Photo by Jay Reed. The 2026 Pittsburgh Pirates were peaking at just the right time. As the calendar flipped from August to September, and the Major League Baseball season reached its final month, the Bucs got hot. After getting swept by the Dodgers in Los Angeles — a hard-fought series in which two of the games were decided by a single run — the Pirates won seven of their next ten series.

Photo by Daniel Lobo. Exactly 51 weeks ago, Pirates team president Travis Williams was cornered by the press deep within the bowels of PNC Park and, with beads of sweat sliding down his forehead, u…

Photo by Daniel Lobo. Exactly 51 weeks ago, Pirates team president Travis Williams was cornered by the press deep within the bowels of PNC Park and, with beads of sweat sliding down his forehead, u…

Photo by Daniel Lobo. Exactly 51 weeks ago, Pirates team president Travis Williams was cornered by the press deep within the bowels of PNC Park and, with beads of sweat sliding down his forehead, uttered those infamous words: "we're looking in 2026 to make the playoffs, period, full stop." Almost a year later, the team Williams runs failed to fulfill his goal.

On Thursday night, the Pirates finished off a sweep of the AL Central-leading Chicago White Sox with a gritty 2-0 victory. Jared Jones pitched seven excellent, scoreless innings, carrying a no-hitt…

On Thursday night, the Pirates finished off a sweep of the AL Central-leading Chicago White Sox with a gritty 2-0 victory. Jared Jones pitched seven excellent, scoreless innings, carrying a no-hitt…

On Thursday night, the Pirates finished off a sweep of the AL Central-leading Chicago White Sox with a gritty 2-0 victory. Jared Jones pitched seven excellent, scoreless innings, carrying a no-hitt…

On Thursday night, the Pirates finished off a sweep of the AL Central-leading Chicago White Sox with a gritty 2-0 victory. Jared Jones pitched seven excellent, scoreless innings, carrying a no-hitter until late in the game. Oneil Cruz continued his late-season tear with one of the longest home runs I can remember popping off his bat. Having spent most of the summer dragging iron gloves around the field, the Bucs also played one of their better defensive games on Thursday, with Jared Triolo making several crucial snags in the hot corner.

One of the ironies of baseball, in its current state, is that the minor leagues have never been smaller and yet the average fan has never been more interested in the minor leagues. Perhaps the numb…

Photo by Christopher Amrich. It should have been an iconic moment. Not quite up there with Bill Mazeroski’s championship-winning home run in 1960, to be clear, or even Russell Martin’s …

Photo by Christopher Amrich. It should have been an iconic moment. Not quite up there with Bill Mazeroski's championship-winning home run in 1960, to be clear, or even Russell Martin's iconic blast in the Wild Card Game more than a half-century later. But it was a moment that should have been spoken of in the same breath as Justin Morneau's throw home in September 2013 at Wrigley Field, or Martin's…

The Pirates needed offense. This was as obvious a statement as saying humans need air, or fish need water. In 2025, the Bucs wasted a Cy Young season from their talented young hurler Paul Skenes, a…

Photo by Johnmaxmena2. Three weeks ago, the Pirates walked off the Diamondbacks in 10 innings to claim sole possession of the final Wild Card spot. Despite their seemingly precarious position on th…

The Pirates needed offense. This was as obvious a statement as saying humans need air, or fish need water. In 2025, the Bucs wasted a Cy Young season from their talented young hurler Paul Skenes, and a very good season overall from the pitching staff, due to the ineptness of the lineup. The massacre of stats outlining the 2025 offense's rancidness need not be recounted — I feel as though I typed it out ad nauseam for most of last winter — but suffice to say that they were one of, if not the worst, offenses in all of baseball.

Photo by Johnmaxmena2. Three weeks ago, the Pirates walked off the Diamondbacks in 10 innings to claim sole possession of the final Wild Card spot. Despite their seemingly precarious position on th…

Photo by Johnmaxmena2. Three weeks ago, the Pirates walked off the Diamondbacks in 10 innings to claim sole possession of the final Wild Card spot. Despite their seemingly precarious position on th…

Photo by Johnmaxmena2. Three weeks ago, the Pirates walked off the Diamondbacks in 10 innings to claim sole possession of the final Wild Card spot. Despite their seemingly precarious position on the precipice of the postseason, the Pirates' playoff odds sat at almost 50%. With their positive run differential, strong offense and seemingly talented rotation, most models saw the Bucs as one of the six best teams in the National League, even if an unreliable bullpen meant they had thus far been unable to pull away from the pack.

Photo By D. Benjamin Miller. Holy smokes. It’s been almost two days since the trade deadline passed and I’m just now catching my breath after the flurry of furious activity leading up t…

Photo By D. Benjamin Miller. Holy smokes. It's been almost two days since the trade deadline passed and I'm just now catching my breath after the flurry of furious activity leading up to 6 pm on Monday. Just about every team in baseball made some sort of move, and after plenty of handwringing from the national press about whether the expanded playoffs had lead to less sellers and prospect-hugging organizations had led to less buyers, there were enough trades on deadline day to keep baseball writers busy through early September.

Photo by luvsd. The Pirates have a very obvious need, and that need is relief pitching. As a team, the Bucs rank 20th in ERA and ninth in FIP (which suggests that defense might be a bit of an issue…

Photo by luvsd. The Pirates have a very obvious need, and that need is relief pitching. As a team, the Bucs rank 20th in ERA and ninth in FIP (which suggests that defense might be a bit of an issue as well), but it's mostly the young, talented rotation that is carrying the staff as a whole. When just looking at relievers, the Pirates rank 24th in ERA at 4.48, and their FIP isn't much better at 4.31, which ranks 19th.

Yes, I could only find a photo from his time in the minors. Photo by Minda Haas Kuhlmann. The days are getting shorter and yet, ironically, they are also getting hotter — which can only mean we are…

Yes, I could only find a photo from his time in the minors. Photo by Minda Haas Kuhlmann. The days are getting shorter and yet, ironically, they are also getting hotter — which can only mean we are…

Yes, I could only find a photo from his time in the minors. Photo by Minda Haas Kuhlmann. The days are getting shorter and yet, ironically, they are also getting hotter — which can only mean we are approaching the end of July and the date that so preoccupies the average baseball fan: the trade deadline. As this midsummer event has approached each year for the past decade, Pirate fans have mostly been concerned with who would be leaving Pittsburgh.