Three players who could improve the Pittsburgh Pirates’ offense right now

The Pittsburgh Pirates offense so far this year has been disappointing, to say the least. Despite the pitching staff giving the Bucs plenty of chances to win, the team is below .500 at the time of writing this. Of their 21 losses, 14 have been within three runs. While expecting a win in every close game is unreasonable, even coming away with the W in just five or six of these contests would put a much different spin on the season so far.

Obviously, it’s still early, and giving up now wouldn’t be smart. If the Pirates’ offense played even at an average level, they probably would have come away with the W in five or six of the close losses. The hitting hasn’t been great, but here are some players that the Pirates could call upon that may be able to give the line-up a much-needed boost.

Ji Hwan Bae

Ji Hwan Bae was a semi-regular for the Pirates in 2023. He collected 371 plate appearances, but batted just .231/.296/.311 with a .272 wOBA, and 66 wRC+. Bae had an isolated slugging below .100 at .081, and while his 8.1 percent walk rate and 24.8 percent strikeout rate weren’t awful, it limited just how effective his 97th-percentile speed could have been.

Bae had an opportunity to secure an Opening Day roster spot, but an injury part way through Spring meant he would open the year on the injured list. He has since returned to action and has done everything he can possibly do to earn another look in the Majors. He only has 71 plate appearances, but 21 hits, two of which are home runs. While he has struck out 21 times, he’s also drawn 14 walks. 

Bae is hitting the ball really hard right now. He has a 94 MPH exit velocity, which would be a massive step forward from just 88.1 MPH last year. If Bae were to hit the ball that hard in the Majors, he would rank top 15 in average exit velocity. Now granted, it is a small sample size. I wouldn’t expect Bae to post an exit velocity higher than that of Yordan Alvarez or Adolis Garcia.

But if Bae can at least improve to the point where he has an 89-90 MPH exit velo in the Major Leagues, he may see an improvement. His launch angle clocks in at 7.4 degrees, which would also be a massive step forward, as he had just a 1.1-degree launch angle last year.

Bae has done great so far at Triple-A to open the year. Even though I don’t expect him to be in the 90th percentile or higher in exit velocity, a little added raw power and lifting the ball just a tad more could do wonders for Bae. Spraying line drives is probably what he’s best built for. Batting .270 with an average walk rate would put his speed to extremely good use.

Billy McKinney

I know a lot of people want Jake Lamb up to take Rowdy Tellez’s role as the lefty first baseman. While I wouldn’t be opposed to Lamb being the next guy up, I think Billy McKinney would be a better fit. While he’s not producing as well as Lamb at Triple-A, McKinney has more recent success in the Major Leagues and showed some promise last year for the New York Yankees.

McKinney batted .227/.329/.406 with a .315 wOBA and 101 wRC+ in 147 plate appearances. While he struck out in just over a quarter of his plate appearances with a 26.5 percent K%, he also drew a ton of walks with an 11.6 percent BB%. McKinney also provided above-average pop, going yard a half dozen times and having a .189 isolated slugging with the Bronx Bombers.

But here are some other things that were promising about his season. McKinney posted both an above-average 89.1 MPH exit velocity and a 41.1 percent hard-hit rate. But his 12.1 percent barrel rate was the best of his career by far. He had a very similar exit velo and barrel rate as Chicago Cubs’ All-Star shortstop Dansby Swanson.

That’s not the only promising aspect of McKinney’s 2023 season. He also had a .346 xwOBA and .471 xSLG. Both are well above average marks. These aren’t the only stats with a predictive factor that put McKinney in a positive light. Baseball Prospectus’ DRC+ put him at 104. McKinney also made better swing decisions. His 66.5 percent zone swing rate was slightly better than his career average. But his 21.3 percent chase rate in ‘23 was the second-best of his career.

McKinney certainly wasn’t a bad hitter last year. He had a .726 OPS, .315 wOBA, and 101 wRC+, making him about a league-average batter. On top of that, the numbers under the hood were extremely promising. While McKinney only has a 97 wRC+ at Triple-A right now, I definitely think, given how his numbers from 2023 look, he’d be a better option than Jake Lamb.