Ryan O’Hearn believes Pirates can follow 2023 Orioles’ surprise blueprint

When speaking to the media, a veteran like Ryan O’Hearn doesn’t toss out “I’m getting ’23 Oriole vibes” unless he genuinely feels something building. That’s a guy recognizing a very specific cocktail: young talent that’s finally ready, pitching that can suffocate games, and the kind of quiet confidence that usually shows up a year before everyone else notices. 

And honestly? This is the kind of comment worth sitting with.

Because the 2023 Orioles weren’t just a feel-good story. They won 101 games, took the AL East, and snapped a long, dreadful stretch with a core led by Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman. 

That’s the part Pittsburgh is flirting with in 2026: arrival.

Ryan O’Hearn just named the Pirates’ most believable path to a real leap

The easiest way to roll your eyes at the Orioles comp is to point at the 101 wins and say, “Yeah, okay, call me when the Pirates do that.”

But O’Hearn isn’t saying Pittsburgh is guaranteed to win 100 games. He’s talking about the shape.

If Paul Skenes is anywhere close to what he looked like when he captured the 2025 NL Cy Young, the Pirates don’t need perfection behind him — they just need competence and innings.  And the interesting part is that the group behind him isn’t empty calories..

Pittsburgh didn’t just run it back and hope the vibes improved. They went shopping with intent: Marcell Ozuna on a one-year deal (with a mutual option structure reported), plus Brandon Lowe in a trade, plus O’Hearn himself as an impact bat. 

That matters, because the Orioles’ leap wasn’t built on one superstar dragging them uphill. It was depth, pressure, and a lineup that kept handing you bad innings. Pittsburgh’s version of that doesn’t have to be identical — it just has to stop being fragile. Adding grown-up at-bats to live next to Bryan Reynolds and Oneil Cruz is how you stop losing three games in a row every time the bottom third forgets how to reach base.

The sneaky part about the 2023 Orioles was that the breakout didn’t feel like a miracle inside the building. It felt inevitable — a young roster that stopped playing like prospects and started playing like a team that expected to win. That’s what O’Hearn is sniffing out.

Now for the cold water (because Pirates baseball always comes with a side of it):

The 2023 Orioles had a uniquely relentless regular-season machine — and even they learned the hard way that October doesn’t care about good feelings. They got swept by Texas. So if Pittsburgh wants the good part of that blueprint, the goal can’t be “be the adorable team everyone roots for.” The goal has to be: be good enough early that expectations become normal.

That’s the difference between a fun story and being a legitimate threat. And it’s also why the O’Hearn quote shouldn’t be treated as a prediction — it’s a signal that the room believes it can take the next step.