Pittsburgh Pirates: Three Extremely Bold Predictions For 2022

The Pittsburgh Pirates will be entering 2022 with hopes for massive improvement. Here are my three, super bold predictions for the season.

Baseball is back, everyone!

Bold predictions, everyone has at least one about their favorite sports team. We all love to make bold predictions about the Pittsburgh Pirates every year, and here are my three ones. This time, I want to go extremely bold.

The Pittsburgh Pirates should evolve as we watch them throughout the 2022 season. The team we see in April will not be anything close to the team we see in August/September. Heck, even by mid-June, it might have a very different look. That could mean that many things could happen in 2022.

Bold: Pittsburgh Pirates Finish With Between 77-82 wins

This one may look unrealistic to some, but once you consider the amount of talent that the Pirates will have in the farm system coming up next year, it’s not that far-fetched to say the Pirates could win between 77 and 82 games. Right now, this could very well be the line-up and rotation by the end of June 2022.

C: Roberto Perez
1B: Mason Martin
2B: Diego Castillo
3B: Ke’Bryan Hayes
SS: Oneil Cruz
LF: Matt Fraizer
CF: Bryan Reynolds
RF: Travis Swaggerty
DH: Yoshi Tsutsugo

SP #1: Roansy Contreras
SP #2: Miguel Yajure
SP #3: Zach Thompson
SP #4: Mitch Keller
SP #5: Bryse Wilson

On paper, that’s not a bad team, and it’s actually a reasonably solid-looking line-up and rotation. The weakest link in the line-up, hitting-wise, is Roberto Perez. But considering he has Platinum Glove defense, his poor offense is passable. Yoshi Tsutsugo may be another bigger gamble, but it’s not like if Tsutsugo struggles, the Pittsburgh Pirates can’t opt for another player at designated hitter.

You have to remember that this is far from the only prospects we may see in the majors by then. If Tsutsugo struggles as the team’s primary DH/1B, someone like Canaan Smith-Njigba or Rodolfo Castro could start regularly seeing some time in the majors. If Diego Castillo struggles, Ji-Hwan Bae could be an alternative as the team approaches summer. Jack Suwinsk and Cal Mitchell are two other options for the outfield if either Swaggerty or Frazier struggle. What happens if Bryse Wilson struggles? The Pirates have a myriad of back-of-the-rotation options between JT Brubaker, Dillon Peters, Max Kranick, Wil Crowe, Omar Cruz, and José Quintana.

Not everything has to go right either. Just most of the prospects can’t fall on their face, meaning they can’t come up and hit like Kevin Newman has the last two seasons or give up runs like Wil Crowe did the previous year. While some may stumble out of the gate, others are bound to perform well. Not to mention that Carmen Mlodzinski could join the rotation down the stretch, giving the Pirates four potential quality starting pitchers.

I know. For some people, this might seem like a fantasy. But in reality, this line-up and rotation are very possible by the start of July. On paper, it’s easily a 70-75 win team. Maybe someone like Brubaker or Wilson breakout and have a good season, or someone in the line-up overperforms expectations, and all of a sudden, you have a borderline .500 team.