Football Made Pirates' Jake Mangum Better Baseball Player

His attitude is one that might get on opponent's nerves, but one that his teammates love and endears him to his fans.

It's one that's constantly coming at you, trying to gain any advantage and give his team a chance to win.

Mangum sees that attitude come from his football side of the family, but used the thinking of a football player in his work of becoming a better baseball player.

"I've been called a pest a few times, and I don't know how to take that," Mangum said. "I get it, though. The football family I would say is where it comes from. Dad, uncle and grandfather playing in the NFL, I was kind of raised with a football mindset. I love football, absolutely loved it, but I learned at a young age, I always knew baseball was the sport I was going to pursue. I'd say the football mindset. What I'm also learning is my dad didn't blitz every play at cornerback. He dropped it into man coverage and zone coverage sometimes. There are times where you have to be smart about it."

Working With Father on Most Hated Part of Baseball

Mangum had a solid season as a 29-year old rookie in 2025, slashing .296/.330/.366 for an OPS of .698, with 120 hits in 118 games, plus 27 stolen bases on 33 attempts.

He features as a great contact bat for the Pirates, who were one of the worst hitting teams in baseball last season. He'll also bring great speed and versatility in the outfield, with his ability for playing all three spots.

The one thing that Mangum despises as a baseball player is striking out, which he only did 64 times as a rookie.

Mangum loves helping his team anyway he can, so striking out is the one thing that is adversarial to that.

He worked with his father throughout high school on understanding zones that umpires would call and how to gain an advantage at the plate, preventing a high strikeout rate.

"I've just never liked striking out," Mangum said. "I hate it. There is nothing more that I hate doing than striking out. If there's two strikes and I can just touch it, you have an opportunity to get on first base, and I can steal second base and the guy behind me drives me in. Or if you reach on a fielding error, you reach first base and get to second on a passed ball. There's just different ways to help the team win. I know striking out is not one of them. For whatever reason, I was just never ok with it.

"In high school, the umpires would call six inches off the plate, three inches inside. I remember me and my dad would talk when I was a freshman in high school, trying to figure out how to be a good high school baseball player. I remember we practiced covering six inches off the plate, three inches in, because I didn't want to get rung up on a pitch that was six inches off. You can argue it's a ball, but at that level, it's like, 'hey, he's calling it a strike, so you better figure out how to touch it. And then in college you realize it's still a pretty big zone. And then in the big leagues, there can still be some calls that don't go your way, but the zones are better."

How That Benefitted Mangum in 2025

Mangum's work with his father embedded a "football mindset" in him early on, which played an important role last season.

His penchant for getting on base and not striking out helped him early on, especially in his first full MLB series against none other than the Pittsburgh Pirates at George M. Steinbrenner Field, March 31-April 2.

Mangum had four hits and two RBI in the 6-1 series opener win on March 31 and then three hits with two more RBI in the 7-0 victory on April 1, securing a series victory for the Rays.

That drive from Mangum of getting on base played a big role in that series vs. the Pirates, but also showed his understanding that he had to produce or it was back down to the minors.

Mangum is looking to improve on his power heading into 2026 and get more productive hits than he did last season.

"It's a mixture of playing with a football mindset and just at an early age, I didn't like striking out," Mangum said. "Still don't. Still gonna strike out because it's baseball, but try to help the team win by creating contact, creating havoc on the bases, and this offseason, I'm working on driving the baseball.

"Last year, as a 29-year-old rookie, I came up and I knew I had to perform immediately or I was going to go back down. Being a non-prospect older rookie, I needed to get going immediately. I thought the biggest strength of mine was contact and running fast, so I did that to the best of my ability.

"Now that I have a year of experience under my belt this offseason, we're grinding to try to get into some more hitter's counts, getting to some counts where I can drive pitches. Hammering those pitches that you have an idea are coming. That's what we're working on this offseason. Strengthening what I do well and expand on what I need to work on."