Pittsburgh Pirates: Clutchest Seasons in Franchise History

Without clutch hits, the Pittsburgh Pirates wouldn’t have some of the most memorable moments in their franchise’s history. But what are the clutchest seasons we’ve seen so far?

Clutch hitting is what drives in runs. Without it, teams wouldn’t be able to win games, and make the postseason. Throughout the history of the Pittsburgh Pirates you can probably think of some really clutch batters.

The Pirates have had many clutch hitting moments throughout their history, ones that have combinated for the best seasons ever. So let’s go through the Pirates’ history, and see what are the most clutch seasons ever.

For this, we will be using FanGraphs’ clutch index. This gives each play a score, usually between -2 and +2, in how they performed in high leverage situations compared to how they perform in neutral settings. +2 is elite, 0 is average, and -2 is very bad.

It also compares a player to themself to how they perform in other situations. For example, if you always are hitting .300 regardless of the situation, you won’t be given as high of a score if you hit .275 regularly, but .320 in high leverage situations. While that will put significant weight on these rankings, we will obviously be looking at other such numbers like how they performed with runners in scoring position, and the league and era adjusted stat wRC+. This will also be players who stepped to the play at least 600 times during the regular season to limit any small sample sizes.

So with all of that out of the way, let’s get into our number five spot.

Jay Bell, 1990

Jay Bell is one of the Pirates’ best shortstops throughout their history. The one time Pirate All-Star racked up 24.5 fWAR throughout his eight years with the Pittsburgh Pirates. I ranked him as the Bucs’ 3rd best shortstop in their franchise history. After all, out of all Pirates’ shortstops, he has the 3rd highest wRC+ (104), and fWAR (24.5) (min. 2000 plate appearances). But in his first full season with the Pirates, Bell established himself as a clutch hitter.

Through 696 plate appearances, Bell only hit for an unspectacular line of .254/.329/.362 with 7 home runs, and 10 stolen bases. Overall, he was a slightly below average hitter with a 97 wRC+ and .315 wOBA. Still, his 15.7% strikeout rate was strong, even for the era.

Bell racked up a clutch index of +1.47, the 5th highest in the hsitory of the Pittsburgh Pirates, mainly because he hit so well in high leverage situations compared to his seasonal stats. With men in scoring position, he hit for a solid .281/.354/.446 line. 10 of his 34 hits went for extra bases, and he only struck out 22 out of the 153 times he stepped to the plate. However in high leverage situations, he hit .318/.387/.432 in the 119 plate appearances he received in those moments.

Barry Bonds, 1991

You all know who Barry Bonds is. Whether you love him or hate him, you have to admit he was a fantastic ball player. 1991 was just one of his many outstanding seasons. Despite being snubbed of the MVP this year, Bonds was probably the best batter in the National League.

Through 634 plate appearances, Bonds slashed .292/.410/.514 with a 155 wRC+ and a .396 wOBA. Both his wRC+ and wOBA led the league. Bonds was a five tool player, so he could also hit for power and run very well. Bonds slammed 25 home runs, had a .222 isolated slugging percentage and stole 43 bases to go with +3.4 base running runs above average.

When it came time to drive in runs, Bonds was the guy you would want at the dish. He had a +1.49 clutch index in 1991. He hit astoundingly well with men in scoring position, registering a .345/.471/.558 line in 208 plate appearances. He walked more than double the amount of times he struck out with a 48/20 ratio. In high leverage situations, he hit equally as good with a .353/.446/.640 line in 168 plate appearances. While Bonds was not at the level he would eventually reach where teams intentionally walked him with the bases loaded, Bonds was stil lvery clutch in 1991.

Phil Garner, 1978

Phil Garner was one of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ infielders in the late 70s and early 80s. He was a light hitting batter, registering a .267/.335/.404 line, and 100 OPS+, but was mainly known for his defense and speed. Across the four and a quarter years he played with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Garner had +4 dWAR and 112 stolen bases.

In 1978, Garner served as a second baseman and third baseman, nearly perfectly splitting the amount of playing time at the two positions (676 innings at second base, 678 innings at third base). Despite being a fairly light hitter, he still posted an above league average .261/.345/.400 line, 10 home runs, 27 stolen bases and 105 wRC+.

What Garner did well was come through when it mattered. He actually ties with Bonds for the 4th highest single season clutch index mark in Pirates history at 1.49. This is because he was outstanding in high leverage situations. Though he only had 157 plate appearances with runners in scoring position, and collected just 28 hits, he only struck out in 13 of those appearances for a 8.2% strikeout rate. In high leverage situations, Garner batted .313/.408/.521, struck out just eight times in 122 plate appearances, and 11 of his 30 hits went for extra bases.

Andrew McCutchen, 2015

When you think of a modern day clutch hitter for the Pirates, 2013 National League MVP Andrew McCutchen probably comes to mind. You can probably think of many times McCutchen came through when it really mattered, and his 2015 season was when he came through the most often.

The former Pirates’ center fielder had an outstanding run from 2012 to 2015. In those four seasons, Cutch hit .313/.404/.523 with 100 long balls, 76 stolen bases, a 157 wRC+, and 28,8 fWAR. In terms of wRC+, only Mike Trout, Miguel Cabrera, and Joey Votto passed McCutchen. Buster Posey and Trout were the only two players who provided more value than him in fWAR.

Technically speaking, 2015 was the worst season out of those four years. But even though it was his worst year from ‘12-’15, he still batted outstandingly well. In 685 plate appearances, Cutch put up a .292/.401/.488 line, 144 wRC+, 23 long balls, and .380 wOBA. The only other center fielder that outdid Cutch in wRC+ and wOBA was Trout.

During this year, Cutch posted a whopping 1.53 clutch index. When it came time to hit with runners in scoring position, the slugger batted .361/.494/.656. He reached base nearly 50% of the time with RISP. That’s a 196 wRC+. In high leverage situations, he hit .323/.387/.500, coming to a 125 wRC+. Pretty decent numbers. Plus, we all know one of his clutchest moments in his Pirate career was when he hit a walk off home run agaisnt the Cardinals in a marathon, back-and-forth game that ended up being the first of two very dramatic back-to-back walk offs.