Pittsburgh Pirates: Building a Team of One-Season Wonders

First Base – 2000 John Vander Wal

John Vander Wal is certainly not a guy you think of when you think of great offensive seasons in Pirate history. In 2000, Vander Wal saw time in the outfield corners and at first base. Up until this point in his career, he had mostly been used as a pinch hitter, quite literally. Despite averaging nearly 100 games a season from 1991 through 1999, he also averaged less than 170 plate appearances. For example, in 1995 with the Colorado Rockies, Vander Wal had a total of 118 plate appearances spread across 105 games. He started in just five of those contests. Though he was terrific in those 118 plate appearances, posting an OPS over one thousand at 1.026.

But in 2000, Vander Wal got a chance at regular playing time and made the most of it. In 461 plate appearances, Vander Wal batted .299/.410/.563 with a 142 wRC+ and .413 wOBA. Vander Wal had a .972 OPS, which is the 13th-best single-season mark in Pirates’ history (min. 450 plate appearances). He drew walks at a whopping 15.6% rate and had a .263 isolated slugging percentage.

A .970+ OPS in a season is something that not even Roberto Clemente nor Andrew McCutchen were able to accomplish in their careers, and Willie Stargell, who’s generally considered the best hitter in Pirates’ history, only did twice. A.970+ OPS in 450+ plate appearances has been accomplished just 186 times since 2000, and Vander Wal is one of them.

It’s no surprise that Vander Wal never reached that peak again. From 2001 through 2004, he was only slightly above league average, batting a respectable .256/.344/.439 with a .337 wOBA and 103 wRC+. But that is a 189-point OPS dropoff from 2000.

Second Base – 1996 Jeff King

Not every first-overall pick in the Major League draft is destined to become a superstar. That was the case for infielder Jeff King. King had an 11-year major league career after the Pittsburgh Pirates drafted him first overall in 1986. Although King didn’t live up to the first-overall pick status, he did have a few solid seasons. However, his 1996 campaign stands out.

In 1996, King batted .271/.346/.497 with a .361 wOBA, and 117 wRC+. While overall, King’s offensive output wasn’t over-the-top outstanding, he hit 30 home runs with a .227 isolated slugging percentage. He’s the only Pirate in history to start at least 50 games at second base and have 30+ home runs.

King actually saw more time at first base than second base. But overall, he still racked up 554.2 innings, which isn’t a tiny amount. He wasn’t much of a defender at second base, though, with -6 total zone runs. But he did have a whopping +13 total zone runs at first base.

Although King did have some solid years before and after 1996, he never came close to being this productive. From 1989 through 1995, he batted just .256/.314/.399 with a 92 wRC+. After ’96, King would play three seasons with the Kansas City Royals, slashing .249/.334/.447 with a 99 wRC+.

Third Base – 1997 Joe Randa

Joe Randa had two stints in black and gold. The first was in 1997, which we will focus on here, and the second was in 2006. Randa was fairly new to Major League Baseball when he first appeared with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1997. He spent the 1994 and 1995 seasons with the Kansas City Royals, where he was a solid batter, but was traded to the Pirates in the 1996-1997 off-season. He, along with three guys named Jeff (Martin, Granger, and Wallace), was sent to the Bucs for Jay Bell and Jeff King.

In 1997, Randa would piece together his best year with the stick. In 499 plate appearances, Randa slashed .302/.366/.451 with a .359 wOBA and 113 wRC+. But Randa brought a lot of value with the glove, racking up +11 total zone runs. In total, he had a +3.7 fWAR.

But the Arizona Diamondbacks then selected Randa in the expansion draft and traded him to the Detroit Tigers. He’d spend one year in Detroit before heading back to KC. From 1998 through 2006, Randa batted for a below-average .283/.337/.426 line, leading to a wRC+ of just 94.

Although Randa had some solid seasons, he never got within 5% of his 1997 campaign in terms of wRC+. While Paulino might be one of the most obscure .300 batters, Randa might be one of the most obscure batters to have multiple .300 seasons. He reached the .300 plateau in 1999 and 2000.

Shortstop – 1948 Stan Rojek

Sometimes, players have one good season and in less than a half-decade and are out of the league. Stan Rojek is one of those players. While Tavares was never a high-end offensive shortstop, he was decent in 1948 and provided well above-average speed and defense at short. But this was just one of six seasons Tavares appeared in at least 30 games, and just one of two times he played in 100+ contests.

