Star Pirates Player Believes Team Is Close To Contending In 2025

One Pittsburgh Pirates player spoke out on how he believes the team in close to contention.

The Pirates re-signed fan favorite player Andrew McCutchen to a one-year deal this week, and he has high hopes for the team. The veteran has spent 11 seasons of his career with Pittsburgh and slashed .232/.328/.411 with 20 home runs and 50 RBIs last season.

McCutchen believes the Pirates compete well against good teams and are close to being a contender in the 2025 season.

“We are really close,” McCutchen said. “(I) always say for the most part, even in these years that we’ve had past couple years, we play the really good teams really good. That’s the way I always say it. We do a really good job against these teams and when we do that, it lets me know that we are capable of winning more. We are capable of winning games.”

“We’re not going to slug more than all the teams, but we can do a lot of the small things and be really good at it. If we can do that, we’ll have more of an opportunity to win games. (We need to) execute when we need to execute, make the big pitch when we need to make a big pitch and make the plays we need to make the plays. We do those small things right, it’ll go a long ways. I think (if) we can get better at that, this team will get to where we want to go.”

The Pirates finished this season with a 76-86 record for the second season in a row. Despite their losing record, the team was in the playoff hunt for most of the season and has one of the best young rotations in the league. With the offseason additions Pittsburgh has made, the team may be close to contending, just like McCutchen said.

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