Who makes our all time Pittsburgh Pirates 25-man roster? Who starts? Who comes off the bench?
The Pittsburgh Pirates are early into spring training right now, so there are still plenty of roster decisions left for Clint Hurdle to make in regards to the roster. Because of that, you’re going to see a lot of pictures of players working out and that’s about it. We’re still a couple of weeks out of watching actual spring training games, so right now it’s a lot of prognosticating about who is going to make the first 25-man roster.
This got me thinking about 25-man rosters in general and I decided it would be fun to assemble the Pirates all time 25-man roster. The Pirates have such an expansive and diverse history. They’ve been around since 1887, so it makes sense they’d have a storied history. This means there are plenty of players to choose from.
It would be really easy to just pick the player from each position with the highest WAR value or the longest tenure, but that seemed counter-productive to me. WAR and tenure will factor into my decision, but they certainly won’t be the only factor in how I choose the ultimate 25-man roster. Stats and what the player meant to the franchise will also play a part in my list.
So let’s stop talking and get to why you’re all reading. Here is my all time Pittsburgh Pirates 25-man roster:
The Pirates have a ton of all time great outfielders and you could honestly include any of them as the starting three, but what it came down to me was a combination of stats and what the players meant to the franchise.
Andrew McCutchen as my starting center fielder may be a bit surprising given how short his time with the team has been compared to some other Pirate legends, but to me no player has meant more to the Pirates in recent memory than McCutchen. He is the franchise player almost every team in Major League Baseball would kill for. He’s talented and great in the community. I am confident in McCutchen’s place in Pirates’ history, which is why he is my starting center fielder.
1151 hits, 151 home runs, .298BA/.388OBP/.496SLG/.884OPS/144OPS+ /38.2WAR
Roberto Clemente is my starting right fielder. Do I really need to elaborate at all about this one? Clemente is the single most important player in Pirates’ history. He was a game-changing talent and an equally good human being. He retired with exactly 3000 hits and was a key member of two World Series championships in Pittsburgh. He was also the best defensive right fielder the game has ever seen. I would put his throwing arm up against anyone. I won’t go too in-depth about Clemente because his nickname is “The Great One.” I don’t think there will be any debate about his position on this list.
3000 hits, 240 home runs, .317BA/.359OBP/.475SLG/.834OPS/130OPS+/94.5 WAR
Ralph Kiner may be a slight surprise to some readers because while he is a Hall of Famer, he doesn’t always get included in the list of all time great Pirates, but make no mistake Kiner is a legend. He was the star on a lot of bad Pirates’ teams, but fans came out to the ballpark to simply see Kiner hit home runs. With him on this roster, you not only have your left fielder, you also have your clean-up hitter. Kiner might not always get the attention of some other Pirates’ icons, but he is a worthy Hall of Famer and one of the greatest players in franchise history.
1451 hits, 369 home runs, .279BA/.398OBP/.548SLG/.946SLG/149OPS+/49.3 WAR
Next, we look at the infield.
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