Sometimes a player comes to our favorite team and fans either love the guy or they can’t stand them or their play. Well, the Pirates acquired one of these polarizing players this past offseason when they picked up Jake Mangum in the Brandon Lowe/Mike Burrows three-team deal with the Astros and Rays. Usually their stats and results on the field dictate how fans feel about this polarizing player, but in Mangum’s case, the fan base seems to be split on him regardless of his stats.

When the Pirates made the trade on December 19, 2025, the main piece of the trade was obviously Brandon Lowe, but Mason Montgomery was an intriguing bullpen piece and Mangum was bascially a fourth outfielder type especially once the Pirates signed Ryan O’Hearn in early January. The outfield was pretty much set with Bryan Reynolds, Oneil Cruz and O’Hearn ready to man the OF most games. But then Mangum started playing a good amount and fans started their case for or against him and it just kept going. Once Cruz went down, Mangum became your everyday centerfielder and things reached a boiling point. I honestly couldn’t believe how split the fans were on this guy. For good or for bad, he became the most polarizing player I’ve seen on the Pirates in years, and it made me want to dive into this more and try and find out why that is. Why has this player caused such a stir among the fan base? Even now I’m being careful with what I write because even the slightest hint at positivity surrounding Mangum would get fans commenting “but he swings at everything!” I’m going to be as objective as I can be in this article as I’m curious to why this player has caused so much vitriol.

First, let’s take a look at his stats at the All-Star break:

Slash line: .310/.364/.389
OPS: .753
wRC+: 109
SB: 18
bWAR: 1.3
Doubles: 10
Triples: 1
Home Runs: 2

And here’s his Baseball Savant player breakdown chart:

His stats look good, but he’s definitely not without his faults. His numbers across the board are better than last season with the Rays when he was a 29-year-old rookie. If you just looked at those numbers after they acquired him last December, you’d likely say “we’ll take that all day from a 4th outfielder.” Hell, his OPS and wRC+ would have been the second best on last year’s offensively-challenged team behind only Spencer Horwitz. So that’s good, right? Why all the hate then? He hits around .300, provides some speed and is average defensively. His above average hitting performance as a bench player this season is what ultimately made me curious to why folks don’t like him and led to this article. That chase rate tho…yikes! But even with that awful chase rate, he’s still producing overall.

I don’t understand it myself so let me try and break down the complaints I see from fans on Twitter.

“He swings at everything and isn’t clutch!”

I believe it was Jim from NS9 not long after the trade was made who, after diving into his numbers and some at-bats, said “Jake Mangum is going to drive fans nuts.” And he was correct there. Mangum’s style of play is not for the faint of heart. He’s a slap hitter with next to no plate discipline or situational hitting awareness. Runner on third with one out? He’s up there hacking away. Despite posting a .364 on-base percentage, Mangum is a free swinger and has failed to come through in some big spots. With runners in scoring position, Mangum slashes just .230/.304/.262 this season. This could definitely be one reason why people don’t like him as a player.

“He plays the game the right way!”

Whatever that means exactly as it’s subjective to each individual fan, but I think a lot of the hate from fans comes from the overreaction to other fans praising Mangum for his “playing the game the right way” mentality. Fans took a liking to him early because he hustles, he slaps the ball around the field and tries to beat it out, he steals bases (and runs into outs on the basepaths too), he’s gritty, he’s always dirty, etc etc. Fans see that kind of player as a throwback to maybe when they watched baseball as a child. I think the love affair that took place early on among fans who liked his energy turned other fans off or even against him as a player.

In today’s game, it’s all home runs, slugging, power, that’s the name of the game. And sometimes there’s a backlash against players who aren’t that and instead hit for a higher average like a Luis Arraez type, but don’t provide much value anywhere else on the diamond. Those types of players are still needed in the game in my opinion, but they just aren’t as valuable today as they were in say…1988. So now when Mangum runs into an out and gets thrown out stealing, you see fans trying to be funny by mocking other fans with: “Hey he plays the game the right way and does all the little things!”

The 29-year-old Rookie Thing

Mangum made his MLB debut last season with the Rays at the age of 29. I’m not going to hold that against him, but a lot of fans around the game do. He clearly wasn’t some big prospect coming up. He played four years of college ball at Mississippi State then was drafted in the 4th round by the Mets and was already 23 when he made his pro debut then lost the 2020 COVID year and then hit all the way to Triple-A. He then was traded by the Mets to the Marlins and then a year later the Marlins dealt him to the Rays. He finally made his MLB debut with the Rays before being traded to the Pirates as well. Every player has their own unique path through the minors and Mangum is no different in that regard.

He’s basically been the same guy in the Majors he was in Triple-A too as he had a .313/.357/.439 slash line in four seasons at Triple-A before getting a shot. Again, he wasn’t some top 100 prospect, but not everyone is and as I mentioned above, his profile is just not as valuable in today’s game. But fans see 29-year-old rookie and roll their eyes thinking he’s Drew Maggi or something and they unfortunately hold that against him. They think he doesn’t have the pedigree and won’t stick in the Majors. Well, so far he’s done well with the chance he got.

“He should be playing more!”

Then there was talk with these fans that liked the energy were calling for him to play more and start everyday even before Cruz’s injury. But that’s no fault of his, he’s going to go out and play his game whether he’s starting or coming off the bench or giving guys a breather and only playing a couple times a week. He obviously doesn’t make that call, yet fans seemingly were vicious toward him because others wanted him playing more. That’s why when people would get so angry about his game early in the season, I always thought it was silly because he was clearly a 4th outfielder on this team and having an extra outfielder that can play center and hit near .300 is perfectly fine. There’s worse players you could have on a team that’s for sure.

