Pirates achieve their largest free agent position in franchise history

A day after the boom-or-bust Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami was officially introduced as a new member of the White Sox on a two-year, $34 million pact, Robert Murray of FanSided reports this that the Pirates have inked a fellow left-handed first baseman Ryan O’Hearn for a two-year, $29 million deal.

This frame unit will eventually lose its White Sox trappings, but they are initially only connected because the South Siders were linked to O’Hearn early in the offseason before developing from a reliable and proven big leaguer to a standout international asset. Murakami has a highly volatile profile with significant bust potential, but a famed home run hitter and two-time NPB MVP choosing a relative MLB backlog is intriguing not only to the beleaguered White Sox ticket sales staff, but also to outlets like this one that observe the league at large. How the talents of a legendary Japanese slugger with apparently lowest contact ability translate to MLB is fascinating, while pondering whether a 32-year-old hit-over-power first baseman like O’Hearn can keep a late-career breakthrough going is more business as usual. Even for the biggest free agent signing in Pirates franchise history, O’Hearn is mostly newsworthy in terms of how well he could fill a role player need in the short term.

Where these two moves align again is that, within the cold lines of a spreadsheet, these could be fairly comparable quality players at first base who received similar deals, despite their difference at 15 spots (12th vs. 27th) in the FanGraphs Top 50 Free Agent Rankings. Steamer has summarized Murakami’s absurd NPB exploits in a 118 wRC+, 2.3 WAR projection, and sees O’Hearn following the past three years of above-average hitting with a 112 wRC+ and 1.1 WAR, with the large WAR difference at least partially explained by playing time. From a more risk-averse perspective, O’Hearn has improved his 2026 predictions in each of his last three seasons, with an overall 121 wRC+ and 6.1 WAR from 2023-25, and is a more reliable bet than the guy with Joey Gallo contact rates who have never played in the MLB before. Pittsburgh’s new first baseman is also just less marketable, and the disparity in the marching band is a reminder that this is an entertainment product.

Because where the White Sox will try to get Japanese baseball fans to watch more Chase MeiiThoth than they ever expected, the excitement for O’Hearn is more that it represents an ongoing streak of the Pittsburgh Pirates — yes, Bob Nutting’s Pittsburgh Pirates — doing things. At least some things.

O’Hearn’s reported deal comes on the heels of Pittsburgh signing the power-hitting second baseman Brandon Lowe and outfielder Jake Mangum in a three-team trade with the Rays and Astros, acquiring them Jhostynxon Garciaa 45+ FV prospect who is Major League ready, in a trade with the Red Sox, and make an unsuccessful bid for Kyle Schwarber in free choice, which probably at least one or two people involved thought it could actually work. At the very least, it showed Pittsburgh’s desire to add a proven bat for themselves. And in place of Schwarber, O’Hearn became the first multi-year free agent the Pirates signed since Ivan Nova’s three-year contract in 2016. With apologies to Lowe, who is coming off a 31-home run season and his second All-Star appearance, the Pirates still haven’t landed a big fish, but they have in the past month traded players who can’t hit for two who can (Lowe and O’Hearn), one who can (Garcia), and one who might be able to hit a bit and some other useful stuff (Mangum).

That’s a good start, but probably still insufficient given the context. Last year alone, the Pirates offense scored the fewest runs in all of baseball. The Rockies had a lower team wRC+, but you’d be surprised how little credibility claiming something is “better than the 2025 Rockies” buys from modern fanbases. Normally, such a lack of goals would in itself be enough of an emergency to merit a major offseason response, but scoring the fewest points in the sport while Paul Skenes double dipping with a Cy Young Award and an ERA title in his first full season in the Majors means that every season from now on is a fight to keep a generational talent from being wasted until the day he leaves. And if Skenes leaves without a slew of playoff appearances for the Pirates on his ledger, not to mention Bubba Chandler or the return of an injury Jared Jonesa player development operation in Pittsburgh that has systematically failed to produce viable bats will take much of the blame. And while O’Hearn isn’t tasked with transforming a franchise’s offensive reputation single-handedly, that’s the best infielder Connor GriffinThis is not a low-stakes job for an over-30 batsman in a rebuilding team, and there are a number of challenges for him to maintain his recent form.

