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By John Hartsock
The 2024 season was hoped by everybody in the Pittsburgh Pirates' organization, as well as many of the team's fans, to be the final and most eventful and successful one in the Bucs' projected five-year rebuilding plan.
And therefore, its importance was significantly magnified.
After going through four years of growing pains that included two consecutive seasons of 100 or more losses in 2021 and 2022, the Bucs finished with a 76-86 record in 2023, an improvement of 14 victories from the year before.
The 2024 season was anticipated as one in which the light might finally appear at the end of what had been a long, dark tunnel, and hopes abounded for the Pirates to turn the corner and make exciting strides.
The Pirates' aspirations for this year included, at the very least, their first winning season since 2018, and season-long contention for a Wild Card spot in the six-team National League playoff field. A division championship in what was expected to be a wide-open NL Central was not considered outside the realm of possibility for the Bucs at the outset of this season.
This season was going according to plan for the Pirates, too, pretty much until August arrived. After a 6-2 win over the Astros in Houston on July 30, the Pirates were three games over .500 at 55-52, tied for second place in the division, just six games back and only two games back in the battle for a Wild Card berth, with several teams in the running.
The excitement surrounding the Bucs was high, and quite justified, as the season's stretch run loomed on the near horizon.
But that's when things went south, as the Pirates' bullpen repeatedly squandered late-inning leads in crucial games, the offense repeatedly did not capitalize on scoring opportunities, and the Pirates lost 21 of their next 29 games -- including a dreadful 10-game losing streak from Aug. 4-14 -- to reach Labor Day in the division basement, 16½ games out of the lead and 10½ out of a Wild Card berth.
The Pirates wound up losing 34 of their final 55 games to close this season with another 76-86 record and a last-place finish in the five-team NL Central, 17 games behind the division champion Milwaukee Brewers and 13 games out of the third and final Wild Card playoff berth.
Now, instead of beginning October relishing their first postseason appearance since 2015, the Pirates are at a crossroads as their 2024 season goes into the record books.
The futures in Pittsburgh of general manager Ben Cherington and field manager Derek Shelton -- both of whom were hired by the Pirates' upper management in late 2019 to launch the Bucs' extensive rebuilding process that was hoped to reach fruition within the next five seasons -- are now under scrutiny, and their seats figure to get even hotter if they make it through this offseason and are still in charge in 2025.
"We have to get better,'' Shelton told the media in his final postgame press conference of the season Sunday evening at Yankee Stadium. "We just played two series against two teams, the Brewers and Yankees, who are now where we want to be, and where we need to be.''
Right-handed pitching phenom Paul Skenes provided a silver lining for the Bucs, and was perhaps even better in his rookie season than the Pirates expected him to be when they selected him with the top pick of the 2023 MLB Amateur Draft, after he had led LSU to the NCAA championship. Skenes won 11 games for the Pirates this season and became the first NL rookie pitcher in nearly 30 years to start an All-Star Game this past July.
Skenes and San Diego Padres outfielder Jackson Merrill are the top candidates for the NL Rookie of the Year award, which will be announced next month.
Young right-hander Jared Jones burst on to the big league scene with the Pirates to make a significant impact, and veteran righty Mitch Keller was decent in the starting rotation as well, but the Pirates have many question marks to address between now and their 2025 season-opening game next March 29 against the Marlins in Miami.
A look at the good, bad and the ugly from the 2024 season:
Skenes stands out
After making his much-anticipated major league debut on May 11 against the Chicago Cubs at PNC Park and not figuring in a decision when the Pirates survived a long rain delay and wound up with a 10-9 win, Skenes put up great numbers and became somewhat of a folk hero in Pittsburgh in his rookie season.
The 6-foot-6, 235-pound fireballer's final 11-3 record could and should have been much better. A lack of offensive and/or bullpen support cost Skenes -- who was removed from games twice this season due to pitch counts despite throwing holding opposing teams hitless through seven and six innings -- several more potential victories this season.
