Pirates’ Offseason Decision Comes Back to Bite, Highlights Much Bigger Issues

PITTSBURGH — Hindsight is 20/20, but an offseason decision from the Pittsburgh Pirates came to a focal point in their 7-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Monday night.

Tommy Pham manned left field for the Pirates. Austin Hays meanwhile, patrolled left field for the Reds.

Both players signed similar deals with their respective clubs in the offseason. Pham signed with the Pirates for one-year and $4.025 million. Hays signed with Cincinnati for $5 million — a $4 million salary for this season and a $1 million buyout on a club option for 2026.

Pham finished the game 1 for 3 with a base hit in the second inning. Defensively, he couldn’t come up with a sliding catch which resulted in the Reds taking a 2-1 lead.

Hays, meanwhile, finished the game 3 for 5 with a double, two RBI and a run scored as the Reds’ cleanup hitter.

The Pirates have lauded Pham for his leadership and defense this season. The 37-year-old entered play with a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage and tied for the most defensive runs saved of any left fielder with at least 250 innings played.

But at the plate, Pham is slashing just .183/.264/.217 without a home run and only six RBI through 36 games to start the season.

Hays, meanwhile, upped his already impressive numbers to start his tenure with the Reds. The 29-year-old is batting .330 with a whopping .977 OPS. Despite only playing in 23 games thanks to two stints on the injured list, Hays already has 12 extra-base hits including six home runs to go along with 19 RBI.

His 19 RBI on the season would be the second-most on the Pirates behind Bryan Reynolds (22). His six home runs would be tied with Reynolds for second behind only Oneil Cruz (eight). In fact, his 19 RBI account for 13.4% of the Pirates’ total runs this season.

That kind of production would look good in the Pirates’ lineup right now. After a one-run performance on Monday, they’ve scored 142 times this season — an average of 2.96 runs per game.

The fallout from opting for Pham over Hays is just one small example of the Pirates’ inability to build a strong enough offense to support a strong starting rotation.

It was pretty clear at the time, and it’s become even more so since the season started that not enough was done to inject some life into a dormant offense from 2024.

The Pirates made a change at hitting coach in the offseason. That hasn’t worked, and why would it given the lineup card first Derek Shelton and now Don Kelly have to fill out each game?

Other than replacing Andy Haines with Matt Hague and signing Tommy Pham, all the Pirates did to bring meaningful change to their offense was acquiring Spencer Horwitz. Andrew McCutchen was of course brought back, but he was on the team last year.

Horwitz missed the start of the season after undergoing surgery on his thumb/wrist and joined the team in Philadelphia on their most recent road trip. It remains to be seen how much help he can offer.

But given how strong the starting rotation looked entering this season — even without the services of Jared Jones and Johan Oviedo, and before the debut of top prospect Bubba Chandler — more activity was needed.

Paul Skenes headlines a starting rotation that has combined for a 3.81 ERA. Despite a 2.44 ERA for Skenes through his first 10 starts of the season, the Pirates are 3-7 when he’s pitched.

Mitch Keller, meanwhile, has a 3.17 ERA over his last eight starts after being charged with one earned run in 6.0 innings in Monday’s loss. The Pirates’ record in those eight games? 1-7.

The Pirates’ starting rotation has been strong enough to have the team in contention, but the offense is that of a team destined for 100 losses.

Pham needs to be better offensively, there’s no debating that. But his struggles aren’t the only reason the Pirates have scored the fewest runs in the league.

Looking back, this offense started behind the 8-ball before the season got underway. That’s on more than any singular player.