3 times recent Pirates pitchers were better hitters than Tommy Pham

There’ve been a lot of frustrating players on the 2025 Pittsburgh Pirates, but arguably the most frustrating has been one of the Pirates’ few major league signings, Tommy Pham. Pham is batting a poor .170/.248/.213 with a 30 OPS+ throughout his first 105 plate appearances of the season. He has yet to hit a home run this season. His OPS+ is the second-worst of any player this season with at least 100 plate appearances.

Just to drive home the point of how poorly Pham is hitting, here are three examples of Pirates pitchers out-hitting the veteran outfielder’s current level of production. Keep in mind that in 2021, the final season pitchers hit, the league average OPS at the position was only .285.

These three Pirates pitchers had more offensive success than theoretical offensive player Tommy Pham

Steven Brault

Steven Brault is one of the best-hitting pitchers in the Pirates history. Throughout 103 career plate appearances, Brault slashed .258/.275/.337 with an OPS+ of 63. That would represent improvement on not just a few players on the Pirates’ roster right now, but a handful of players in baseball in general. There are currently 31 players in baseball in 2025 with an OPS+ of 63 or lower this year (min. 75 plate appearances).

Brault was excellent in 2019. In 50 plate appearances, Brault collected a dozen hits. He even drew a walk and only struck out eight times. The average strikeout percentage of pitchers in 2019 was over 40%, and Brault sat at 16%. Two of Brault’s hits went for extra bases, including one double and a towering 441-foot home run. He hit so well in 2019 that the Pirates even toyed with the idea of using him as a two-way player. However, that idea seemingly got shut down when the team let go of long-time manager Clint Hurdle. Then, when COVID overtook the world and baseball, MLB implemented their first test of the universal DH, and Brault didn’t even get a chance to hit as a pitcher.

Francisco Liriano

Francisco Liriano was one of the best pitchers during the Pirates’ best years in 2013 through 2015. Liriano could definitely hold his own with the bat. Between 2015 and 2016, Liriano batted .215/.215/.299 with an OPS+ of 38. In total, Liriano had 109 plate appearances, 38 total bases, and hit home runs in back-to-back seasons. 

Keep in mind that the Pirates were the only National League team Liriano suited up for. His first 840.1 MLB innings were with the Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox. The Pirates then traded him to the Toronto Blue Jays in 2016. After the Jays, Liriano also played for the Houston Astros and Detroit Tigers before returning as a reliever in 2019 with the Pirates. He only got two plate appearances in his second stint with Pittsburgh, but reached base both times, collecting both a hit and a walk. 

Gerrit Cole

Pirates fans knew Gerrit Cole was probably going to be a better hitter than your typical pitcher when he got a hit in his first major league plate appearance. Ultimately, Cole went his entire Pirates career batting at least .150 in each season. Considering he was a pitcher, batting at least .150 in five straight seasons was very good. His best season with the Pirates as a hitter was in 2016.

Cole received 43 plate appearances, batting .200/.220/.300 with a 38 OPS+. Although he didn’t draw a walk and struck out 19 times, he hit his second career home run in 2016. He collected 12 total bases in less than 50 plate appearances, just eight fewer than Tommy Pham has in 105 trips to the dish to start this season.