4 New Year's resolutions for the Bucs

This story was excerpted from the Pirates Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Happy New Year, Pirates fans. The flipping of the calendar provides a chance for a fresh start, as does the offseason as a whole. Many of the Bucs' players are working right now to make the new year one filled with joy for folks in Pittsburgh.

The Pirates will not have an easy road to contention or even improvement in the standings in 2024. The last-place Cardinals have acquired veteran pitching, including Sonny Gray, and the Reds have reworked their roster, most recently signing Frankie Montas, who has been an All-Star before injuries set him back recently.

Pittsburgh has made its own additions, especially on the pitching side. But from the outside looking in on the playoff picture, it needs to reach some goals to accomplish what the early projection models say is unlikely: reaching the postseason for the first time in six seasons.

These are my New Year’s resolutions for the Pirates in 2024.

1. Get more pop from the backstops

Catcher is a position that needs great defense, arguably more than any other. A catcher can hit .300, but if he allows passed balls and can't frame strikes, he's costing the team at least as many runs as he's driving in.

But a little offense won't hurt right? The Pirates only got a little offense from the position last season between Austin Hedges, Jason Delay and Endy Rodríguez. In fact, they were one of three teams with a catcher OPS lower than .600, beating out only the White Sox (.566) and the Marlins (.570) with their .589 catcher OPS.

If Henry Davis can win the catching competition this spring and realize his potential with the glove, it could be a huge boost to the offense. Yes, he hit only .213 with a .653 OPS in 62 games last season, but those were his first 62 games in MLB and he missed nearly a month with a right hand strain between August and September. A string of good health leading to a run of starting work could lead the bat-first prospect that was drafted No. 1 overall in 2021 to provide power from an often lacking position.

2. Settle in at second base

The left half of the Pirates' infield is set. When Ke'Bryan Hayes and Oneil Cruz are healthy, they're going to get 90% or more of the reps at third base and shortstop, respectively. The right side is less settled. We know that in 2024, Rowdy Tellez will be given the opportunity at first. But what about second base?

There are a handful of burgeoning middle infielders who could earn that spot, including Liover Peguero, Nick Gonzales and Ji Hwan Bae. Of this group I would bet that Peguero is the favorite right now, but don't forget that Gonzales has only played 35 MLB games. It's hard to believe his average hovered around .200 in that span given how strong his hit tool has been throughout his career, but that's not uncommon for a new player to endure in his first month. And Bae's speed will earn him playing time whether at second or shortstop, but will his offense rise to the level of starting work at any point this spring or next season?

However, I'm leaving out one person who is not a middle infielder, or at least wasn't before he was called up: Jared Triolo. Triolo is a strong enough defender at his natural third-base position that he'd be starting there if it weren't for a Gold Glover blocking his path. But he was solid at second base as a rookie and seemed to welcome the challenge of trying new positions, including first base. He also had the best offense of anyone mentioned in this section. Triolo could be a valuable utility player, but don't count him out as a potential second-base lock.

3. Clarity on Keller

The Pirates have given out a pair of long-term extensions to Hayes and Bryan Reynolds in recent seasons, which has provided some sense of stability to the roster. How about the rotation? The next most interesting extension candidate in my mind is Mitch Keller, who was an All-Star in 2023 and threw a career-best 194 1/3 innings.

It's no simple matter for GM Ben Cherington to consider. Keller's career began with a 6.02 ERA over his first three seasons. He averaged fewer than five innings a start and had a 1.732 WHIP. And even in his career year last season, when he had a personal best 2.9 bWAR, he had a 5.59 ERA after the All-Star break across 13 starts.

It's been an upward trajectory for the former second-round Draft pick, but are the Pirates comfortable with where he's at to consider a long-term extension? Keller is a free agent after the 2025 season, so this year will be critical to answering that question.

4. Make the postseason

Let’s be honest: This is the resolution we all have for the Pirates, and it would be dumb not to have on a list of 2024 goals. The Bucs jumped from 61 wins in 2021 and 62 wins in ‘22 all the way to 76 wins in ‘23. That still left them 10 games below .500, but a 14-win jump is great progress.

The next step will be even tougher. Going from 76 wins to the 84 wins that Arizona accumulated to earn the last NL Wild Card spot might not sound like a lot, but it often means beating the teams that might have outspent you, have more experience or be playoff tested already. We saw the Pirates show they can put up the fight in the first month of last season, and we saw them annoy the life out of the Reds and Cubs in the final month.

Getting to that brand of baseball and shaking off the prolonged midseason woes will get the Pirates to where they believe they can be and the fans are clamoring for them to be.