The 22-year-old Skenes -- who possesses an otherworldly repertoire of four outstanding pitches, including a fastball that tops out at 102 miles per hour -- finished the season with 1.96 earned run average in 23 starts, allowing just 29 earned runs in 133 innings pitched, while racking up a season record for strikeouts by a Pirates rookie pitcher (170) and walking just 32 batters.
If Skenes finishes among the top two NL players in the league's Rookie of the Year voting, as expected, he'll be under contract control with the Pirates for the next five seasons. Skenes proved this season to be a generational talent that the Pirates can build their promising starting rotation around for many years to come.
Jones, now 23, was a late addition to the Pirates' big-league roster out of spring training and showed outstanding promise despite spending two months in the middle of the season on the Bucs' Injured List with a Grade 2 lat strain.
Possessing a sense of swagger and moxie to go with an excellent repertoire of pitches, Jones carded a 6-8 record with a 4.14 ERA in 22 starts, striking out 132 batters and walking just 40 in 121.2 innings pitched.
The Pirates spaced out starting assignments for both Skenes and Jones in the second half of the season in an attempt not to tax the arms of the young phenoms, whose innings pitched had been much lower in 2023 at both the collegiate and minor league levels, respectively.
Skenes and Jones both figure to get significant additional innings and an average major league workload over a full season in 2025, which will bode well for a Pirates' rotation that has Keller as a third important cog in its wheel.
Keller -- who finished this season with a 11-12 record and 4.25 ER.A. with 166 strikeouts and 50 walks in 178 innings pitched over 31 starts -- was much better in the first half of this season, when he logged a 10-5 record and put himself in serious consideration for a second career All-Star selection -- than he was in the second half, when he won just one of eight decisions and logged a 5.65 E.R.A.
Nonetheless, Skenes, Jones and Keller will give the Pirates a solid base in their rotation moving forward.
Veteran lefty Bailey Falter (8-9) and young right-hander Luis Ortiz (7-6 with a 3.32 ERA and 107 strikeouts in 37 appearances, including 15 starts) were both serviceable this year in the rotation, and the Pirates have more arms waiting in the wings, including two top prospects in right-handers Bubba Chandler and Thomas Harrington -- both of whom reached the Class AAA level at Indianapolis this season.
Righty Michael Burrows, who endured Tommy John elbow surgery after a 2023 injury and saw limited pitching time at Indy this past season before earning his first major league victory in a relief appearance in the Pirates' final series at Yankee Stadium, could be in the Pirates' future pitching plans as either a starter or reliever. So could righty Johan Oviedo, who won nine games for the Bucs in 2023 but sat out this entire season after undergoing Tommy John surgery last December. Righty Braxton Ashcraft, who has also had a significant history with arm injuries himself but competed at Class AAA this past season and is another of the organization's top prospects, could also begin his major league career as either a starter or in the bullpen.
Despite many reservations about the overall unit at the outset of this past season, the Pirates' starting rotation was one of the team's biggest strengths in 2024, and it figures to continue to be next season and into the near future, which is a positive sign for the organization.
Bullpen woes costly
Entering the 2024 season, the bullpen -- especially the back end of it with set-up relievers Colin Holderman and new acquisition Aroldis Chapman setting the table for two-time All-Star closer and Pittsburgh native David Bednar -- was expected to give the Pirates plenty of rock-hard stability when the Bucs held a lead entering the seventh inning of games.
Instead, just the opposite happened, as the unit blew a total of 29 saves -- tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers, of all teams -- for most in the league and squandered many other late-game leads. In fact, the Pirates lost a significant number of games (28) in which one of their starters had pitched six innings or longer.
The bullpen finished with a collective ERA of 4.49, which ranked 27th among the 30 MLB teams in 2024.
The left-handed Chapman, a Hall of Fame candidate acquired as a free agent last January, proved to be the most consistent of the bullpen crew, carding a 5-5 record and 14 saves with 98 strikeouts in 61ª innings pitched. But he's now a free agent again, is unlikely to be re-signed by the Pirates and will probably be pitching elsewhere next season.
