Pittsburgh Pirates projected 2025 lineup after signing Tommy Pham

The 2024 season was disappointing for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Again. The Buccos put up their fifth last-place season in six years. Despite the arrivals of Bryan Reynolds and Oneil Cruz, the Pirates have done little to make strong improvements in recent years.

Their pitching staff, however, has true potential. Paul Skenes and Jared Jones will headline the Pirates' young core of hurlers and potentially lead them to a postseason in the near future. Pressure has mounted on owner Bob Nutting to build a solid team around them, and Nutting has responded by spending on postseason stud Tommy Pham, signing him to a one-year $4.025 million deal. This move comes after re-signing Andrew McCutchen and adding Spencer Horwitz, Adam Frazier and Tim Mayza. Pham owns a career .315 batting average with six home runs in 130 postseason at-bats.

However, the problem isn’t Pham in the postseason; it’s getting him to the postseason. The Pirates last entered the postseason with a Wild Card appearance in 2015. And the addition of Pham likely won’t help much. Last season, Pham slashed .248/.305/.368/.674 with nine home runs in 440 at-bats. But the NL Central is known as a weak division, which works in the Pirates favor. Let’s take a glimpse at their 2025 projected lineup.

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Pirates 2025 projected lineup

• 1. SS Isaiah Kiner-Falefa

• 2. LF Bryan Reynolds

• 3. CF Oneil Cruz

• 4. DH Andrew McCutchen

• 5. C Joey Bart

• 6. 1B Spencer Horwitz

• 7. RF Tommy Pham

• 8. 2B Nick Gonzales

• 9. 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes

At a glance, the Bucs’ lineup is a bit heavy on the right-handers. But there are some other flexible roster candidates from the farm system who will be in the mix throughout 2025. Among a few top Pirates’ prospects ready to make their impact on the major league roster are Nick Yorke, Tsung-Che Cheng and Billy Cook.

While it’s a vast improvement over last year’s batting order, it still doesn’t appear to be a competitive lineup. But the Pirates do have an ace in the hole. Their rotation is set to be much stronger as Jones settles in and Bubba Chandler is ready to make the jump. It wouldn’t be too surprising to see the Bucs at least rise above last place in the NL Central this coming season.