Pirates' offensive upgrade expected to stall with unsurprising trade market reality

If you were wondering when the music would stop on the Pittsburgh Pirates’ offseason offensive makeover, it appears that the DJ has already unplugged the speakers.

Pittsburgh set out this winter with a clear plan: add one or two everyday bats and a couple depth pieces so the lineup would stop looking like a nightly hostage situation. On paper, they’ve actually done a decent chunk of that. Brandon Lowe? Legit everyday player when healthy. Ryan O’Hearn? Professional hitter. Jake Mangum and Jhostynxon Garcia? Depth guys with upside and tools.

So far, so good. Except… that’s probably it.

It's January, and the Pirates have hit the brick wall everyone could see coming from three neighborhoods away: the trade market doesn’t really work for small-market teams trying to buy offense with prospects right now.

According to Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic (subscription required), teams across baseball are actually trying — emphasis on trying — to win. Which means they don’t want your interesting Double-A breakout arm. They want major-league players. They want certainty. They want payroll help without giving it back. And the Pirates? Well, they don’t want to move players off the big-league roster.

So, you have a standoff. Other teams want big-leaguers, while the Pirates want to trade prospects. And the free-agent market has already been strip-mined of the clean fits that are within Pittsburgh's price range. Which brings us to the inevitable standstill.

There was always the risk of threading the needle here. Ben Cherington came into the offseason trying to do two things at once: keep the young core intact, and upgrade just enough that Paul Skenes doesn't waste his prime throwing eight shutout innings in a 2-1 loss every fifth day.

But when you refuse to meaningfully participate in the top tier of free agency, your only route to game-changing offense is trades. And trades require one of two things: prospects other teams actually want enough to subtract from their own roster, and a willingness to take on significant money.

The Pirates — historically — are allergic to option No. 2 And clearly they don’t want to cash in too many chips from No. 1. So now, they sit in the middle lane with their blinker on while everyone else merges around them.

Pirates' offseason transaction standstill isn't panic, just a reality check

Lowe and O’Hearn do make the lineup better. Let’s not pretend otherwise. But this team also finished last in home runs, last in slugging, last in ISO. That’s not “one bat away” bad. That’s “the lights are flickering and the power grid might be melting” bad.

And now the reporting basically confirms what many fans already believed –– that the heavy lifting may already be over.

If the Pirates don’t want to trade real MLB pieces, if they can’t sign top-end free agents, and if other teams won’t take prospects alone... then what's left? Lottery tickets. Marginal upgrades. Hoping the guys already here just get better.

And yes — Oneil Cruz playing a full season helps. Bryan Reynolds hitting like Bryan Reynolds helps. Henry Davis not chasing sliders to the Ohio River helps. But relying on natural internal growth while Skenes is already an ace feels like loading the cannon with confetti.

To be clear, Rosenthal and Sammon didn’t say the Pirates are done. They simply said that the path forward is hard. And “hard” in Pittsburgh baseball language usually translates to: we tried, the market didn't line up, we believe in guys in the room, internal growth matters, and we'll continue to monitor opportunities. You've heard that press conference before.

So yes — the Pirates' offense is improved. But if the upgrade stalls where it stands today, the Pirates will enter 2026 hoping that “better” somehow becomes “good enough.” And hope, as Pirates fans know all too well, is the only currency in baseball that never seems to appreciate.