5 players that should be on the Pirates’ major league roster by the end of May

Billy Cook

Billy Cook had a very promising season at Triple-A last season, slashing a combined .273/.373/.485 with a 123 wRC+ in 421 plate appearances for the Baltimore Orioles’ and Pirates’ Triple-A teams. Cook showed off power and speed, swatting 16 home runs with a .212 ISO and swiping 21 bags. That earned Cook a late-season promotion to the major leagues.

Cook definitely showed off his power, going yard three times in 16 games with a 92.6 MPH exit velocity. However, he didn’t draw a walk, struck out 19 times in 49 plate appearances, and had both a poor 39.8% whiff rate and a 36.9% chase rate. But Cook made some great defensive plays, and the numbers under the hood backed up his abilities with his glove; he racked up +6 defensive runs saved and +2 outs above average in less than 100 frames played in the outfield.

Cook isn’t off to the hottest of starts to 2025. He is only slashing .200/.292/.309 through his first 60 plate appearances. He’s struck out a quarter of the time with a whiff rate of 33.9%. On the plus side, Cook is still drawing plenty of walks. He has taken ball four on eight different occasions, resulting in a 13.3% BB%. His batting average on balls in play also suggests some bad luck with a .262 mark, compared to .310 for his career.

But it isn’t the first time Cook didn’t get off to a good start. In 2024, it took 44 plate appearances to get his wRC+ to at least 100. He also had a negative wRC+ in 2023 through the end of April. 2022 was a similar story, with just a 76 wRC+ when April came to a close. This may be a similar case where Cook is off to a typical-for-him sluggish start, but will heat up as the weather also warms up.

Cook needs to take Jack Suwinski’s roster spot. At the very least, the Pirates would be getting a faster runner and better fielder who can also play first base. Offensive capabilities are still TBD, but Suwinski is currently batting a paltry .128/.244/.154 with a 15 wRC+. Even if we set the bar as a poor to below-average wRC+, per FanGraphs’ definition, Cook would still be a massive improvement over Suwinski, as that would fall into the 75-80 wRC+ range. However, that would still be quite valuable, given his plus defense and baserunning.