Oscar Marin’s growing Reds role adds insult to Pirates’ pitching regression

The Pittsburgh Pirates decided last offseason that one of baseball’s better pitching staffs needed a new voice.

Less than a year later, the old voice is getting more responsibility with a division rival while the Pirates are trying to figure out why one of their greatest perceived strengths has taken a significant step backward.

The Pirates parted ways with Oscar Marin after the 2025 season after he had spent six years as their pitching coach. It was hardly a change necessitated by poor results. Pittsburgh finished 2025 with a 3.76 ERA, seventh-best in MLB, after improving its team ERA in four consecutive seasons from 5.08 in 2021 to 4.66, 4.60, 4.15 and eventually 3.76. But the organization believed there was another level to reach.

The Pirates sought input from pitchers while evaluating Marin, and the belief that the talented staff could improve further helped influence the decision. Pittsburgh ultimately replaced him with former Astros pitching coach Bill Murphy, whose communication skills and track record in Houston made him an appealing choice.

Instead, Pittsburgh has gone backward. Through 137 games, Pirates pitchers have a 4.19 ERA and 1.309 WHIP. Their ERA has jumped nearly half a run from last season, while their WHIP has risen from 1.216. The regression is especially glaring because Pittsburgh entered the season expecting its collection of young arms to be the foundation of a playoff push.

There have certainly been factors outside Murphy’s control. Mitch Keller’s season ended because of injury. Jared Jones returned from elbow surgery and has required careful handling. Bubba Chandler has endured some of the inconsistency expected from a young starter, and even Paul Skenes has spent most of the season tinkering with his mechanics and trying to rediscover his best velocity.

Nor has everything Murphy touched gone wrong. Braxton Ashcraft has taken a major step forward, and the bullpen has improved considerably in the second half. But that nuance probably isn't going to make frustrated Pirates fans feel much better about the larger trend, especially when they look toward Cincinnati.

While Bill Murphy is under intense scrutiny in Pittsburgh, former Pirates pitching coach Oscar Marin is thriving with Reds

The Reds hired Marin as their bullpen coach in November, only weeks after Pittsburgh moved on from him. Then, when pitching coach and director of pitching Derek Johnson took an indefinite personal leave of absence in June, Marin’s responsibilities expanded.

That doesn't mean Marin has suddenly transformed Cincinnati into a pitching powerhouse. The Reds themselves have struggled on the mound this season, carrying a 4.58 team ERA after posting a 3.86 mark last year. But that almost misses the point from Pittsburgh’s perspective.

The Pirates didn't fire Marin because their pitching staff was failing. They fired him after producing their best team ERA in years because they believed someone else could extract even more from an extraordinarily talented group.

If you're going to make that kind of aggressive coaching change, the new arrangement eventually has to produce better results. So far, it hasn't. And now Marin is working inside the NL Central, being trusted with increased responsibility while the organization that decided it could upgrade from him watches its own pitching staff regress.

That doesn't prove firing Marin was a mistake, and it doesn't mean Murphy deserves all the blame for Pittsburgh's problems. But when a team replaces the coach overseeing one of its greatest strengths and that strength immediately becomes less reliable, scrutiny is inevitable.

Seeing Marin gain influence with a division rival only makes the comparison harder for the Pirates to ignore.

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