This Pirates Offense is No Longer Just a "Fun Story"

If you would've told me in March that the Pittsburgh Pirates would own one of the best offenses in baseball after the All-Star Break, I would've probably said "I'm hard". But if you instead would've told me the offense would lose Oneil Cruz and Spencer Horwitz to the IL at the same time, AND have their 20-year-old next-coming-of-Christ shortstop miss a month with a forearm strain, I would've told you we're looking at yet another losing season in Pittsburgh. That's three different bats, three different player strengths, three different reasons teams were supposed to be scared of the Bucs this year, all out of the lineup at once.

And yet, their offense is humming along better than ever. In fact, it's one of the best offenses in the league.

- AVG: .263 (1st)
- Runs: 533 (2nd)
- OPS: .769 (2nd)
- Hits: 914 (1st)
- OBP: .341 (2nd)

That is a perfectly competent, quietly annoying-to-pitch-to offense, and not that many people have clocked that yet.

Let's start with the obvious gut punch: losing Cruz and Horwitz to the IL in the same stretch. Cruz was running a .264/.350/.822 slash line with 14 bombs and 21 steals before the hand injury shut him down. Horwitz was quietly having a GREAT year at 1B, headlined by a .388 OBP that plants himself 10th among all players in the league — a guy that makes a lineup actually function instead of just sitting there hoping for homers.

Now let's talk about Konnor Griffin. People forget he's TWENTY. The kid turned 20 on April 24th, and around that time he was slashing a rough .231/.290/.341 line in April — a .631 OPS, which for a 20-year-old facing big league arms for the first time is completely normal and also completely irrelevant to where he is now, on top of adjusting to the league in real time as a teenager for half of it. And his numbers now? .276/.332/.736 and 20 stolen bases. People want to point at his strikeout total, his early season slash line, or his lack of power like it tells the whole story. It doesn't. He's out until September again with another unlucky injury, but his progression into a fine hitter and elite defender in his first season alone should prove to you that the power will come. The sky is the limit for Konnor Griffin.

Losing an OBP machine, a 14-homer/21-steal dyanmic player like Cruz AND a .280 hitter/20 steal rookie splooging with potential at the same time should have tanked this offense. It didn't.

Why? Because Bryan Reynolds has been having the best season of his career (If only someone told you that was going to happen). .282/.398/.873, team leader in OBP, OPS, walks and runs scored. Hasn't missed a single game all year.

And this is where the front office actually deserves some credit for once — Brandon Lowe and Ryan O'Hearn were both pristene offseason pickups, and both have completely delivered. Lowe's got 21 homers and a .485 slugging percentage, which is exactly the middle-of-the-order pop you hope for when you go get a guy like that in the offseason. O'Hearn's been quietly running an .800+ OPS all year. Just shows up and produces. I love calling him the Merriam-Webster definition of a professional baseball player. Because that is what he is. And that has been exactly what the Pirates have been missing in their lineups for YEARS. Two guys who weren't even here last year stepping in and producing. REAL professional MLB vets doing their job. 

And then there's Nick Gonzales. A former first-round pick who's now hitting .311 (.376 the last month ... best in the league) and he's doing it at THIRD BASE ... a position he had never played a single inning at before this season. That's not any small adjustment. You're talking about a guy who came up as a middle infielder learning an entirely new angle on every ground ball, a longer throw, different reads off the bat, and he's somehow been one of the best pure hitters in baseball while he figures it out. That's the kind of stuff that gets buried under other headlines but deserves way more shine than it's getting. 

And Esmerlyn Valdez. Holy shit where do I start. He's the second coming of Jesus Christ. Small sample, sure. But the rookie has 12 home runs, 32 hits and 32 RBIs in 31 games. The exact thing an offense needs while you're already down three starters. 

This is what actual organizational depth looks like and it's something that I'm not used to the Pirates ever having. This isn't a one-man show propping up a corpse. There's actual depth here, and it's the reason the offense hasn't fallen off a cliff with three of its best bats in street clothes on the bench. It is the most complete and longest lineup the Pirates have had in my lifetime. 

Everyone wants to talk about the pitching. And that's fine and they should. But this offense has been through three separate significant absences from three important hitters in their lineup and hasn't missed a beat in the runs column. And can you imagine this lineup fully healthy?

1. Griffin
2. Lowe
3. Reynolds
4. Valdez
5. O'Hearn
6. Cruz
7. Horwitz
8. Gonzales
9. Davis/Rodriguez


Put some respect on this fucking team, man. This is an extremply dangerous offense with a starting pitching staff that was baked in as the team's obvious strength going into the year. With how aggressive they were this offseason, the team is two back-end bullpen pieces away from being serious contenders. It's time to buy in on the Pittsburgh Pirates.