The Pirates Fell Short, But Something Changed in 2026

I have never covered a last series that meant something for the playoffs, for the Pirates.

So for me, the last series always has like a last day of school vibe.

You have a couple of people who are getting their final tests.

There are some who have some individual accomplishments on the line, a lot of hugs.

It's a looser atmosphere.

It's the last day of school.

A lot can still happen in those last couple days of school and a lot happened in Detroit here.

Ones that could be a stepping stone for the culture that this organization needs to establish.

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

My name is Alex Stumpf and this is a daily look at your Pittsburgh Pirates who finished the twenty twenty six season eighty two and eighty.

It's not the period full stop playoffs.

as was stated before the year, but it's still just their fifth winning season out of their last thirty four.

It's also a year where some important people who you needed to see take a step took a step.

And I would say if you are optimistic for the twenty twenty seven pirates, I wouldn't blame you.

If you said that this year is disappointing and they need to do more, I wouldn't blame you either.

But I have been in those clubhouses at the end of the year, those last day of school clubhouses.

And this year struck me a little bit.

And it's not just because they were trying to finish over.

it just had a little bit of a different vibe.

Maybe it's because a lot of that team knows they're back next year.

Maybe it's because this year's team ran through the bag and they finished strong.

And if this was the end of August, perhaps, and they had another month to go, maybe they would have an earnest shot at the post season

But I really think you just, I saw little bits of what Don Kelly is trying to establish here, what the veterans are trying to establish here, what people want it to be in Pittsburgh.

And there are a couple examples.

Kirby Yates is a big one for me.

Kirby Yates had a fine, really good major league career.

two-time all-star pitched a dozen years there was a period of time that if you knew ball you knew kirby yates was one of the best relief pitchers in the game especially in san diego and he was

a grinder someone who was undrafted was not always very highly regarded he is a very blue-collar player and he got a

really nice send-off He might have been, I don't know if there's a better way to, there has to be a better way of saying it, but like a little bit of a Farrah Fawcett situation where it's like, yeah, Justin Verlander's retiring today,

so the flowers are going to go to him league-wide.

But just in that clubhouse, not only how they referred to him, but how he referred to the clubhouse.

And that struck me.

because this is someone who was acquired at the trade deadline.

He was acquired where this was a very real distinct possibility that his career was going to be his last two months in Pittsburgh.

And I have covered a lot of major league players who their last two months in the major leagues were in Pittsburgh.

Might not always be two months, but he bought in.

And he talked, after pitching Saturday, like they made me care.

And you can see it mutually there.

It would have been real easy for them to be like, we don't really know him that well.

He came in two months ago.

I don't believe anyone on this team was even a teammate with him at any point in their career.

But they showed that he was one of their brothers.

that he was part of what they had here.

So it was a very sweet send-off, not only what was on the field, but also just the energy in the clubhouse.

Bubba Chandler, after his start on Friday, I posted the full quote on Twitter.

And it was interpreted a couple different ways my interpretation of it was a guy who was being hard on himself this year him

talking about like driving home be like man I don't know I don't know about this admitting that he was dealing with some stuff mechanically with his body and you know what he still

made thirty one starts even whenever he was having not the best thoughts, whenever he was down on himself, he still showed up and he still put in work.

I think there's, I think he showed a lot of emotional vulnerability and maybe that's just part of the journey.

I've had a similar conversation with him in the past, back in spring training, about how he, really had a tough, on the field mentally.

And those challenges really molded him.

And he took a huge step forward from there on.

And I wonder if this is something similar here, but the fact that he felt comfortable enough to share as much as he did,

And also shows the standard that he has for himself because it's the standard that everyone wants to have here that you want to be great.

It wasn't exactly the most, there are things there that, did raise an eyebrow a little bit, nothing like super concerning, but it's like, oh, okay.

You don't normally hear a pro athlete talk like this and him being willing to share.

I think shows how comfortable he is.

And that's another good sign of the culture that they need to build here.

I've got more thoughts here.

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After Sunday's game, I asked Konnor Griffin, whenever he looks back on this year, this winter, what did he anticipate his takeaways were going to be?

I was asking him to look into the future.

That's a tough thing to do in general.

But you could have a general feel of what was going on there.

And I will admit, I asked the question to Connor about himself.

The line of questioning beforehand, a lot of it was what he learned, what his season was like, him.

And I asked him that.

like, what are your takeaways going to be, do you think?

And he answered, quote, I feel like we know what this year was like.

We may have some veteran guys leaving or not leaving.

We don't know yet, but we know the culture and what needs to be done for next year.

I think it's going to be a good run for us, end quote.

I asked him a me question.

He gave me an us answer.

And it wasn't in a performative way.

It was, I couldn't interpret it any other way besides completely genuine.

This is a guy who did show some really good things as a rookie.

He is going to make more money than anyone else in Pirates history.

Signed the largest contract in team history.

He was the top prospect in baseball.

If this team does get going in twenty twenty seven, I am very confident that Konnor Griffin is going to be at the center of it.

He is in a position that if he goes, this team will go.

And with that, he's like, I want to talk about us.

Because it's the last time.

That this group will ever be together fully.

Like the end of a school year.

Yeah, a lot of the kids are gonna be coming back next year.

You'll see most of your classmates in fifth grade.

But you know what?

It's not ever completely the same.

And there is something starting to be laid here.

I know there's gonna be a lot of talk of like, what do they do with Brandon Lowe?

Man, they want him back.

That clubhouse really wants him back.

Whenever we talk about establishing culture, he is a big part of that here.

If the Pirates do anything this winter, it has to be him.

Last year, they made three significant transactions.

the Brandon Lowe trade, the O'Hearn signing, the Ozuna signing.

I think if you went to that room and be like, we can re-sign Brandon Lowe, but all our other moves are going to be smaller.

We're not going to be able to take another big swing.

I'm pretty sure every single person in that room would be on board.

Like, yeah, he is one of the guys who gets us going, keeps us going, who helped build that culture.

There's a reason why this guy plays on winning baseball teams.

There's a lot from this year that they fell short on.

They are about, what, six games?

That's the final, how many games they missed the postseason by?

That's a win a month.

That is very achievable if you're setting an aspirational goal for a twenty twenty seven.

Look at your ball club and say, we got to win one game a month.

There are plenty of games we can look back on that they found a way to lose or couldn't quite complete a comeback or something like that.

It's a very achievable goal.

And yeah, it's going to be one with players.

It's going to be one with strategy.

And it's also going to be one with culture.

Don Kelly used the word stepping stone when describing this year.

They didn't get all the way that they needed to go.

But there is definite progress.

There is definitely something here.

And I...

think that was most evident this last weekend in Detroit.

It's a group that cared about each other and showed it in a lot of different ways.

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

If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe wherever you find podcasts or check us out on YouTube to see my smiling face.

And we are going to be keeping this going as a daily show this winter, so I'm looking forward to this.

Thank you so much for listening.

We'll talk again tomorrow.

All right, that wraps up this episode of North Shore Nine.

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