The Pirates Need to Fix This Lineup. Here Are 3 Realistic Fits

I want to be up front with this list. These are not rumors that the Pirates are connected to these players. The season is still going on. The Pirates cannot be in contact with any players that are not their own.

So don't take these as rumors. Right now, the Pirates are on federal in their offices, still coming up with an attack plan for this offseason.

But I can have suggestions, and these could be players that the Pirates have been interested in the past, and players that I think would make the 2027 team better.

Good morning, and welcome to OffBeat, here on North Shore Nine, presented by FanDuel.

My name is Alex Numpf, and this is a daily look at your Pittsburgh Pirates.

And today, we are going to look at three players who I think the Pirates should sign, or at the very least, consider signing this winter.

Setting some ground rules here, we are not looking at players who could re-sign here.

Brandon Lowe would be 1-1 if this was, if we were taking re-signs into account.

Now, these would be external additions.

I am also operating under the assumption that the Pirates will have some financial flexibility this winter.

Whether it's approved from ownership, whether it's created by moving a player with a bigger contract.

I'm assuming that they will be looking to add this winter.

And these are all players who, I'm not going to lie and say they're cheap.

These aren't dollar store, Reese Hoskins, hope for a bounce back type of thing.

But these are three legitimate players who I think would make the team better if they were to sign any one of these three.

And I have also focused on two clear holes on this team.

One being the infield.

That applies to one and a half players here.

And the other being the Pirates' struggles against left-handed starting pitching last year.

All three of these players are right-handed.

And like I said, the Pirates have been connected to all these players over the last year and a half in some way.

Whether they were a free agent, whether they were kicking the tires in a potential trade.

That's enough buildup.

Let's get to the three players.

First on my list is Taylor Ward.

Who had a pretty odd year.

In 2025 for the Angels, America's team, he put up three war according to baseball reference.

Yeah, he struck out a lot, but 36 homers, 103 RBI.

You don't see a lot of big right-handed power hitters in this game anymore unless you were in that highest epsilon of players.

While league slugging percentage for left-handers has been pretty steady over the last couple years in the 2020s, right-handers has struggled.

So right here, you have a player, it's like, okay, he has 36 homer, 100 RBI potential.

That's pretty good.

We didn't see that this year.

He was traded to Baltimore, and in 111 games, 506 plate appearances, he went deep seven times.

He drove in 30 runs.

Now, he was still a good hitter.

A .383 on base percentage, 110 OPS+.

It wasn't the same hitter that we had seen in years past, but he still was able to control the zone.

He was still able to draw walks.

He was in the 100th percentile, according to baseball reference, in chase rate last year.

Just 14.9%.

98th percentile in walks, 16.3%.

I know there isn't the same hard contact, but you look at that, and it's like, okay, I see how this type of player could still be valuable.

He had a rough go after the trade deadline.

He was traded to Seattle and really struggled.

101 plate appearances, batted just $1.25, 148 slugging.

He did not go deep.

He only drove in seven runs over 32 games.

While he was worth 2.7 war with Baltimore over two-thirds of the season, he was worth negative .9 war in Seattle.

And I just think something was up in Seattle this year in general.

Whether it was Josh Naylor, whether it was Cal Rowley, there were just a lot of hitters.

If you weren't Randy or Rosarena, their big bats all had a weird year.

And I am willing to roll the dice if I'm a GM.

I'm like, you know what?

Here's someone who Baltimore is a tough place for right-handed hitters to hit.

So is Seattle.

And obviously, so is Pittsburgh.

You have to take that into account with all of these players.

But here's someone who has a good track record.

Was consistently an above-average hitter year in and year out in Anaheim.

Goes to Baltimore, still shows that he can get on base, that he can field his position in left field.

He can do a lot of things well.

I roll the dice.

Because whenever I look at, like, Esmerlyn Valdez, someone who good stats on the year.

Had a good rookie year.

But there's still some level of unknown with him.

I look at Spencer Horwitz, who had a really good first half of the year, but really fell off the second half.

I look at this and think, you know what?

Taylor Ward, he can play a little first base if needed also.

Valdez can also.

I see three players.

And if it's just two spots, really, that are every day right now, so be it.

Let them fight it out.

I feel confident that two of those guys would rise to the top.

And if all three do, that's great.

That's a champagne problem.

That's depth.

That's a lot of things that you need with this ball club.

But as it stands right now, I think that's how I approach this.

I buy a Taylor Ward bounce back.

I imagine he is, not sourced here, but I imagine he's going to be looking for some reclamation short-term deal that would work well for the Pirates.

And yeah, there are better places to go for him to hit a bunch of homers and rebuild his value that way.

