3 spring training Pittsburgh Pirates Statcast standouts ahead of Opening Day

2. Joey Bart

The Pirates picked up Joey Bart in a trade from the San Francisco Giants last April. Despite being the second overall pick in 2018 by the San Francisco Giants, Bart struggled mightily. Thankfully, he looked like a new batter in 2024, as he slashed .265/.337/.462, with a .347 wOBA and 121 wRC+. He went yard a dozen times in 282 plate appearances with a .198 isolated slugging percentage. His 7.8% walk rate was slightly below average, as was his 25.9% K%.

Bart entered 2025 spring training with the inside track on the starting catching job, and his spring training performance only cemented that fact. In his first 42 plate appearances, Bart notched 14 hits. Three of those 14 hits were home runs, and two more have gone for two bases. He has only struck out 19.1% of the time with a 14.3% walk rate. Keep in mind that this is only in a small sample size, however.

Bart’s Statcast numbers only make his spring training numbers look even better. His 91.4 MPH exit velocity is the third-best on the team, among players with at least 30 plate appearances. Not only is he making hard contact, but he also has an outstanding 14.7% barrel percentage. Bart is not swinging and missing often, either, with a 19.4% whiff rate.

Bart has always been a strong spring training performer, but it only took until 2024 for him to look productive at the plate in the regular season, and even then, it was only in about a half-season’s worth of games. Still, there are genuine improvements on display below the hood here. Bart’s whiff rate in spring training while with the SF Giants (not including 2020) was 32%, so to cut it down by so much is promising, even if these are only spring training stats.