.

He was third in K/9 (min. 100 innings) at 11.50 and his ERA led the way.

The SIERA? Second at 2.71. xFIP? Also second at 2.54. Straight up FIP? A ‘measly’ third at 2.44.

He is also going to win Rookie of the Year, sorry Jackson Merrill. Skenes was just too damn good.

Fantasy Dud?

While Ke’Bryan Hayes and Mitch Keller were considered, the clear answer has to be David Bednar.

He was drafted as the 11th closer off the board in drafts and ended up being a drop in most standard sized formats before the end of the season.

He entered the season coming off a big breakout season in which he delivered 39 saves with 80 strikeouts in 67.1 innings pitched to go with a 2.00 ERA and 1.09 WHIP. This year, he only got 23 saves and eight losses with only 58 strikeouts in 57.2 innings and a 5.77 ERA and 1.42 WHIP. He ended up losing his closer’s job toward end the of year.

We saw a drop in strikeout rate from 28.9% down to 22.1%. The walk rate went from 7.6% to 10.7%. His BABIP actually went DOWN this year, from .294 this year to .274 this year. The FIP was 4.80 and the SIERA went from 3.28 to 4.23.

Overall, managers had to very disappointed with what he was expected to deliver.

Fantasy Surprise?

Unfortunately, there were not a ton of options here. I could have cheated and went with Skenes here or Bednar. They were surprises by just how dominant (and not dominant) they were. But I expect more of me. And you should, too.

I’m going with Joey Bart. Bart went from solidly off fantasy radars to finishing ranked as a top-15 catcher. That is not at all what managers had to be expecting from him.

Now Bart was the starting catcher for most of the year for the Pirates but multiple stints on the injured list forced him to only get in to 80 games of action, but he still was able to smack 13 homers, drive in 45 to go with a .265/.337/.462 slashline. This was clearly the best season of his career.

He came over in a deal after getting DFA’s by the Giants. The former no. 2 overall pick finally flashed why he was drafted so highly.

He had an .198 ISO, .347 wOBA and a 121 wRC+ for the year.

More on him in this next section:

Player Breakdowns:

Hitters

Bryan Reynolds – OF

It was another solid year for the Pirate outfielder in his second All-Star campaign. There are very few fantasy baseball dudes that you can just pencil in for solid production in all five categories, like you can with Reynolds, especially now that he has steals as another part of his fantasy profile.

He ended the season with a .275/.344/.447 slashline to go with 10 steals, 24 homers, 88 RBI and 73 runs scored. He is on a solid four run stretch were he has scored at least 73 runs, gotten 24 homers and hit at least .262. With the exception of just 62 RBI in 2022, he has at least 84 RBI in each of these seasons.  It was his second straight season with double digit steals.

His “under the hood” numbers pretty much line up with his career marks.

• Barrel rate – 9.6%(9.3% career)
• avgEV – 89.9 (89.9 career)
• Launch-angle/sweet-spot rate – 37.5% (37.3% career)
• xBA – .272 (.274 career)
• xSLG – .472 (.472 career)
• xwOBA – .352 (.355 career)

There is no reason to no draft Reynolds as a very safe pick in the 75-90 range of drafts in 2025.

Oneil Cruz – SS/OF

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