FanGraphs projections show Pirates are still falling woefully short of offseason needs

In recent years, the Pirates have not hit many home runs, which has prevented them from scoring runs consistently. Power hitters felt like the archetype of choice to target this offseason, and yet ... their only new face on offense is Spencer Horwitz.

He would have ranked very well amongst the Pirates' offensive leaders in 2024, making him a productive addition, but he does not make a significant enough difference in terms of power to get Pittsburgh's projections to where they need to be.

As a team in 2024, the Pirates were 25th in the league in home runs with 160. That meant they couldn't even drag their homer totals to one per game. It initially seemed like the Pirates were targeting power last offseason with the signings of Michael A. Taylor (19 blasts in 2023) and Rowdy Tellez (35 in 2022). Jack Suwinski was projected to have a big year, too, after hitting 26 in 2023, but fell apart.

Those players, specifically, did not work out, which led to more losing. Without those projections, though, their roster has even less power in 2025 than prior to last season, which says a lot about how they have missed out on improving some areas of need.

FanGraphs projects the Pirates to finish 2025 ranked 29th in the league in home runs. With the type of pitching staff that the Pirates have, having an offense ranking second to last in home runs is not going to get them back to the postseason. There's no excuse for not trying to boost that total.

Pirates' poor FanGraphs 2025 projection in home runs shows how far they are from filling their offseason needs.

It was a stated a priority for the Pirates to add offense this offseason, but they have not exactly done that much. At minimum, adding a right fielder would cross off a major need on the offseason wishlist. They have been linked to Alex Verdugo and Randal Grichuk this offseason, but nothing more than interest has been reported.

Time will tell how the Pirates will fill this area of need for the team, but there is no debate that the search has gone on longer than it's needed to. Home runs have been low in Pittsburgh for a while, and with the way this pitching staff is developing, they desperately need to find ways to score runs. They are on the brink of being a playoff team, but their offense is holding them back. This offseason was crucial to solving that and, thus far, they have not accomplished what they set out to. Luckily, there is still time on the clock.