Ryan O’Hearn isn’t sugarcoating the fact that the Pirates missed their big goal this season. But he also isn’t buying the idea that this group is broken.
After O’Hearn’s RBI single helped Pittsburgh grab a 1-0 lead in the sixth inning of a 2-0 shutout over the St. Louis Cardinals at PNC Park on Sept. 22, the Pirates stretched their winning streak to five straight, matching their longest run of the season. The victory pushed them to 80-77 with five games remaining, even though their postseason chase had already ended.
That’s where O’Hearn’s focus has shifted now: not on what the Pirates didn’t do, but on what they might become. Pittsburgh signed him last offseason to a two-year, $29 million contract that keeps him in black and gold through 2027, and the deal mattered for more than just his bat. It was the Pirates’ first multi-year free-agent signing since 2016, a clear sign of a front office willing to make a longer-term commitment.
O’Hearn came here to play in October, so missing the playoffs is a disappointment. Still, he sees a team with something real to build on, especially with injuries having ripped apart the roster for much of the year.
"Of course. But it's shoulda, coulda, woulda," O'Hearn said.
"It's a hypothetical place to be. Obviously, you wish that you stay completely healthy all year long, and that's not the case."
"But I will say this: this definitely feels like a group to build off of. I'm not the GM; I don't make those decisions in the offseason, but it definitely feels like a group that's building together moving forward.
Doesn't feel like the end. I've been on teams where it kind of felt like the end of an era-type thing, but this definitely feels like a team that you want to build forward with."
When healthy, Pittsburgh’s lineup has shown real punch. Before the All-Star break, it was one of the best offenses in baseball, and O’Hearn has been in the middle of a group that includes Bryan Reynolds, Oneil Cruz and Esmerlyn Valdez in the outfield, plus Konnor Griffin at shortstop, Brandon Lowe at second, Spencer Horwitz at first and Nick Gonzales at third.
The problem was keeping that group together. O’Hearn, Cruz, Griffin, Horwitz and catcher Endy Rodríguez all missed significant time because of injuries, and the Pirates rarely had their full attack on the field for any extended stretch.
The season slipped away in August, when Pittsburgh fell out of the National League Wild Card race and then was officially eliminated from postseason contention last weekend. But O’Hearn said the way the team has responded since then says plenty about the people in the room.
The Pirates are 13-6 this month, and O’Hearn pointed to the effort he’s seen every night, along with the tone set by manager Don Kelly.
"Guys are playing hard, no doubt about it," O'Hearn said. It would be easy for guys to be like, ‘Well, we didn't make it,’ and kind of pack it in and just go through the motions, but that's not the nature of this group.
"I think Donnie's done a great job of kind of instilling that in guys, just the competitiveness. It's just who we are: we compete. Obviously sucks that we won't be playing in October, but we definitely want to finish on a strong note.
That edge, O’Hearn said, has been a constant even through the rough patches. Kelly reinforced a 1-0 mentality after a poor loss to the Miami Marlins at loanDepot Park on Aug. 12, when he felt the team wasn’t competing the way it had been. That defeat came during a brutal stretch in which the Pirates lost seven straight series and went 7-16 from late July to mid-August, a run that buried their playoff hopes.
O’Hearn was sidelined by a left quad injury during that skid, but he still saw a group that kept showing up and fighting through it. That, he believes, is something the Pirates can carry into next season if the rough stretches hit again.
'Yeah, any loss has definitely not been for a lack of will or want to," O'Hearn said. "There's been none of that on this team all year, which I'm proud to be a part of that group. It's a group of guys that likes to compete and we want to win."
"There's been some games that I can think of, times where it would be easy to pack it in - not necessarily pack it in, but not have that same motivation. But it's just not the nature of the guys in here.
So pretty cool. Something to definitely hang our hat on moving forward.
Maybe that's our identity."
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The setup gives the Pirates a real chance to claim the series, but it also leaves little margin for error. With the rotation thinned out, the early innings become especially important, and the club will be counting on the bullpen to hold the line long enough to keep the matchup from slipping away in a series that still hangs in the balance. [Read more 🡒]