The Pittsburgh Pirates require some offseason changes after missing the playoffs for the ninth straight season.
Pittsburgh finished with a 76-86 record for the second-straight campaign while landing fifth place in the National League Central. It was an upsetting finish for a team with many bright spots throughout the season, led by the rookie season of starting pitcher Paul Skenes.
General manager Ben Cherington acknowledges that the Pirates have a better roster heading into the 2025 season than any Pirates team he dealt with before — led by Skenes, Jared Jones, Bryan Reynolds, and others.
“I think there’s clear evidence progress has been made and clearly not enough,” Cherington said to reporters, as transcribed by SI’s Nathaniel Marrero. “We are winning more games, we’re not winning enough, it has to happen better and faster. As I said, I really do believe we go into 2025 already with the strongest, deepest roster we’ve had since I’ve been here, we need to make it better.”
Cherington followed up with his plans for the offseason and the improvement of the roster.
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“There are different ways to make it better,” Cherington said. “Some of it will be through offseason acquisition, some of it will need to be through player improvement. Over time, certainly, some of it is going to need to come from continuing to get better at the draft and international and internal developments. I’m confident because I’m fully energized by the job [and] by the task. It’s hard, it’s a hard job and it’s not supposed to be easy. But that’s why we do it.”
This offseason might be the most important for the Pirates in quite some time. With a core to build around, Pittsburgh should be able to make a splash with the goal of playoffs in 2025.
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