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Perrotto: Make-or-Break Offseason for Ben Cherington

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Ben Cherington, Pittsburgh Pirates

Ben Cherington thinks the Pittsburgh Pirates are in a better place than when he was hired, and he is right.



Then again, it would be almost impossible to be worse than when Cherington replaced Neal Huntington as the Pirates’ general manager following the 2019 season. The Pirates began a steady decline after winning 98 games in 2015 and then losing to the Chicago Cubs in the National League Wild Card game.

So, even though frustrated fans probably don’t want to hear it, Cherington was correct last week when he said, “I really do believe we go into 2025 already with the strongest, deepest roster we’ve had since I’ve been here.”

The Pirates are better than they were five years ago. However, the 2024 season showed that the Pirates aren’t nearly good enough.

The Pirates finished 76-86 for a second straight year. What made the lack of progress in the win column especially disappointing was that the Pirates lost 32 of their last 52 games and ended the season in a downward trend.

While Cherington and manager Derek Shelton tried to spin 2024 in a positive light, the GM is realistic enough to know that he has work to do.

“We need to make it better,” Cherington said of the roster. “There are different ways to make it better. Some of it will be through offseason acquisition, some of it will need to be through player improvement. Over time, certainly some of it is going to need to come from continuing to get better at the draft and international and internal development.”

There are many different areas where the Pirates need to improve. It is alarming that, after five years, Cherington hasn’t built a stronger overall organization.

Yet it appears that Cherington will have at least one more year to improve the Pirates. The season has been over for 10 days and there is no indication that Cherington will lose his job.

Of course, owner Bob Nutting waited a month after the 2019 season before firing Huntington. The timing raised eyebrows throughout the industry and caused the Pirates to start again in their search to replace manager Clint Hurdle.

Nutting and team president Travis Williams have yet to comment on Cherington’s status. So, we’re left to assume there will be no change at the top of the baseball operations department.

So, that begs the question of how Cherington plans to improve the Pirates’ roster between now and the start of next season. Considering the Pirates finished in the bottom of third of the major leagues in runs scored (24th), runs allowed (21st) and fielding percentage (20th), Cherington has a lot of holes to fill.

Cherington insists he is up to the challenge.

“I’m confident because I’m fully energized by the job, by the task,” Cherington said. “It’s hard, it’s a hard job and it’s not supposed to be easy. But that’s why we do it. I understand frustration. I understand there are a lot of people out there who care about the Pirates and a lot of different stakeholders who care about the Pirates, so when the outcomes aren’t yet what I want them to be, what we want them to be, there is going to be frustration that comes from that.

“I’m fully aware of that and I accept that. I’m just going to keep focused on what I can do to make it better every day, and I know I need to. That will be our sole focus this offseason.”

If the outcomes don’t change in 2025, Cherington likely won’t get another opportunity to change the outcomes for 2026.

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