For a first baseman who wanted to leave the league at 28 and make an All-Star team at 31, O’Hearn’s performance at the plate doesn’t look that drastically different. He hasn’t so much activated a dormant elite instrument as he has simply become adept at a lot of small elements. He straightened his position at the board during his time in Baltimore and installed a mechanism to initiate his handload earlier and in a more relaxed manner, significantly improving his inner half-plate coverage. The changes have allowed O’Hearn to quietly become one of the better fastball hitters in the league, as his .395 xwOBA against four-seamers this year was superior to all of his new Pittsburgh teammates aside from Bryan Reynolds.

Despite that inclination, O’Hearn’s breakthrough isn’t rooted in tapping into the 60-degree raw power of his prospect days. His 90th percentile exit velocity of 163.1 mph this year was a tick below the Major League average, and he launched just 17 home runs over his 544 plate appearances (both career highs). Instead, it largely makes its bones by spraying a lot of good – but not great – contact all over the yard. The aging curves after age 32 are not kind to hitters of almost any kind, but if a fatal flaw emerges from O’Hearn’s foundation of solid but unspectacular contact rates and swing decisions, it could be one that inadvertently exposes the incomplete nature of the Pirates position players.

O’Hearn was almost exclusively a platoon hitter through 2025, hitting .278/.358/.474 against lefties in 109 at-bats, but that strong performance is likely a combination of fool’s gold and a .358 BABIP. The influx of spin he sees when pitching with the same side pushes his chase rate into the 30s, and O’Hearn’s historic contact performance against breaking balls suggests a much more unstable route to viable production. He struck out 24.7% of the time against lefties this year, and famously doesn’t have any striking power to counter his increased whiffs. Instead of a platoon partner, the current Pirates roster offers something closer to the other half of a 1B/DH pairing with fellow lefties. Spencer Horwitzwhose final kick (.314/.419/.581 over his last 35 games) made up for his first year in Pittsburgh, but he also has his own defensive limitations. While this author can only offer a novice into Pirates lore and culture, overall it seems that despite the current level of uncertainty, the idea of ​​a franchise legend and noted right-handed swinger Andrew McCutchen’s return to absorb some DH opportunities at age 39 may not be dismissed until a few innings into the season opener.

Outfield work is one way to get O’Hearn plate appearances if such an issue arises, as he has played more than 20 games at corner in each of the last three seasons. But given his speed and arm limitations, it’s more of a safety valve for a late-August breakout game that leaves multiple regulars hurt than a path to hidden value. Fortunately for everyone, O’Hearn is coming off the strongest first base glove season of his career (+4 DRS, +6 OAA), which theoretically should clarify where he might best be deployed. But efficient use of role players is one of the luxuries of having a full roster, and the fact that the Pirates outfield had a collective 84 wRC+ this year doesn’t provide any assurance that they can resist the temptation to keep their newly acquired established bat out there. I’m just going by the names already mentioned here: Lowe has played more than 110 games just once in the last four seasons, García and Mangum have much if not all of it, and Horwitz is coming off a terrible first half, so the prospect of the Pirates relying too much on O’Hearn before Griffin arrives and fixes the offense for good is just over the horizon.

But put O’Hearn at DH or the defensive spot where he’s plus and line him up largely against right-handed pitchers — or just fastball-dependent pitchers of either handedness because his adjustments have allowed him to play against left-handed sinkers on his hands — and there’s a path to a season of two wars here. That’s a play that could round out a strong roster, but it might not be the paradigm-shifting statement of seriousness you might expect given O’Hearn’s suddenly vaunted place in Pirates Free Agent history.