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Former GM believes Pirates are not far from contention

Originally posted on WI Sports Heroics | By Tyler Koerth_ | Last updated 8/15/23

The 2023 Pittsburgh Pirates season has been a roller coaster. After a blistering-hot 20-9 start in March/April, they have not posted a winning month since and ended up selling a few rental pieces at the trade deadline.

Despite this, the future remains bright. They have a lot of good up-and-coming prospects, including this year’s first overall selection, Paul Skenes.

With a plethora of young players nearing or currently receiving MLB playing time, the Pirates could again soon be a playoff team. One former baseball general manager, Dan O’Dowd, believes that they are not far from being elite but need to spend some money this winter to address their holes.

Former Colorado Rockies GM believes that the Pirates are not far away from being elite

On MLB Network, O’Dowd provided his thoughts on the Pirates. He believes that they already have a high floor with a tremendous upside.

“This may shock some people, and a caveat to this will be if they spend some money this winter on what their holes are, I love where the Pirates are at right now.

“This team to me is not far from being an elite challenging team. There is a tremendous floor for all these guys and tremendous upside for all these guys. So I think if you’re a Pirates fan, there’s a lot to get excited about in the next couple of years.”

O’Dowd said first base and starting pitcher are two areas the Pirates need to address during the offseason. Coincidentally, they traded both Carlos Santana and Ji Man Choi (first basemen), as well as Rich Hill (starting pitcher) at this year’s trade deadline.

This article first appeared on WI Sports Heroics and was syndicated with permission.

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