But Bednar and Holderman both faced health issues and dropped off from their excellent performances of past seasons this year.
Bednar missed most of spring training with a lat injury and struggled at the outset of the season, blowing three of his first four save opportunities before rebounding to successfully convert his next 19 straight.
After another stint on the injured list with an oblique strain in late June, Bednar struggled in the second half of the season, however, and wound up with seven blown saves in 30 opportunities for the year -- including several during the team's swoon during August, when the Bucs won just eight of 27 games.
Things got so bad for Bednar that he was removed from the closer's role late in the season.
After enduring a virus that had caused him to miss most of spring training, Holderman shined in the first 2¢ months of the season, carding a .067 ERA through late June. After that, however, he experienced rough sledding, giving up leads in several games and heading to the Injured List with a wrist problem in August before returning to finish out the season.
Righties Carmen Mlodzinski and Kyle Nicholas had their share of ups and downs in relief, and two bullpen arms who the Pirates had counted on heavily in 2023 -- lefty Ryan Borucki and righty Dauri Moreta -- missed most and all of this season, respectively, due to injuries.
Dennis Santana, another veteran righty who the Pirates picked up in June after he was designated for assignment by the New York Yankees, did a solid job in the late innings for the Bucs this year and could be an important factor in their bullpen going forward.
The bottom line is that if the Pirates are to make significant strides in 2025, their bullpen has to be better, either through new acquisitions, the collective improvement and/or development of its current members, or both.
Reynolds leads offense
Outfielder Bryan Reynolds made a second career All-Star appearance and was, once again, a beacon of consistency, leading the Pirates in home runs (24), RBIs (88), hits (171), batting average (.275) and games played (157).
The trade deadline acquisition of outfielder Bryan De La Cruz from the Miami Marlins should help bolster the Pirates' offense in the future. De La Cruz finished this season with 21 home runs and 68 RBIs with the Marlins and Bucs combined and is under arbitration contract control for three seasons.
Jack Suwinski hit 26 home runs and drove in 74 runs for the Pirates in 2023 but struggled mightily at the plate this season and spent the second half of it in the minor leagues. Suwinski batted just .182 with nine homers and had only 26 RBIs in 88 games for the Pirates this season, while striking out 79 times in 247 plate appearances.
Suwinski's future with the Pirates is very much in doubt, as is that of third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes, a 2015 first-round draft pick who has struggled with chronic back problems and appeared in only 96 games this season, hitting only four home runs and driving in just 25 runs, while hitting just .231. All three numbers were down markedly from the respective 15 homers, 61 RBIs and .273 batting average that Hayes put up in 2023, and although Hayes, a 2023 Rawlings Gold Glove recipient, plays stellar defense, the Pirates need much more at the bat from the third base position than what he provided this past season.
Henry Davis, who the Pirates chose with the top pick in the 2021 MLB Draft, also had a rough season this year, and, rather than establishing himself as the Pirates' catcher of the future, spent most of the season at Class AAA Indianapolis. The role of Davis in the organization's plans is now very much in doubt.
Oneil Cruz hit 21 homers -- including several tape-measure shots -- and also drove in 76 runs while also collecting 140 hits and stealing 22 bases but was moved from shortstop to center field in August after making a combined 24 fielding and throwing errors in the infield. The 6-foot-7 Cruz possesses extraordinary range and a stellar throwing arm that could make him a good fit for the Bucs in the outfield in the future and also address what had previously been the team's lack of offense at the center field spot.
On the bright side, the Pirates got inspirational performances from catcher Joey Bart, former top infield prospect Nick Gonzales and trade deadline acquisition Isiah Kiner-Falefa, an infielder who is a distant relative of former Pirates star outfielder and MLB Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner.
Bart, a second overall 2018 MLB draft pick, was acquired early this season after being let go by the San Francisco Giants. He provided offensive pop with 13 home runs, while driving in 45 runs.
