As an 11th consecutive non-playoff season winds down for the Pittsburgh Pirates, it is easy to wonder if Travis Williams made a major blunder at the end of last season. The team president said the Pirates’ goal for 2026 was to reach the postseason. He punctuated the statement with the term “full stop.”
The Pirates were eliminated from postseason contention last Sunday. They haven’t played a playoff game since 2015, when they lost to the Chicago Cubs in the National League Wild Card game. Only the Los Angeles Angels have a longer postseason drought in the major leagues, which stretches to 2014.
Did Williams overpromise after the Pirates went 71-91 in 2025? Does he regret mentioning the postseason?
Who knows. Accountability is lacking with the Pirates. Williams and owner Bob Nutting are rarely made available to the media.
Pirates have fallen short of goal
So, it was left to manager Don Kelly to answer those questions before Wednesday night’s 5-1 loss to the visiting St. Louis Cardinals at PNC Park.
“The expectation is that everyone wants to make the playoffs,” Kelly said. “We want to do that for the clubhouse, the team, the fans, the City of Pittsburgh. That’s what we set out this year to accomplish.”
Yet it didn’t happen.
The best the Pirates (80-78) can do to salvage the season is at least split their last four games to finish with their first winning record since 2018. The Pirates wrap up their three-game series with the Cardinals on Thursday and then finish the schedule with a three-game weekend series against the Tigers in Detroit.
Finishing above .500 may not mean much to many franchises. However, it is a rare occurrence for the Pirates, who have had just four winning seasons in 23 years since 1993. So, the fact that the Pirates could have more wins than losses does matter.
“There’s a lot of things that happened throughout the year,” Kelly said. “When you look at the season in totality, the guys have given everything they’ve got every single day. They continue to compete at a high level. When we set out from spring training, that was the goal – to make the playoffs. And I think that the disappointment in not getting there is real. At the same time, the foundation that was laid for this team to have success in ’27 and build on those things that we started this year is real.”
Rivals are impressed by the Pirates
It doesn’t feel that way right now for the Pirates’ chronically disappointed fans, many of whom want Kelly and general manager Ben Cherington fired. However, the consensus around baseball is that Cherington deserves an eighth season in 2027 to take another try at the postseason.
“They’re a really good ballclub, and they are young enough to get better, so I can certainly see them being in the postseason next year,” a rival MLB manager said on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak about other teams. “They’re a tough team to play now. You couldn’t always say that about them in the past. They’ve got a lot of talent, but they also have a certain amount of grit. The Pirates are in the best position that they’ve been in a long time.”
Cherington’s focus last offseason was fixing the offense after his team was last in the majors in scoring in 2025. The Pirates have shot up to fifth this season, averaging 4.78 runs a game, and setting a franchise record with 182 home runs.
However, the Pirates aren’t going to the postseason because their talented pitching staff has regressed, ranking 17th in MLB with a 4.17 ERA. They finished seventh in that category last season. Reigning NL Cy Young winner Paul Skenes has taken a major step back this season, going 10-11 with a 3.91 ERA in 31 starts after having a 1.97 ERA over 55 starts in his first two seasons.
Paul Skenes on the World Baseball Classic and its impact on his velocity and effectiveness this season, via @colin_beazley:
— Underdog MLB (@UnderdogMLB) September 21, 2026
"There are a lot of other factors, so I don’t want to put everything on that. But I feel like that was kind of the root of it a little bit."
"It… pic.twitter.com/wHZ002GU9O
Yet Skenes and rotation mates Braxton Ashcraft (a 14-game winner this year), Jared Jones and rookie Bubba Chandler are young and exceptionally talented. None are older than 27. And left-hander Mason Montgomery, 26, has turned into a reliable bullpen option.
“They just keep running out one guy after another after another who can throw 100 (mph), and then you go watch their minor-league teams play, and it’s the same thing,” a scout from an MLB team said. “They have so many power arms, and they are all talented.”
The scout then paused and said, “I tell you what. You give me Skenes, Ashcraft, Jones and Chandler and I’ll take my chances against anybody in a playoff series. If the Pirates had made the playoffs, they could have won it all with that rotation.”
Alas, the Pirates won’t be in the postseason, let alone dream of making their first World Series appearance since 1979 when they beat the Baltimore Orioles. However, the Pirates can allow themselves to think ahead to 2027 with optimism.
“We're obviously very close,” left fielder Bryan Reynolds said. “We're right on the cusp.”
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