Mets series might've saved Pittsburgh Pirates' lineup from historically terrible pace

If you’ve been following along with anything regarding the Pittsburgh Pirates this season, then you know how much of a mess the offense has been. Entering Saturday's action, they were hitting a meager .230/.303/.340 as a team. They’d scored just 276 runs with 56 home runs. All told, they'd posted a .287 wOBA with a 79 wRC+, ranking 25th in batting average, 24th in on-base percentage, last in slugging percentage, next to last in runs scored, wOBA, and wRC+, and had posted the game's fewest home runs.

Before putting a shocking hurting on the Mets and running away with a three-game series win with a 26-run margin of victory, the Pirates were putting together one of the worst offenses their franchise had ever seen. Will the weekend be a turning point? It had better be, if they want to avoid absolute infamy.

The 79 wRC+ they sported entering the weekend would rank as the fifth-lowest in team history and the lowest since 1998. Every other Pirates team with a sub-80 wRC+ was in the 1950s (not including any strike/COVID-shortened seasons). Their team slugging percentage was only slightly better than at the end of the Deadball Era in 1920, when they had a .330 SLG%. Before the Mets' arrival, the Pirates were only averaging 3.3 runs per game. Another depressing Deadball Era fact is that the Pirates of that time (1900-1920) averaged 4.2 runs per game. In the Year of the Pitcher, the season prior to MLB lowering the mound, the Pirates had a .650 OPS and averaged 3.6 runs per game.

The worst part about all of this? The rest of the team isn’t bad. The Pirates currently have the eighth-most fielding runs in baseball at 17. They are top ten in both defensive runs saved at +21 and outs above average at +13. Their pitchers have a +10.5 bWAR this season, which is eighth-most in baseball and the fourth-best in the NL. They have a 112 ERA+ as a collective unit. That is the 11th-best in MLB and the sixth-best in the NL. There is currently only one sub-replacement level pitcher in their active roster right now, and that’s Carmen Mlodzinski, who struggled as a starting pitcher earlier this season. He captured the win on Sunday.

The Pirates' offense compares unfavorably to the Deadball Era.

The offense is only trending in the wrong direction as well. The Pirates averaged 4.27 runs per game in 2023. Although the league average has fallen from 4.62 to 4.36, all five Pirates players with at least 400 plate appearances had an OPS+ over 100. That was without a healthy Oneil Cruz. Over half of the Pirates’ lineup just two years ago was better than average, and now, just one player is better than average.

The Pirates’ offense is so bad they are on pace to be just the second team since Integration in 1947 to have a pitching staff with an ERA+ of at least 110 or better and a sub-.400 winning percentage. The only other team to do it was the 1998 Tampa Bay Rays. They are also on pace to be one of just 34 teams in total to have an ERA+ of 110 or better with a sub-.500 record (again, since Integration). 

The Pirates have shown that good pitching and good fielding can makeup for overall unimpressive offense. When the Pittsburgh Pirates won 94 games in 2013, their pitching staff had a 109 ERA+, +20 fielding runs, and +45 defensive runs saved (the 2025 Pirates are on pace for about 33 fielding runs and 42 DRS). Their team wRC+ was only 99. The following year, they had a 103 ERA+ from their pitchers, +37 DRS, and nine fielding runs. Their team wRC+ was 108. They won 88 games. However, the difference between the 2013 Pirates' 99 wRC+ and the 2025 Pirates' 79 wRC+ is the same difference between league average (100) and the production of Pirates' legend and one of the newest members of Cooperstown, Dave Parker (120 wRC+).

The Pirates are scoring fewer runs on average this year than they did in two of the most pitcher-friendly eras in baseball history, a time when the pitcher’s mound was higher than it is today and a time when even the strongest players struggled to hit the ball out of the park. Their bats are heading in the wrong direction this year, and it’s wasting what has ultimately been a strong pitching staff and defensive group of players. Imagine how bleak things would've felt without the oasis of the weekend?