Highly-touted Endy Rodriquez missed all of the major league season after undergoing Tommy John surgery following a winter ball injury last November but figures to play a prominent role in the Pirates' everyday lineup in 2025, either as a catcher or perhaps at first base, a position at which Rowdy Tellez was designated for assignment in this season's final week, and at which the Pirates may part ways with Connor Joe.
The answer for the Bucs' first base position, which has been a question mark for quite some time now, may lie in-house -- as rumors circulated late this season that even Reynolds may be moved from the outfield to take a shot at playing first base -- or in the offseason trade market, where the Pirates acquired free-agent first basemen in both of the past two years.
After being summoned back to the Pirates from Class AAA Indianapolis in May, Gonzales -- the seventh overall selection in the 2020 MLB draft -- rebounded from a rough 2023 stint with the Bucs that involved a demotion to the minors to hit .270 this season in Pittsburgh, with seven homers and 49 RBIs, while giving the team outstanding defensive play at second base.
Falefa, who came to the Pirates from the Toronto Blue Jays, took over at shortstop when Cruz was moved to the outfield. Falefa provided good defense and a solid bat for the Bucs over the final two months of the year.
Falefa can also play third base, a fact which may make Hayes -- who signed an eight-year, 70-million dollar contract with the Pirates in 2023 that is currently shaping up as one of MLB's worst -- expendable.
Franchise icon Andrew McCutchen, who hit 20 home runs this season -- including his 300th career homer -- and drove in 50 runs this year at the age of 37, while batting in the leadoff position in the lineup most of the year, might have earned himself a third straight one-year contract with the Bucs if he decides to return next season.
Jared Triolo hit nine homers and again showcased his versatility in the infield, while outfielder/infielder Billy Cook and infielder Nick Yorke had decent cameo appearances in late-season call-ups from Indianapolis.
Overall, however, a Pirates offense which finished next-to-last in the NL in batting average (.234) and 13th among the league's 15 teams in both runs scored (665) and home runs (160), is in dire need of a shot in the arm in 2025, and its inability to produce runs, especially with runners in scoring position, was a big factor in the club's second-half demise this season.
PNC attendance up
Fans showed up at PNC Park in decent numbers this season, as the Pirates totaled 1,720,361 -- an average of 21,239 -- for their 81 home dates. That's up from last year's 1,630,624 total, and the most since 1,919,947 total fans showed up at PNC to watch the Pirates in 2017.
The Pirates' current single-season attendance record at PNC -- which opened in 2001 -- is 2,498,596 fans, which came through the turnstiles for the 2015 season, when the Bucs won 98 games and made their last playoff appearance.
Coaching staff under scrutiny
Shelton drew a pass as the Pirates manager for his first four seasons, but his role has begun to undergo much more careful examination going forward.
After Clint Hurdle was fired as the Pirates manager following a chaotic 2019 season in which he had appeared to lose the clubhouse in the second half of the season, Shelton inherited a hot mess in the 2020 season, which was marred by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the beginning of the Bucs' full-scale rebuilding project.
The Pirates won just 19 of 60 games in that abbreviated season, followed by a 61-101 finish in 2021 and a 62-100 performance in 2022. Things began looking up in 2023, when the Pirates won 76 games and showed the promise of notable improvement in 2024.
The fact that it didn't happen puts Shelton, and to a somewhat lesser degree, Cherington -- who was also hired as the Pirates' GM five years ago -- under the proverbial microscope.
Even if Shelton survives this offseason, his much-maligned hitting coach, Andy Haines, is in grave peril of being replaced, and pitching coach Oscar Marin may also be on the chopping block.
The fact that a number of the players who the Pirates were counting on in 2024 underperformed only factors in as part of the problem. In the end, the people who are in charge of putting a winning team on the field, will always be the first casualties.
As their 2024 season comes to a close, the Pirates again find themselves in the unenviable position of hoping that considerable improvement will be part of their immediate future.
And while there is promise because of the team's starting pitching, several other things need to change in order for what was the Pirates' most disappointing season in recent memory to be relegated to the distant rearview mirror.
John Hartsock can be reached at jhartsock@altoonamirror.com.