Ben Cherington ‘Confident’ Pirates Will Keep Adding This Offseason

Ben Cherington has overseen a busy offseason, but the Pittsburgh Pirates general manager is far from finished.

The Pirates have made some early-winter splashes, acquiring Jhostynxon Garcia and Brandon Lowe in separate trades and signing All-Star hitter Ryan O’Hearn to a two-year contract. Speaking at O’Hearn’s introductory press conference on Thursday, via DK Pittsburgh Sports, Cherington teased more moves on the horizon.

“We got several weeks between now and Opening Day,” Cherington said. “I think it’s our job to use every day to hunt opportunities to get better. I’m confident that we will continue to add to the roster during that time.”

Cherington leveraged Pittsburgh’s pitching depth to bolster the batting order, sending Johan Oviedo to the Boston Red Sox for Garcia and dealing Mike Burrows in a three-team trade that brought back Lowe, center fielder Jake Mangum and relief pitcher Mason Montgomery. The general manager wants to recoup some rotation depth while remaining focused on lineup reinforcements.

“I’d like to add back to pitching,” Cherington said. “We’ve traded a bit of pitching, so we’d like to add back to that. And we’d still like to add to the position-player group.”

After landing a first baseman (O’Hearn) and second baseman (Lowe), Cherington aims to acquire a third baseman or shortstop. He’ll remain diligent on addressing the outfield despite already adding Garcia and Mangum alongside Bryan Reynolds and Oneil Cruz.

“If we could add someone on the left side of the infield, that’s something we’ll keep an eye out for,” Cherington said. “I think we’ll remain opportunistic in the outfield, see what comes our way.”

Although he’s happy with Pittsburgh’s early offseason returns, Cherington wants to keep improving the roster over the next few weeks.

“We feel good about the progress we’ve made, and never satisfied,” he said. “Not satisfied. There’s still more we want to do.”

More MLB: All-Star Slugger Reveals Why He Chose Pirates In Free Agency