Rojek wasn’t all that great of a batter, turning in a .290/.355/.367 line. He hit for almost no power, having just 36 extra-base hits in 713 plate appearances. But he posted a solid 8.6% walk rate to go with his ability to rack up hits. Tavares used that on-base ability to his advantage, swiping 24 bags. On the defensive side of things, Rojek racked up +5 total zone runs saved at shortstop.

In total, Rojek’s 1948 season saw him post a +3.7 fWAR, which makes up 90.2% of his career fWAR of 4.1. Rojek batted just .251/.310/.301 with a 60 wRC+ after ’48 and only had 1106 plate appearances. Before ’48, Tavares had just 140 plate appearances and a 75 wRC+.

Left Field – 1980 Mike Easler

Left field is where some of the best offensive seasons in Pirates history have been recorded at. From Ralph Kiner to Willie Stargell to Barry Bonds, Jason Bay, Starling Marte, and today with Bryan Reynolds (at least in 2019), there’s been no shortage of talent in left field for the Pirates. It was hard to pinpoint a certain one-year-wonder, but if you had to pick a player with one season-defining career, it would be Mike Easler.

In 1980, Easler batted .338/.396/.583 with 21 dingers in just 445 plate appearances. Easler had a 167 wRC+, the third-best mark in Major League Baseball in 1980. Only Hall of Famers George Brett, Mike Schmidt, and Reggie Jackson were better hitters in 1980 than Easler. He wasn’t a terrible defender, but -2 total zone runs are nothing to brag about.

This breakout for Easler was utterly unprecedented. From 1973 through 1979, Easler only appeared in 112 games, and 55 of those came in 1979. He had just a 76 wRC+ in that small sample size and -.4 fWAR. Easler essentially went from an unknown Quad-A player to a top 3 hitter in baseball in just one year.

As stated earlier, it’s hard to call Easler a one-year-wonder, but he is probably the closest thing to one among the Pittsburgh Pirates left field seasons. He had some decent seasons after 1980. Heck, he had a 142 wRC+ in 1984 with the Boston Red Sox. However, none of those seasons even come close to his 1980 campaign. From 1981 through the last year of his career in 1987, Easler batted .290/.345/.443 with a .348 wOBA and 115 wRC+.

Center Field – 2008 Nate McLouth

Nate McLouth’s 2008 season isn’t the only productive season in his career, but it’s far and away the best. He never came close to his 2008 peak, at least with the bat. The glove was a different story. However, McLouth had one All-Star season before falling off.

With the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2008, McLouth batted .276/.356/.497 with 26 home runs. He was one of the most powerful center fielders in 2008, trailing just Carlos Beltran, Grady Sizemore, and Josh Hamilton in total home runs. His slugging percentage, which fell just three points shy of .500, was also the fifth-best in the league. All told, he had a .364 wOBA and 121 wRC+. Despite winning the Gold Glove this year, he was actually one of the worst defensive outfielders in the game. He had -23 defensive runs saved and a -12 UZR/150. Only Brad Hawpe had a lower DRS total.

Before 2008, McLouth was a .249/.322/.429 batter with a .328 wOBA, and 95 wRC+ and after 2008, he hit .237/.328/.397 with a .314 wOBA, and 93 wRC+. He essentially reverted back to his pre-2008 self after his All-Star season. McLouth would never reach the 120 wRC+ plateaux in his career after 2008 and would only have one 3+ fWAR season, that coming in the following year in 2009.

Right Field – 2008 Xavier Nady

We have another one-season standout from 2008, and that’s Xavier Nady. Up through 2008, Nady had done decent but nothing over-the-top impressive. He was a .272/.327/.441 batter with a .333 wOBA, and 102 wRC+. Again, nothing terrible, but also nothing noteworthy. But the start of the 2008 season was outstanding for Nady.

In 360 plate appearances, Nady batted .330/.383/.535. He smacked 13 home runs with a .205 isolated slugging percentage. While he was never a light hitter, a .205 ISO was a 36-point increase from his 2000-2007 rate. Nady ended up having a 142 wRC+ before the Pirates traded him to the New York Yankees for Jeff Karstens, Ross Ohlendorf, Jose Tabata, and Daniel McCutchen.

