The Pirates can put their money where their mouth is by extending these 3 players

According to Pittsburgh Pirates team president Travis Williams, the team apparently has the resources to course-correct after their highly dissapointing 2025 season. Obviously, given how owner Bob Nutting has operated the team, very few, if any, fans will believe his words until it actually happens, and rightfully so.

However, the front office and ownership can silence every single person who doubts them by simply putting their money where their mouth is this offseason. While teams can't negotiate with free agents right now, the Pirates can go and extend their own players during this period of silence. If they are serious about having the resources in place to make the team better, they should show it by giving out these three new contracts.

These 3 star extensions can change Pirates fans' minds

Konnor Griffin

Starting the offseason off by extending the number one prospect in all of baseball, Konnor Griffin, would inject some much-needed life into the Pirates. The Bucs struggled badly with hitting last season, and that's putting it mildly. Extending Griffin off the bat would be the easiest way for the Pirates to add a legitimate hitter, and at a position of need (shortstop) for the long-term.

There is a reason why Griffin is the game's number one prospect, as his first professional season was nothing short of outstanding. Over 563 plate appearances, Griffin batted .333/.415/.527 with a .437 wOBA and 165 wRC+. He walked in 8.9% of his plate appearances, with a strikeout rate of only 21.5%. Griffin's power and speed were on full display this year. He went yard 21 times with an isolated slugging percentage just a few ticks under .200 at .194. He also swiped 65 bags.

Griffin's numbers only got better as he moved up through the minor leagues. He had a 156 wRC+ at A-Ball Bradenton over 231 trips to the plate. He upped that to 170 in 234 PAs at High-A Greensboro. While he only had 98 plate appearances at Double-A Altoona, his production only kept getting better, with a 175 wRC+ mark.  

Griffin did all of that while playing strong defense at shortstop. There's no question about whether he can stick at the position. He has the range and plenty of arm strength to make throws from deep in the hole, as he was also a pitcher in high school. Griffin did see a few games in center field, as he was drafted as a SS/CF, but it seems like he'll spend most of his time in the middle infield when he gets to the Major Leagues. 

A Griffin contract may look something like Wander Franco's extension with the Tampa Bay Rays during the 2021-2022 offseason. Obviously, that contract has gone extremely sour due to Franco's reprehensible off-field actions. The Rays, another team that runs a similar payroll to the Pirates, gave Franco an 11-year, $182 million extension. Franco was only 20 when he signed the contract and appeared in 70 MLB games in 2021. You could also draw comparisons to Bobby Witt Jr. and Jackson Chourio. Both signed long-term deals with mid-to-small budget teams while having yet to fully prove themselves in the Major Leagues. Chourio hadn't even made his MLB debut at the time of signing his extension.

The only real downside to extending Griffin now is that he would be ineligible for prospect promotion incentives, but the Pirates desperately need hitting. If the Brewers, Royals, and even the Rays can afford a contract for an extremely young and highly talented player similar to Griffin, there is no reason the Pirates can't do the same. If the Pirates want an impact bat, extending Griffin is the easiest route they can take.

Paul Skenes

Extending Paul Skenes may completely reinvigorate hope for Pirates fans. No pitcher has ever gotten off to a better start to their career than Skenes has. Skenes set the record for the best ERA+ by any pitcher who made at least 20 starts in their rookie season, coming in at 211. It's hard to fathom anyone could improve from that, but Skenes did just that in 2025.

Skenes tossed 187.2 innings while working to the tune of a 1.97 ERA (217 ERA+), 2.40 FIP, and 0.95 WHIP, and led the league in all four stats this year. He struck out just under 30% of his opponents, with a 29.5% K%, while only handing out a walk 5.7% of the time. Skenes was basically allergic to hard contact and home runs. He held opponents to just an 87.6 MPH exit velocity and 5.8% barrel rate, both of which were above the 85th percentile of pitchers this year. His 0.53 HR/9 was also outstanding, and represented yet another stat he led the league in.

Skenes has set the precedent, so it's not easy to find a comparable player who signed a pre-arbitration extension, especially in recent baseball history. He is the only pitcher in baseball history to have an ERA+ over 200 and at least 10.0 bWAR through their first two MLB seasons. The closest approximation is Clayton Kershaw's first extension with the LA Dodgers - seven years and $215 million, which he signed during the 2013-2014 offseason.

Even then, it is far from a perfect comparison. Kershaw was two more years older than Skenes is now and had already been a Major League pitcher for six seasons. His ERA+ at the time of signing was significantly worse than Skenes', coming in at only 146, nearly 70% worse than Skenes' current career ERA+.

Extending Skenes is the sort of thing the Pirates could do to begin a culture change in the organization. Things right now look bleak in the organization, and in more ways than one, given the lack of resources being dedicated to the team. There is almost no doubt that Skenes has had one of, if not the best, starts to a career any pitcher in Major League history has ever had. Giving Skenes a long-term extension puts other teams on notice and says, "We are here, and we're going to start taking this a lot more seriously."

Oneil Cruz

Oneil Cruz's 2025 season was a major disappointment, especially considering his promising 2024 season. Last year, he hit .259/.324/.449 with a .331 wOBA and 110 wRC+. Cruz had a 20/20 season, with 21 homers and 22 stolen bases. His 30.2% strikeout rate wasn't great, but his 8.5% walk rate was solid. Plus, he looked great in center field after making the transition from shortstop to the new position late into the season. 

Hopes were obviously high for Cruz going into 2025, and he was living up to them to start the year. By the middle of June, he was hitting .225/.345/.445 with 24 stolen bases and 13 home runs over his first 275 plate appearances. He may have seen a slight uptick in Ks with a 32.4% rate, but his walk rate skyrocketed to 14.5%. His isolated slugging percentage also came in at .223. Overall, his wRC+ was 118.

However, his final 269 plate appearances looked a whole lot worse. Cruz only hit .178/.249/.314, slipping to a .247 wOBA and 53 wRC+. Cruz's power completely dissipated, with just seven more home runs and a .136 isolated slugging percentage. Cruz continued to strike out at a high rate of 31.6%, but his walk rate dropped back to 2024 levels, coming in at 8.6%. He still went 13/15 in stolen base attempts, but that's about the only positive to speak of.

It was a bleak second half for Cruz, but not all hope is lost. Cruz's .333 xwOBA and .437 xSLG% were both above-average. He had the 12th-largest gap between his wOBA and xwOBA, and the 17th-largest gap between his SLG% and xSLG%. Cruz's raw power isn't in question, with a 95.7 MPH exit velocity and 17.9% barrel rate. He also cut his chase rate down from 31.7% to 28.1% between 2024 and 2025.

Cruz is definitely a frustrating player, but there's potential for more here. Even with how poorly his year went, Cruz had a 20/30 season. A good year from him with a better approach could make him a true 30/40 threat. The Pirates should capitalize while his value is down. Locking him down now on a cheaper deal would be a relatively low-risk, extremely high-reward deal for the Pirates.