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

Last week, general manager Ben Cherington confirmed that Derek Shelton will return as the Pirates’ manager in 2024. On Tuesday, Shelton did some confirming of his own, affirming on 93.7 The Fan that hitting coach Andy Haines will return next season as well.

“I've said this numerous times -- being a hitting coach is really hard,” Shelton told reporters on Tuesday. “Being critical of a hitting coach is really easy. It's a place where a lot of people want to go and when things don't go the way people assume they should go, then they can be critical. I'm telling you that very much so from experience. But I think there's a lot of things that we've done and we've had a lot of young players get better.”

Cherington and Shelton both cited the offense’s statistical improvement when discussing the decision to keep Haines on the staff. Entering Wednesday, the Pirates rank 22nd in on-base percentage, 25th in slugging percentage, 26th in wRC+ and 26th in batting average. That said, Pittsburgh’s offense has been more productive on a rate basis compared to last season. 

Runs Per Game

2022: 3.64

2023: 4.17

Batting Average

2022: .222

2023: .236

On-Base Percentage

2022: .291

2023: .313

Slugging Percentage

2022: .364

2023: .388

wRC+

2022: 82

2023: 89

BB%

2022: 8.1%

2023: 9.3%

K%

2022: 25.3%

2023: 23.5%

“We’re on track to score more runs. We’re getting on base more. Our slug is higher. Our walks have improved. Our strikeouts have come down. In those categories, we’ve shown improvement year-to-year on a team basis,” Cherington said. “There’s also other stuff under the hood that is less visible that we track, that we see improvement on, too, [such as] swing decisions, quality of contact, etc.,” Cherington said. “On a team basis, we’ve made improvement, we think, across the board.”

It’s worth noting that the Pirates’ offense has been operating without Oneil Cruz for just about the entire season. Cruz, by himself, wouldn’t propel Pittsburgh to being one of the league’s best offenses, but the Pirates’ numbers would likely look a tad better with a full season of Cruz in the lineup. 

Some of that improvement is likely due to personnel. Compared to last season, the Pirates acquired Andrew McCutchen, Connor Joe and, for several months, Carlos Santana, as well as promoted Henry Davis, Endy Rodríguez and Liover Peguero, among others. Some of that team-wide improvement, however, has resulted from individual progression. 

Jack Suwinski is posting career-highs in on-base percentage (.332), slugging percentage (.443) and home runs (23). Ke’Bryan Hayes has career-highs in batting average (.267), slugging percentage (.444) and home runs (12). Joe (.697 OPS in ‘22, .761 OPS in ‘23) and McCutchen (.700 OPS in ‘22, .775 OPS in ‘23) have improved compared to last season as well. 

Bryan Reynolds’ numbers have regressed compared to last season (.806 OPS in ‘22, .784 in ‘23), but the All-Star is posting career-bests in Exit Velocity (91.2 mph) and Barrel% (11.1%). Compared to last season, Reynolds has improved his expected batting average, expected slugging percentage and Chase%, among other metrics.

“On an individual basis, we’ve only had a handful of position players who have really been with the team the whole year. Guys like Cutch, Key, Reynolds, Connor Joe and a couple others probably,” Cherington said. “The players who have been with the team for the full season have, in our estimation, either performed pretty close or above expectation who are tracking positively, progressing as the season goes on. So that’s a positive.”

Along with citing statistical improvement, Shelton referenced Haines’ ability to constantly remain positive while Cherington cited Haines’ intangibles. 

“Aside from that, the other things we can look at are how relationships are forming,” Cherington said. “What’s the culture in the cage? What are the things we’re exploring? Andy, like many others on this staff, we believe is constantly looking for ways to get better, constantly pouring into relationships with players, constantly open to new ideas. That’s the criteria we’d be looking for with any coach. You marry all that together, and we just feel like we’re very confident in what he’s doing, as we are with lots of other members of the staff.”