The Pittsburgh Pirates stand at a critical crossroads with heightened pressure on owner Bob Nutting and GM Ben Cherington after six seasons of rebuilding. While contention this season appears out of reach, 2026 offers hope—if the offense can be corrected quickly. The message is clear: improve the lineup or face leadership changes.

The Pirates’ pitching foundation is formidable, anchored by NL Cy Young frontrunner Paul Skenes under team control for four more years. Alongside Skenes are Mitch Keller, Johan Oviedo, and Jared Jones, a rotation capable of competing with many top staffs when healthy.

On paper, Pittsburgh boasts a playoff-caliber pitching staff built to contend now. But the glaring problem remains the offense. According to The Athletic, “The trick now, for Cherington or whoever replaces him, is to find enough offense to correct the roster’s extreme imbalance. The Pirates rank last in the majors in runs per game. Andrew McCutchen, who turns 39 next month, entered Tuesday ranked second on the team in OPS. Tommy Pham, 37, ranked fourth.” Veteran hitters continue to shoulder offensive burdens while younger players have yet to break out.

Much of the frustration falls on GM Ben Cherington. The acquisitions he made during that span only increased the frustrations. Between 2023 and 2024, he added Martin Perez, Rowdy Tellez, Edward Olivares, and Michael A. Taylor. But none of them added a lasting impact. His buy-now moves at the deadline had Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Bryan De La Cruz, along with two prospects—someone the Pirates couldn’t even use in 2025.

The last postseason, they got in Tommy Pham, Andrew Heaney, and Spencer Horwitz, which has been more like patchwork than being transformative for the team. Plus, over the last two seasons, Cherington’s job has also been under fire. The Pirates went from a 62-win team in 2022 to a 76-win team in 2023—a massive improvement. Naturally, the expectations followed, and at least a .500 season in 2024 seemed within reach. They, after all, had Skenes; they were getting healthy Oneil Cruz back. But instead, the Pittsburgh Pirates stalled out, winning just 76 contests. Running now, they have lost four straight games, and that includes the sweep at the hands of the Milwaukee Brewers before falling 3-2 in extras to the Orioles.

Even when the pitching keeps the Pirates alive, the bats can’t push them forward, and that’s where the problem lies. So this is where Cherington comes under the spotlight, because if he can’t overhaul the offense, someone else will. For now, the only defense one could make for him is that he hasn’t had much to spend. But even then, he didn’t do anything much with what he had.

Pirates stand firm behind their rookie, even after a disastrous debut

For Bubba Chandler, his debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates was far from being perfect, or what the team had in mind. The right-hander, who is heavily touted, was rocked for nine earned runs in just 2.2 innings against the Milwaukee Brewers. They ended up dropping the series 10-2, and well, the game started unraveling from the first inning itself. Four runs in the first, another in the second, and four more in the third. Then the manager, Don Kelly, made the call to the bullpen.

Even though the outing was rough, Kelly is not losing faith in his young pitcher. Kelly mentioned, “The first two base hits were with the fastball; they got on, and it seemed like he got away from it a little bit. The command wasn’t there at all. Just got off track a little bit. I thought the second inning was a little better, but then he went back to it in the third. You’ve got a tough offense, a grinding offense. They put up a lot of runs for a reason. It’s just a tough lineup to navigate.” 

And it’s simple to see why he still has faith in him, given Chandler has shown plenty of flashes. He made history back in August when he recorded the first four-inning scoreless save in an MLB debut since that stat was created in 1969. He followed that up with a win against the Cardinals and even won against the Dodgers. Don Kelly simply feels like this is the bump in the road, and that since Chandler has shown the ability to learn so far, he has to stick with it and continue to work on off-speed stuff. So instead of sending Chandler back to the bullpen, he says that he will remain in the mix as a starter. Sure, times are tough, but they are standing by their rookie for now.