Here is your Pirates' All-Quarter Century team

Here is your Pirates' All-Quarter Century team

December 21st, 2024

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

It’s hard to believe, but the 21st century is nearly one-quarter through. No flying cars yet, food isn’t in pill form, and pills aren’t in food form, either. Swing and a miss for those 20th-century cartoons predicting our future.

What we do have is a quarter-century of Pirates baseball to reflect on. There were highs and lows, but also more than a handful of truly great players. Today, we’ll be taking a look at 12 of the best, an All-Quarter Century team of Pittsburgh baseball in the 2000s.

Catcher:
Martin only spent two seasons in Pittsburgh, but he made one of the largest impacts in elevating the 2013 and ’14 Pirates teams into playoff clubs. He also hit the most iconic home run in PNC Park history, taking Johnny Cueto deep in the ’13 National League Wild Card Game.

Honorable mentions: Jason Kendall, Francisco Cervelli

First base:
Josh Bell was an All-Star and Garrett Jones hit more home runs than Wilson (100 vs. 94), but Wilson’s .486 slugging percentage, .846 OPS and 120 wRC+ are tops at the position since 2000. Not the deepest pool of players here, but Wilson winds up on top.

Honorable mentions: Bell, Jones

Second base:
The Pittsburgh Kid was one of the first core members of the 2013-15 playoff teams to crack the Majors, and he was a model of consistency in his seven years in a Pirates uniform. The ’14 NL Silver Slugger Award winner hit 93 home runs with the Bucs, second all-time among Pirates second basemen to Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski.

Honorable mentions: Freddy Sanchez, Josh Harrison, Adam Frazier

Third base:
There’s a case to be made for several utility infielders and third basemen here. Sanchez won a batting title. Pedro Alvarez won a home run crown. Ke’Bryan Hayes won a Gold Glove. Harrison is the two-time All-Star, though, and he was a catalyst for past decade’s playoff teams. He gets the nod.

Honorable mentions: Sanchez, Alvarez, Hayes

Shortstop:
Wilson is one of the greatest defensive infielders in franchise history, and he picked up a Silver Slugger Award and an All-Star nod in 2004 with a 201-hit campaign. He never won a Gold Glove, a horrible oversight given that he was worth 32 Defensive Runs Saved in ’05 alone.

Honorable mentions: Jordy Mercer, Jung Ho Kang

Left field:
A two-time Gold Glove winner and 2016 All-Star, Marte was the second-best outfielder for most of his Pirates career, but he was still one of the best at his position for years. He and Barry Bonds are the only two in franchise history with 100 home runs and 200 stolen bases.

Honorable mentions: Bryan Reynolds, Jason Bay

Center field:
The easiest pick on this list. McCutchen is an All-Star, an MVP and a true Pittsburgher, and he deserves to be in the conversation for the greatest players in the franchise’s history.

Honorable mentions: Nate McLouth, Reynolds

Right field:
A two-time All-Star and one of the greatest power hitters of the early 2000s, Giles hit at least 35 home runs each season from 1999-2002. His career .591 slugging percentage and 1.018 OPS are the best in franchise history.

Honorable mentions: Jones, Gregory Polanco, Xavier Nady

Designated hitter:
The DH is in both leagues now, so we have an opportunity to give one runner-up a spot in the starting lineup. While there’s a case to be made for Sanchez and Bay, Reynolds has been a model of efficiency since he joined Pittsburgh, being the only switch-hitter in franchise history with four consecutive 20-homer seasons.

Honorable mentions: Bay, Alvarez

Right-handed starter:
Really? Skenes? Not Gerrit Cole or A.J. Burnett, Batman himself? With respect to those two, they never had a season in Black and Gold like Skenes did in 2024. If you get to pick one Pirate from the last 25 years to start a must-win game, how is it not Skenes?

Honorable mentions: Cole, Burnett

Left-handed starter:
Hey, it’s the guy who won that must-win game in 2013. Liriano’s seven-inning gem in the ’13 NL Wild Card Game might have been his peak as a Pirate, but it was far from his only gem, which included striking out 205 in ’15.

Honorable mentions: Paul Maholm, Zach Duke

Closer:
The Pirates traded an All-Star in Joel Hanrahan to acquire Melancon in December 2012, and it worked out wonderfully. Melancon earned three trips to the All-Star Game, won the 2015 Trevor Hoffman Reliever of the Year Award and racked up 130 saves with a 1.80 ERA over four seasons.

Honorable mentions: David Bednar, Tony Watson, Jason Grilli, Hanrahan