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

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.