The Pittsburgh Pirates have the unenviable task of following being swept by the team with the best record in baseball by playing host to the team with MLB’s second-best record.
If there is good news for the Pirates (34-32) after the three-game sweep at Atlanta, it’s that they will have the top three starters in their rotation ready to face the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers this week at PNC Park.
The bad news?
Second baseman Brandon Lowe fouled a pitch off his right knee and center fielder Oneil Cruz injured his hand while sliding into home plate on Saturday. Both made cameos on Sunday — Lowe with a ninth-inning double, Cruz as his pinch runner who advanced to third — but are considered day to day, especially when it comes to playing in the field.
Worse yet, shortstop Konnor Griffin will be out longer than expected, as the Pirates are being cautious with the rookie as he recovers from a flexor mass muscle strain in his right elbow/forearm.
That the Pirates blew leads in three of four losses on their six-game road trip is a greater concern. It’s not just the bullpen, either. There wasn’t a quality start from the rotation, as not one pitcher completed six innings. And their bats repeatedly went silent at the wrong times.
Pirates general manager Ben Cherington addressed some of the issues — and the domino effect they’ve had on the lineup and roster moves — in a guest appearance Sunday on franchise radio flagship 93.7 The Fan.
1. No timeline: Griffin’s elbow injury didn’t appear serious at first, given that the Pirates used him as designated hitter for two games before placing him on the IL. He’s eligible to be activated Wednesday but Cherington said there’s been “some adjustment to timelines, erring a little bit more conservative.”
Cherington then let out a nervous laugh.
“That means I don’t have a timeline,” he said.
While in Houston, the Pirates had Griffin visit orthopedic surgeon Dr. Keith Meister — who performed the InternalBrace procedure on Jared Jones’ UCL — to get a second opinion.
Griffin is able to field grounders, take batting practice and run. What he’s not cleared to do is throw. Cherington said he’s “almost asymptomatic” but the Pirates will wait until he’s fully cleared to have Griffin throwing. Even then, it will start with progressions of exercises, from stretching and throwing a plyometric ball, before he picks up a baseball.
“I still believe he’s going to be part of our team, part of our lineup for certainly the biggest chunk of the season,” Cherington said. “We’re probably adding some days on from what we maybe had thought at one point. … You know Konnor. He’s going to attack this 100%. He’s going to do everything he can to be back in the lineup as fast as he can. He’s also incredibly important so we’re not going to take any risks.”
2. Making moves: To improve their infield depth, the Pirates selected the contract of Davis Wendzel from Triple-A Indianapolis, where the versatile middle infielder was batting .246/.360/.491 with 14 doubles, nine home runs, 34 RBIs, 28 runs scored in 54 games.
“We wanted to protect the infield and also looking for another option against left-handed pitching,” Cherington said. “Davis has been one of our more consistent performers in Triple-A all year. He’s an experienced guy, a good baseball player.”
Wendzel’s promotion came at the expense of outfielder Jhostynxon “The Password” Garcia, who was 7 for 35 (.200) and had 10 strikeouts against one walk in 13 games for the Pirates.
“We’re thinking about Password and how important he is to us, not only in the future but also this year,” Cherington said. “We think he can make a contribution this year. It’s been harder to get him in the lineup consistently. He’s a really young, talented player. He’s had a little bit of a choppy start to the 2026 season, with the IL. We just felt like we needed to get him playing every day.”
3. Pittsburgh Left: That the Pirates have Paul Skenes, Jared Jones and Mitch Keller in line to face the Dodgers is ideal. That the Dodgers are countering with lefties Eric Lauer and Justin Wrobleski around righty Shohei Ohtani is a problem.
With a lineup featuring left-handed hitters — notably Cruz, Lowe, Spencer Horwitz and Ryan O’Hearn — the Pirates are batting .227/.299/.357 against starting left-handed pitchers this season. The issue is exacerbated by the absence of Griffin, a righty.
That puts more pressure on the starting pitching, especially Skenes.
Since throwing eight scoreless innings in back-to-back wins at Arizona and against Colorado last month, Skenes is 0-3 with a 5.85 ERA in 20 innings over his last four starts.
Cherington chalked some of Skenes’ recent struggles to an adjustment after not having a normal spring training because of his participating in the World Baseball Classic, more so than a dip in average velocity with his four-seam fastball from 98.8 mph as a rookie in 2024 to 98.2 last season to 97.1 this year.
“I have the highest level of trust in him, for sure,” Cherington said. “He’s still throwing really hard. I haven’t seen any bounces up and down with velo. I haven’t seen any significant change since spring training. He’s so good in so many ways that he doesn’t really need to throw 100 to be special and he knows that. Over the course of his career, if you look at him compared to other elite starters as they advanced through their career, with every case they’re not working with their absolute max velocity every outing. That’s been the case with Paul.”
4. How long for Ozuna?: Marcell Ozuna got a standing ovation in his return to Truist Park, where he played for six seasons, and the Pirates designated hitter indicated that he hopes his hitting woes will increase with the temperature in warmer weather.
The Pirates have used Ozuna at DH more sparingly, which makes his presence against Dodgers lefties all the more important. Ozuna is batting .235 with a .742 OPS against left-handers this season, compared to .177 with a .516 OPS against righties.
Cherington said the Pirates plan to give Ozuna “plenty of runway.”
“He’s a big part of the team,” Cherington said. “We keep working with him. He’s made a really good contribution off the field. … The challenge is in the short term, just the lineup. With the roster construction we have right now, there’s a lot of days where Donnie has reason to put someone else at DH — whether it’s a particular matchup or someone who might need a day off their feet.”
Of course, Cherington signed Ozuna to a $12 million free-agent contract so he’s looking for a better return on his investment than a .193 batting average, five home runs and 62 OPS .
Ozuna was 3 for 9 on the road trip, including two hits Friday against the Braves, but is batting .267 (8 for 30) since May 21. Cherington said he suspects there is more to come from Ozuna.
“We want more hitting,” Cherington said. “He’s got a hot streak out there for him, and we want to be the beneficiaries of that when that happens. I feel confident that will happen.
5. RISPy Business: No wonder Pirates manager Don Kelly spent the weekend lamenting the need for his team to get the “big hit.”
They went 6 for 29 (.207) with runners in scoring position at Atlanta, including 4 for 23 (.174) over the final two games.
The Braves retired 16 consecutive Pirates batters until the ninth inning Friday, when Bryan Reynolds drew a walk and Ozuna singled. But Cruz struck out and O’Hearn grounded into a game-ending double play. The Pirates stranded runners on first and second in the eighth inning of Saturday’s 6-3 loss, and O’Hearn grounded out with the bases loaded again Sunday. The Pirates had a pair of runners in scoring position in the ninth inning, only for Jared Triolo to pop up to end the 3-2 loss.
Cherington noted the difference in the offensive approach of the Pirates, who have had seven consecutive losing seasons, to that of perennial playoff teams like the Houston Astros, Braves and Dodgers.
“When you’re in the postseason that much, obviously some of those players change over time but those teams are accustomed to raising their game plan approach to the highest degree. That’s what you have to do in the postseason to beat the other team,” Cherington said. “It makes the lineup particularly dangerous to pitch to. They seem to have really good, consistent approaches and the ability to adjust. That puts the challenge on us to adjust also. We’ve done that at times. We’ve gotten bit at times. There’s a little bit of good luck and bad luck mixed in there. We’ve done some good things on the trip and also got punched a little bit.”