Pirates Reporter Offers ‘Bold Prediction’ For 2025 MLB Season

The Pirates begin the season Thursday against the Miami Marlins, and a Pittsburgh reporter offered a key storyline to follow for the 2025 MLB season.

Oneil Cruz played over 100 games for the first time in his four-year career. His shift to the outfield should help maximize his upside. That is what The Athletic’s Stephen Nesbitt believes could happen when asked to give his “bold prediction” for the season.

“Now comfortable in center field, Oneil Cruz will finally put it all together in Pittsburgh, turning in his first 30-30 season while cutting his strikeout rate below 30 percent for the first time in his big league career,” Nesbitt wrote Thursday.

Last year, Nesbitt predicted that Mitch Keller would be the pitching staff’s WAR leader and that Jared Jones would finish seventh in National League Rookie of the Year voting. Paul Skenes ended up being Pittsburgh’s WAR leader and won NL Rookie of the Year. Nesbitt couldn’t be faulted for the wrong prediction since very few in baseball could have predicted that Skenes would take MLB by storm in his first season.

The Pirates will hope to see Skenes’ continued ascension, and if Cruz can join in, it will show how bright the future is for Pittsburgh.