But Nady pretty much reverted back to his 2000-2007 self after the trade, only batting .268/.320/.474 with a 108 wRC+. In early 2009, Nady underwent elbow surgery in April, only playing seven games. He was never the same after that, as from 2010 through 2014, he hit .234/.287/.353 with a .283 wOBA and 71 wRC+.

Starting Pitcher – 1962 Earl Francis

Technically speaking, Earl Francis was a swingman, but he did start over half the games he appeared in. Going into the 1962 campaign, Francis had pitched just 120.2 innings in the two seasons prior. He pitched decently, but his 1962 season stands out like a sore thumb on his baseball card.

In 1962, Francis tossed 176 frames working to a 3.07 ERA, 3.28 FIP, and 1.34 WHIP. While Francis had an 11.2% walk rate, his 16.2% strikeout rate was well above the league average of 14%. He also had a .41 HR/9, which, again, was well above the league average of 0.9 HR/9. His +3.1 fWAR this season makes up over half of his career fWAR.

After 1962, Francis would only pitch 109 innings. Nearly all of those frames came in the following campaign in 1963 when he tossed 97.1. When he did pitch, he was not nearly as effective, with a 4.79 ERA, 1.54 WHIP, and 3.51 FIP.

Relief Pitcher – 2001 Josias Mazanillo

Relief pitching can be highly volatile. They see the fewest innings on the field than any other position. The small sample size can significantly fluctuate season-to-season stats, which means there are plenty of one-hit wonders. There are plenty of players you could list here, but the best among them was Josias Manzanillo in 2001.

Manzanillo turned in an outstanding 2001 campaign, working to a 3.39 ERA, 2.86 FIP, and 1.08 WHIP. During his ’01 season, Manzanillo had a 24.3% strikeout rate and a 7.9% walk rate. But what was most impressive was his 0.45 HR/9. Remember, this was the late steroid era, and pitchers allowed 1.13 HR/9 on average.

Like with Mike Easler, this was a completely unprecedented turn. From 1991 to 2000 (he did not appear in the bigs in 1998), Manzanillo only pitched 206.1 innings and averaged just 29 innings a year. When he did pitch, he had a 4.41 ERA and 4.53 FIP. Manzanillo went out in ’01 and pitched a whopping 79.2 innings, which ranked top 25 in the league.

Manzanillo not only would not pitch 70 innings again in a single season, but he wouldn’t even reach 60 across the next three years. From 2002 through 2004, Manzanillo only tossed 56 frames. He had a lowly 15.9% strikeout rate, an 8.9% walk rate and allowed nearly three home runs every nine innings with a 2.89 HR/9. In total, he gave up 48 earned runs.

Honorable Mention – RHP Reliever Vin Mazzaro

I almost wanted to put Vin Mazzaro in the relief pitching spot. In the end, I felt that Manzanillo had the better overall season, but I also feel that Mazzaro had much more of an impact on his team and the franchise as a whole. Manzanillo pitched for a Pittsburgh Pirates team that lost 100 games. However, Mazzaro played an extremely key role for the 2013 Pirates, the first Pirates team to make it back to playoff baseball in 20 years.

The Pirates had acquired Mazzaro the prior offseason from the Kansas City Royals. Up until this point, Mazzaro had a poor Major League career. He worked as a swing-man, starting 45 of his 61 games for the Royals and Oakland Athletics. In total, he had a 5.22 ERA, 5.01 FIP, and 1.62 WHIP.

Then came 2013, and Mazzaro tossed a whopping 73.2 innings, working to a phenomonal 2.81 ERA, 3.31 FIP, and 1.21 WHIP. Mazzaro never was a strikeout pitcher, both during his time in the minor leagues or major leagues, and he had just a 15.1% K-rate for the Bucs. However, he whittled his walk rate down from 9.5% from 2009-2012 to 6.9% in ’13, while also seeing his HR/9 plummet from 1.20 to just 0.37-per-9.

By the end of the season, the Pittsburgh Pirates had no issue giving Mazzaro late-inning/high-leverage innings. This all but cemented his place in the bullpen for 2014, right? The Pirates apparently thought otherwise as he was shockingly designated for assignment and sent to Triple-A, and would only pitch 10.1 innings for the Bucs in the major leagues.

After the Pirates released him following the 2014 campaign, he would only pitch 13 innings with the Miami Marlins and San Francisco Giants. While Mazzaro hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since 2016, he’s kept the dream alive, pitching in the Indepent circut the last handful of seasons. This past year, he pitched for the Frontier League Sussex County Miners.