3 Pittsburgh Pirates hitters who are dead weight on the current roster

Tommy Pham

Please, do not let this turn into a Rowdy Tellez situation, Pirates. I beg you. 

The Pirates signed Tommy Pham this offseason, and there were already red flags from the jump. For one, it’s not as if Pham lit the world on fire last year. In 478 plate appearances, the veteran outfielder owned a .248/.305/.368 triple-slash, .297 wOBA, and 91 wRC+. He only walked 7.3% of the time, a career-low mark. Pham’s 22.2% K% was one of the few numbers on his bottom line that wasn’t below average.

There was some hope Pham could improve in 2025, given his .319 xwOBA and 90.7 MPH exit velocity, but so far, Pirates fans would kill for his 2024 production. Pham is only batting .170/.248/.213 with a .214 wOBA and 28 wRC+. He is striking out 27.6% of the time, which is on pace for the second-highest mark of his career. Pham has yet to hit a home run, as he’s seen his exit velocity drop to just 88.3 MPH. His barrel rate is currently sitting at a poor 3% rate. The only things Pham isn’t doing terribly wrong at the plate are chasing outside the zone and drawing walks. He’s in the 86th percentile of chase rate and has an 8.9% walk rate.

Pham has been a complete momentum killer as well. He’s one of the worst batters with men on base, ranking bottom 20 in OPS (.573), wOBA (257), and wRC+ (57) (min. 50 plate appearances with men on). This is one thing Pham excelled in during 2024. Even with his poor season, he still owned an .853 OPS, .374 wOBA, and 145 wRC+ when he stepped to the plate with a runner on.

At the very least, Pham has been useful in the field. He already has +7 defensive runs saved and +1 out above-average out in left field. Pham’s jump on flyballs and route running have been about league average, but he surprisingly leads all players in DRS. He is tied with catcher Carlos Narvaez for the most across all positions in the league.

But if we’re setting the floor at a good defender, then the Pirates should just promote Billy Cook. Cook is young, much faster (was in the 93rd percentile of sprint speed at 29.3 feet/second, compared to Pham’s 27.6 feet/second sprint speed this season), and just as good, if not a better defender than Pham. While he’s struggling at Triple-A this season, he showed some promise last season. The offensive bar Pham is setting is just a 28 wRC+, which Cook would likely be able to surpass.