The Pittsburgh Pirates are a surprising 9-2 in this year’s Spring Training Grapefruit League following yesterday’s 4-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. They are currently on a five-game win streak and have the best record in all of Spring Training. And while it’s ceratinly way early, and the real games haven’t even started yet, the Bucs looks like they’ve made a dent in one of their longstanding problems — scoring runs.
The Pirates have 65 runs scored over their 11 games, or almost 6 per contest, which is good enough for third-best in the Grapefruit League. Their +31 run differential is good enough for the second best in the Grapefruit and in all of Spring Training.
The lack of power in last season’s Bucs lineup was stark, but at the moment in Spring Training, they have 13 team dingers, which is tied for ninth across the Majors, including 3 homers from top prospect Konnor Griffin, 2 from Yordany De Los Santos, and single dingers from Oneil Cruz, Ryan O’Hearn, Endy Rodriguez, and Jhostynxon Garcia, as well as a few from a couple guys unlikely to be playing in the Majors this year.
In addition, the Bucs are hitting .274 across all Spring Training games, a number I’m pretty sure we’re all happy with after a 2025 in which they hit a dreadful .231, which was third-worst in the Majors. Nick Gonzales, along with Cruz and Garcia, are all hitting .538 across 5 and 6 games respectively this Spring to help lead the Bucs in the average department.
When you combine some above-average hitting with one of the league’s best pitching staffs, this is the result. The Bucs are second in all of Spring Training in ERA, third in team WHIP, fifth in strikeouts and second in opposing team batting average. I don’t think any of us are surprised there. But we’ve all been wondering how good the Bucs could be with even some decent hitting, and we’re getting a glimpse of that this Spring.
Yes, it’s super early, and the real games haven’t even started yet, but if the Buccos can translate their Spring Training hitting into similar success in the regular season, they have every chance to be back in the MLB headlines for all of the right reasons.
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