Tommy Pham Makes Bold Statement on Pirates

He sees a roster with an incredible pitching staff, featuring right-handed starting pitchers in All-Star Paul Skenes, veterans in Johan Oviedo and Mitch Keller, plus rookie Mike Burrows, as well as a strong bullpen, with Dennis Santana, Braxton Ashcraft, Isaac Mattson and others.

Pham has had playoff success, making it five times with five different teams, most recently with the Kansas City Royals in 2024 and also with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

His experience with those teams gives him confidence that this team has what it takes to turn things around quickly and start aiming for the playoffs as early as next season.

“I told [general manager] Ben [Cherington] at the deadline my thoughts about this organization and one thing I mentioned was how we have a playoff pitching staff and I mean, people will laugh at me all they want, but this team is really close," Pham said. 'I’ve seen teams go from last to 95 wins. If you look at the Cubs in ‘14 and there’s plenty of examples going for it, but this organization has the pitching to do that.

“You have Skenes, you have Mitch, Ovi’, I’m a big believer in Burrows and the bullpen is kind-of lights out. Santana, Ash’, Matt’, [Chase Shugart], who am I missing?, there you go, [Kyle] Nicolas. There’s a lot to like here.

Still, while the Pirates do possess a strong pitching staff, their hitting has suffered all season long.

They possess both the lowest slugging percentage (.345) and OPS (.648), rank tied for the third lowest batting average (.232) and fifth lowest on-base percentage (.303). They also have the least home runs (88), RBIs (433), third least doubles (181), fourth least hits (984) and the sixth most strikeouts (1,110).

Pham said he and Pirates legend Andrew McCutchen have worked with the younger guys in the batting cages, getting them to hit more effectively, see the ball better, take more pitches and find what they want in an at-bat, which he sees everyone improving, but slowly.

“Offensively, me and Cutch, we’re trying to get guys to buy in to a philosophy here that we think brings success," Pham said. "If you look at what we’ve been doing lately, like how we’re grinding out at-bats. You look at guys like Jared [Triolo], he’s starting to become a tougher out and it’s stuff like that that we need to have guys to buy in offensively, as a group, to get the group to have success because earlier in the year, what we call, non-productive at-bats and it’s starting to change. 

"Guys are starting to wear out the pitcher, become a harder out, essentially and things are starting to change for the better and it’s taking a constant reiteration, every hitter’s needed. Telling the guys to buy into this. Hard hit outs, productive outs, seeing pitches, looking for your pitch essentially, so that we can get guys out by the fifth inning, instead of the sixth, seventh. We’re getting better at it, but it’s taking some time. 

Both Pham and McCutchen both really want their teammates to improve their plate discipline, earning more walks and getting on base more often. McCutchen has 51 walks in 2025, second most on the Pirates and Pham's 34 walks rank tied for fourth most on the team.

Pham sees an improvement at the plate, particularly by drawing walks and making pitchers work longer, as two key components to the top hitting teams in the MLB, which will bring the Pirates closer to postseason success, if they work towards that.

“Absolutely man, it’s tough," Pham said on getting his teammates to buy in. "You know, there’s a reason why me and Cutch have been in the league as long is because we are two of the hitters that have plate discipline and that’s a characteristic that helps, if you look at all the better hitting teams, that’s what they exemplify.”