But if he wants to lean into, hey, I'm a good defender, I think PNC Park's left field would be a good spot for him.

Second player on the list is Edmundo Sosa, who, again, if you just want to look at the back of the baseball card, he went from hitting 11 home runs in 2025, over 89 games played.

With a 110 WRC+, to 84 games played, pretty much the same amount of at-bats.

Batting average drops to 247.

OBP goes from 307 to 283.

Slugging percentage drops 40 points.

WRC+, goes from 110 to 89.

Okay.

But would you believe that he had the highest expected WOBA this past year?

There's two ways you can go about getting more right-handed in this lineup.

You can try to get the power hitter, the Taylor Ward type guy and just try to hit more homers.

Or you could go with Sosa, who does have some pop.

Pretty much played 500 played appearances and change over the last two years and hit 20 homers.

If he was an everyday player, I don't think that's unreasonable to think that he has 15, 20 homer potential.

He's shown he can hit lefties.

He had better peripherals this year than we have ever seen from him in a full year.

Someone who has never really had an opportunity to play every day in Philadelphia.

Hearts could theoretically offer that at third base.

I think he's a better defender.

I think he would improve the infield defense.

I think he would get another right-handed bat in here.

You are going to be subject to the Babbitt gods.

The same way that they were with Nick Gonzales this last year.

But I think, all in all, this is a plus hitter.

And this is someone who has some defensive flexibility.

So if he turns out to not be a good hitter, you've got another Jared Triolo on your hands.

Which I know Jared Triolo might not be a fan favorite, but he was just nominated for another gold glove on Wednesday.

There is value in having those type of players on the roster.

So I see a pretty decent floor for someone who's never had an everyday opportunity.

Maybe that could lead to something more.

Again, I imagine a 30-year-old wouldn't mind a short-term deal to try to build value.

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Third guy on my list is the guy who's been in the graphic this whole time for my YouTube homies.

It's Suarez, Gino Suarez.

Someone who the Pirates made a run at the last second last winter and then pivoted to Marcelo Zuno whenever they failed.

And I know if you just look at the back of the baseball card for Suarez, most of this year was disappointing.

End of the year, .212 batting average, .307 OBP, .433 slugging, 26 homers, .104 OPS plus.

He was painfully average.

There was something in the water in Cincinnati this year, though.

Like, all in all.

I know it's the great American small part, but there are some hitters who just fell off a cliff for a good portion of this year.

And he battled some injuries.

The oblique, yeah, I will say that is a concern.

35 years old, those are the type of injuries that you can be more prone to.

I get that.

Getting hit in the hand by a Mitch Keller pitch, that's just random.

So I think he was battling some injuries, some of it not exactly, his fault or anything that you could really predict.

Just baseball happening.

But I talked about how Taylor Ward had a really bad finish to the year.

Suarez, after the trade deadline.

Starting August 6th, this is 43 games.

I get it's a little bit of stat gerrymandering.

I get it.

But 12 home runs in a 9.08 OPS.

That's not nothing.

That's pretty darn good.

And yeah, I get PNC Park is going to be a tougher ballpark to hit home runs in, but he's only got to play half his games at PNC Park.

I see someone here who, I look at first base, and I see Horwitz and I see O'Hearn, and neither one of them have a great career track record against left-handed pitching.

Adding a right-handed bat would be beneficial.

He's not an everyday third baseman anymore, but he did play 50 games there this year.

I think you could slide him over and he could play 30 to 40 games.

And then you can DH him.

There are ways to get him into the lineup.

even if he is maybe a little bit more of a play two out of three type player, I think he can make an impact offensively.

He's also a great clubhouse guy.

It's also someone that you tipped your hand that you really wanted last year.

I don't think he's going to get a $15 million contract this year, so let's see how far he's willing to go down.

I don't think it hurts that the Pirates made a good offer for him last year.

They showed that they did want him.

Something that maybe sticks in the back of his head whenever he's considering his options for this next year.

All three of these players, I think, would be willing to sign short-term deals.

In Suarez's case, I think he is going to exclusively only get short-term offers.

And if you're offering, hey, this is a team that finished above .500 last year, is in position to potentially make a run in 2027, I think you can make a sell here.

There's plenty of opportunity available.

The Pirates don't need to go after like the Bo Bichettes and whoever the highest tier of free agents to find players who made an impact, who can make an impact.

Ryan O'Hearn made an impact.

Brandon Lowe, I know that was a trade, but his acquisition made an impact.

This team needs to find ways to get better.

And if I'm looking offensively, I think those are three big names to circle.

Thank you so much for listening to OffBeat here on North Shore Nine presented by FanDuel.

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We'll talk again tomorrow.

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