Then when Cruz went down, the lack of other options for centerfielders thrust Mangum into the everyday role and people were losing their minds. But it’s hard to argue this point because one, they literally have no one else (do you really want to see Reynolds back in center?) and two, he’s performing! See his stats again above if you need to.

Then There’s This Weird One

The last complaint I see that I’m going to mention here is a weird one and still rubs me the wrong way. Back in mid-April, in between innings after warming up, Jake Mangum tossed the ball to a kid in the stands. The kid caught it in the bleachers and immediately gave the ball to his sister and she hugged him. It was a cool moment. Here’s the video if you haven’t seen it yet:

Thousands of ballplayers have thrown a ball to a fan throughout baseball’s history. This isn’t new or some unbelievable thing. It was caught on camera, went viral because of the brother and sister part and made the rounds to all the major news outlets. Well, the fans that didn’t already like Mangum to begin with, lost their marbles with this one too. Try and talk to one of these fans about it and you’ll get the sarcastic lines of “oooh he threw a ball to a fan! He’s the MAYOR! He’s so awesome, we should just play him everyday because of that!”

It’s truly head scratching to me. He threw a ball to a fan. This happens probably two dozen times if not more during a game. Fun fact: Barry Bonds threw a ball to a group of fans one section over from me back in the day. I’m not bitter about it or anything. Years later I did catch a ball from Tike Redman! Anyway, this happens all the time. And what’s funny to me about this particular one is the only reason it went viral was because the brother and sister shared a neat moment and it was caught on camera. It really had nothing to do with Jake. If he had thrown that ball to the brother and his sister was getting a hot dog at that time, we would have never of seen that clip. The brother and sister were the reason it went viral and Mangum got some play because of that and people went crazy! They still talk about it in a mocking way when he strikes out in a big spot or something, “Hey he threw a ball to a fan though!” Like this wasn’t Juju going to give someone a Playstation and bringing a film crew with him. This was totally organic and the hug from the siblings made it the viral moment it was.

Look, it’s weird to me. Bryan Reynolds has thrown a ball to a fan, no one holds that against him. But because Jake Mangum threw a ball to a fan that happened to give it to his sister and they hugged, well Jake is clearly the bad guy now. Very weird behavior in my opinion. He was genuinely doing a cool thing for a kid which most ballplayers do, but it turns around on him and is used against him for no fault of his own. Think about it. Would these fans have felt better if he didn’t throw the ball to a kid and just chucked it into the dugout? Mangum was being a cool dude and fans essentially attack for it because they don’t like his plate discipline. It’s not Mangum’s fault it went too viral for some people and made them uncomfortable. It’s absurd. There’s valid reasons to not like his profile or game, but this moment isn’t one of them.

I think I hit all the main complaints that I frequently see on Twitter. This week with the All-Star break has brought some developments too from some of the Mangum lovers. Some fans are throwing out Oneil Cruz trade deals because Mangum is playing so well so clearly we need to deal our starting center fielder for some bullpen help. Now this is just as absurd as being mad at Mangum cause he threw a ball to a kid. We are so broken as a fan base after decades or selling and losing seasons that we don’t even know how to properly buy at the trade deadline. These folks are crashing out. I don’t care if Mangum is chasing Ted Williams and hitting .400, you aren’t trading 40/40 potential Oneil Cruz. You trade from the farm to supplement the team at the deadline. That’s how you buy. And when Cruz returns, Mangum goes back to the bench as a solid depth piece that can play when needed. Or if they’re both killing it, you find a way to play both and rest other guys. Good depth is a good problem to have.

There’s just so much discussion on both sides of the lane when it comes to Jake Mangum. In closing, I’ll try and sum up what I think it happening here. I think it all comes down to the fans who are praising Mangum for his play and the kind of “throwback” player he is gets backlash from the more “new age” fans that want power, slug and RBIs. Folks dug their heels in early on Mangum whether they were for or against him and they’re not interested in changing their opinion either way. And usually good performance trumps that. If a player performs well and produces, fans will start cheering for them. Take Rowdy Tellez or Tommy Pham the past couple of years. Fans were calling for both to be DFA’d early on in their Pirates tenure and then both turned it around and fans rallied behind them. Just like winning solves all, good performance and results usually do as well. The problem with performance when it comes to Mangum is the split fan base is still arguing that Mangum’s results aren’t good enough. And that’s the crux of it. Ultimately the problem comes down between two different types of fans and baseball stats. While the Mangum supporters are praising him for hitting .310 and being scrappy, the Mangum haters see batting average as completely worthless and remember a play or two that he missed in the field so they debate if Mangum is really bringing any value to the team at all.

So where do I fit in here? I think it’s like a lot of things today, there are crazy extremes on each side. Is Jake Mangum doing a good job? Yes. Do I think he should be starting over Oneil Cruz when Cruz is healthy? No. Do I think we should be trading Cruz because we have Mangum now? No. I think he’s a fine 4th outfielder or 5th outfielder or whatever you want to call it. He’s a bench bat. He can provide you with some speed on the bases, some average defense and hit around .300. I think that’s just who he is. It’s who he was in the minors, who he was in Tampa last season and who he’s been this season. Maybe he is on bit a of a hot streak since taking over in CF too, but no I wouldn’t want him playing everyday when everyone is healthy.

This won’t be the last debate about a player with Mangum’s profile among the fan base, but one thing is for certain for me—I can’t remember a more polarizing Pirates player in my lifetime. Where do you stand on Jake Mangum? Let me know in the comments.