4 notable recent former Pirates who usually struggled in spring training

3. Freddy Sanchez

Freddy Sanchez was a three-time All-Star for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He appeared in parts of 10 seasons for the Bucs, the Boston Red Sox, and San Francisco Giants, turning in a .297/.335/.413 (.748 OPS) triple-slash. He ended his career with a .326 wOBA and 97 wRC+. While he didn’t hit for much power, he hit for a ton of contact, and racked up 213 doubles from 2005 through 2011. Sanchez was regarded as a solid keystone defender, and was especially good at third base, where he had +24 defensive runs for his career.

Sanchez was a near-.300 batter for his career, batting under .290 just twice from 2005 up through 2011. Stll, he hit just .272 in spring training, and the rest of his numbers also fell far from his typical production. Sanchez had just a .690 OPS, .295 wOBA, and 72 wRC+ across 256 plate appearances in camp. Ironically, one of his worst spring training performances also happened before the best season of his career.

In 2006, Sanchez batted .344/.378/.435 with a .365 wOBA and 119 wRC+. Sanchez made his first of three All-Star games, led the league in doubles with 53, and also led the league in batting average. No season comes close to this for Sanchez. But in spring training that year, Sanchez turned in just a .292/.321/.375 slash, a .305 wOBA, and a 72 wRC+. In terms of wRC+, it was his second-worst mark, with 2009 far behind at just 35. Ironically, that dud was also followed by another All-Star campaign by the infielder.

2. Josh Bell

Josh Bell was the Pirates’ first baseman from late 2016 up through 2020. Although he was inconsistent at times, Bell had his moments, and was overall a solid batter with the Pirates. The same can’t be said about his defense, but Bell had some of his best seasons with the Pirates - as well as some of his worst spring training seasons in black and gold.

From 2016 through 2020, Bell slashed .261/.349/.466 with a .343 wOBA and 113 wRC+ across 2,191 plate appearances. While these are some solid hitting numbers in the regular season, the same can’t be said about what Bell did in the preseason. Bell had 235 plate appearances in spring training, slashing just .212/.294/.394. His wOBA was just a tick under .300 at .299, lowering his wRC+ to 79.

When Bell hit 37 home runs and had a .936 OPS in 2019, the first time a Pirates batter had 35+ homers and a .900+ OPS in a season since Jason Bay in 2006, he had one of the worst spring training performances of his career. His 41 wRC+ was the 13th-lowest of any hitter that preseason with at least 50 plate appearances. He also struck out nearly 30% of the time, with a 29.3% K%, and walked at a meager 3.4% rate.