Pittsburgh Pirates: Three Veteran Free Agents That Could Bolster the First Base, Pitching

The Pittsburgh Pirates should consider pursuing these older veteran free agents this off-season

The Pittsburgh Pirates need to be active this year in free agency, and based both on last off-season and what they've hinted at for this upcoming winter, they definitely won't be quiet. We will see the approach they take to acquire players via free agency and trade. While I would rather see them go after players they could sign for more than just one year, there are some older free agents I wouldn't be opposed to them pursuing on one-year deals, assuming they at least acquire some other players on multi-year contracts.

The free agents we will look at today will be going into their age-33 or older season. But they've been productive as recently as this past season. These free agents may be on the older side, but they still have the potential to provide a solid performance during the 2024 campaign.

Donovan Solano

Donovan Solano's late-career renaissance has continued through the 2023 season. After returning to Major League Baseball in 2019, he has been a consistent above-average presence in the San Francisco Giants, Cincinnati Reds, and last season, the Minnesota Twins line-ups. Solano enters free agency again, looking to continue his success.

Last year, Solano batted .282/.369/.391 with a .338 wOBA, and 116 wRC+. Solano walked at a career-best 8.9% rate and paired that with a 22.2% strikeout rate, the latter of which was about league average. Solano has never been a power threat. He has surpassed a half-dozen home runs just once in his career, and his .109 isolated slugging percentage is actually above his career average. But you can't deny Solano's consistency over the last five seasons.

Since returning to the Majors, Solano has batted .296/.355/.413 with a 112 wRC+. He has batted at least .280 with a wRC+ of 100 or better. That means at his very worst, he was still collecting hits at an above-average rate, with an overall league average or better productivity. His worst season since his comeback was 2022, in which he still hit .284/.339/.385 with a 100 wRC+.

Solano can play second base, third base, and first base. Last season, he played first more than any other position but graded out as a poor defender with -2 defensive runs saved and -3 outs above average. However, both OAA and DRS painted him in a positive light the year prior at first base. He provided playable defense at the keystone (+3 DRS, 0 OAA), as well as the hot corner (0 DRS, -1 OAA), so he could sub-in occasionally there as well. Solano has not played a game at shortstop since 2021 and hasn't played more than 20 innings there since 2019, so outside of emergency duty, he'd probably play best at just 1B/2B/3B.

Solano isn't a weak batter who just sprays bloopers over the fielder's heads. He might not be a massive home run hitter, but he drives the gaps with authority. He had a 90.2 MPH exit velocity (68th percentile) and a 43.7% hard-hit rate (65th percentile). Solano had a sweet-spot rate (how often a batter hits a ball in the launch angle between eight and 32 degrees, the most effective range in terms of LA) of 43.1%, which was in the 99th percentile. He hit 26 doubles in just 450 plate appearances, which is 35 in 600 PAs. There was even more potential for power, as Solano had a .413 expected slugging percentage on the season.

Solano is sort of a Luis Arraez-lite, putting a heavy focus on batting average and on-base percentage over slugging. Sure, that might not be a popular approach in 2023, but it gets the job done. Solano has been a league-average or better hitter every season for the past five seasons. In my opinion, he is one of the most underrated free agents currently available. The only thing I'd be worried about is how he will age. He is going into his age-36 campaign, though I'd be willing to bet he could do it again next year.

Wade Miley

Wade Miley only pitched 37 innings in 2022. With 2023 marking his age-36 campaign, it was reasonable to be worried about how he'd perform moving forward. But Miley rebounded in a strong way. He posted the best single-season ERA of his entire career, which started in 2012, and he'll look to continue to be a quality rotation member for whichever team that signs him for 2024.

Miley pitched to a 3.14 ERA and 1.14 WHIP but a poor 4.69 FIP. Miley has never been a strikeout pitcher, but his 16.1% strikeout rate is low, even for him. But he's consistently been good at both keeping the ball on the ground, inducing weak contact, and limiting walks. His 7.8% walk rate is slightly below his career average. The veteran lefty was in the 83rd percentile of exit velocity at 87.3 MPH while also being in the 93rd percentile of hard hit rate at 31.3%. His 47.4% ground ball rate was also well above average, in the 75th percentile.

Now, you wouldn't be unreasonable if you saw the numbers under the hood and were worried about Miley moving forward. He had a 4.85 xFIP, 5.04 SIERA, and 4.36 xERA this past season. But Miley has always been one to overperform expectations. Since 2018, Miley owns a quality 3.43 ERA but a 4.24 FIP, 4.43 xFIP, and 4.75 SIERA. If he were to post an ERA around 3.30 next year, but estimators pinning him at 4.30 or greater, it would be far from being the first time he's ever done that.

2024 will be his age-37 campaign, but aside from 2020, which was the shortened year and Miley was hurt for part of the season and only threw 14.1 innings, he has pitched to an ERA+ of 116 or greater in each of his five previous seasons, meaning at his worst, he was still 16% better than average in terms of ERA. Four of said seasons saw Miley own an ERA+ of 130 or greater. Even if he only signs another low-cost one-year deal, he could easily be worth the money.