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Ben Cherington enters his eighth season as Pittsburgh’s general manager in 2027, with a winning record for the first time in his tenure. The team finished 2026 with an 82-80 record, an 11-win improvement over the previous year.
With the GM Meetings in Las Vegas this week, the Pirates begin looking at ways to improve their roster once again.
“Whatever the record is, we know it’s not good enough,” Cherington said Tuesday. “I think we can look at that across the roster and be pretty open-minded about how we take the next step.
“We have a good foundation. We have a lot of players in the team who can be a part of it already and we have to be better. And so we can be quite open-minded about how we do that.”
Bringing back star second baseman Brandon Lowe via free agency could be the first step. The Pirates are still awaiting a decision on a $23.15 million matching offer from Lowe; The deadline for submissions is next Tuesday.
Cherington noted that Pittsburgh must first allow Lowe to process his decision before determining how the club plans to revamp its roster. The Pirates have recently increased their interest in big-ticket free agents, going after Kyle Schwarber and Munetaka Murakami before signing Ryan O’Hearn to the largest contract for a free agent in franchise history.
“I don’t feel like we’re overwhelmed or overwhelmed,” Cherington said. “But it’s a different season … there’s different commitments on the books and a different class of umpires, and I think that’s going to have some impact on our approach to getting better. But that part doesn’t change.”
It gets more expensive every year with salary increases due to raises for players with existing roster contracts (Bryan Reynolds and Mitch Keller), as well as first-time arbitration-eligible players like Paul Skenes, Jared Jones, Nick Gonzales, Spencer Horwitz and Carmen Mlodzinski.
The outcome of Lowe’s decision will also affect future field dynamics. Pittsburgh has a solid core in the outfield, but adding a young rotation and bullpen will be vital.
As first reported by The Athletic and a source confirmed to MLB.com, the Pirates are exploring options to upgrade left-handed pitching through free agency or a trade. Pittsburgh’s only left-handed starting option is rookie Hunter Barco. Out of the bullpen, Mason Montgomery will hold back late innings, but Brandon Eisert and Evan Sisk are the only southpaws to hit free agency with Gregory Soto.
When asked by MLB.com last week about balancing lefties in the rotation, pitching coach Bill Murphy said he faces the same dilemma in Houston.
“For me, it just comes down to, you just want to pitch well,” Murphy said. “I don’t care if they throw righty or lefty. They have to be able to throw righty. They have to be able to throw lefty.”
Cherington also expressed confidence that Skenes will bounce back from a down year by Cy Young standards, confirming MLB.com’s report last month that Mitch Keller is fully recovered from a Grade 3 right arm strain.
Here’s what Cherington believes Pittsburgh’s pitching could look like in 2027.
“Going into 2026 and you look at our overall pitching performance, it’s fair to say we gave up more runs than we thought we could and we thought we were capable of,” Cherington said. “We think we’re capable of being better than that. And I think there’s some things under the hood where maybe there’s a little bit of bad luck because the strikeout rate and the walk rate are really good.”