1-12-24 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on X
This offseason has been heavy.
I mean, it should be, it’s a really important year in this build, regardless of how well they handle it. That said, today let’s lighten it up a bit and have some fun.
All of these lists tend to wind up with Bonds, a ton of 70s guys and Kiner. So I thought, let’s force ourselves out of that all time historical box and just focus on the past 40ish years and hopefully remember some guys we don’t talk about enough.
One more thing before we start, for me, to fear a hitter, I need to at least have a little concern he could pop one when he’s up, so probably don’t expect to see Freddy Sanchez, even if he did earn hardware on a very not good team.
I can hardly wait for the arguments. Lets Go! And, watch the videos, some incredible memories, great calls, familiar and missed faces and voices. Enjoy Bucco Nation!
10. Garrett (G.I.) Jones (2009-2013)
Jones is arguably the luckiest signing the Pirates ever made. Drafted in 1999 by the Braves and released after 2001, he’d just done absolutely nothing in rookie ball for 3 years.
Minnesota gave him a shot and he slowly moved up, displaying a ton of power on the way but for some reason the Twins only gave him 84 plate appearances in the Bigs to show if his 58 homeruns in 3 years of AAA from 2005-2007 might pan out.
They too granted him free agency.
The Pirates, trying desperately to retool on a team that had just again dumped their roster including Jason Bay picked up the kid as a flyer and all he did is put a lot of baseballs over the wall.
100 as a Pirate to be exact, along with 139 doubles and a .780 OPS. Many forget he was on their 2013 playoff team and swatted 15 homeruns with 26 doubles that year. A 27 homerun in 2012 helped the Pirates almost arrive early, and all because the Pirates took a flyer on a kid way too old to have not latched on at 28 years old.
Garrett is the twinkle in every GM’s eye when they sign an NRI to bring to camp.
9. Jeff King (1989-1996)
Jeff had a few years of playing with the Pirates under his belt by 1993 when Barry Bonds left, and I’ll admit, Jeff is cheating a bit here as he overlapped with Barry, but upon Barry’s exit, King, the Pirates top selection in the draft back in 1986, was supposed to be poised and ready to assume the mantle as the team’s next big star.
And in 1993, he started to reward some of that faith by hitting a ton of singles. Not exactly what the Pirates were hoping for, but still, it was welcome and they were productive singles, he drove in 98 runs that year, still, I wouldn’t put him in the fear category.
it clicked in 1995 and he’d hit 48 of his 99 Pirates homeruns from 95-96 before leaving town via trade along with Pirates Playoff alum Jay Bell to Kansas City in exchange for Joe Randa, Jeff Martin, Jeff granger and Jeff Wallace. Old people like me call this the “J Trade” cause it was all Jeff’s and J’s. Imagine if it was involving the Blue Jays Too!
8. Al Martin (1992-1999)
From the top, this isn’t a list of great guys, this is a list of feared hitters. Al turns out, not a straight shooter to say the least, probably worse, that’s not what this is about, but I know it’s gonna come up.
What Martin is on this list for is his 107 homeruns as a Pirate along with 178 doubles.
Despite his claim that he had been selected for the 1994 All star game (he wasn’t), his best years were really from 1995-1999.
Taking over left field for Barry Bonds is not going to win you many popularity contests, and being a dink along the way won’t either, but I can still appreciate for a time, Al Martin could make you think twice about walking someone in front of him.
7. Starling Marte (2012-2019)
An all star in 2016, Marte often under appreciated as it comes to Pirates lore. First of all, he was a very young player during the Pirates peak in the decade, so much of his time being the best, or most feared Pirates Bat came after the team’s window had crashed on their fingers, and even then, he had to share it with Andrew McCutchen before ultimately spending two years trying to be the man all by himself.
Starling had crazy power, but a true 5 tool player, he let the pitcher decide where he was hitting the baseball a lot more often than trying to hit dingers. His speed turned Doubles into Triples and Singles into Doubles.
108 homeruns as a Pirate with a .287 average and a .793 OPS is nothing to sneeze at. During that time he led off, hit cleanup, did whatever he could to help and never played a game where the opposing manager thought they could pitch around someone to get to him.
6. Pedro Alvarez (2010-2015)
El Toro has always been talked about more from the perspective of what he didn’t become, than what he actually did.
Through much of the Pirates successful window of the 2010’s, Pedro Alvarez was at the heart of driving the offense. Unmistakable power and difficulties facing left handed pitching had plagued him but he still hit 131 homeruns as a Pirate, 111 of which came from 2012 through 2015. His defense made it hard to play him, but it’s safe to say had the DH been a thing, eh, who am I kidding, they’d have traded him anyway.
An All Star and a Silver Slugger in 2013 to go with 36 dingers and 100 RBI, I’ll always remember Pedro as one of the many faces that brought playoff baseball back to a starved city.
5. Aramis Ramirez (1998-2002 / 2015)
Aramis Ramirez is arguably the story of the Pittsburgh Pirates in these last 40 years or so in miniature. they quite literally were forced to trade him because they couldn’t afford to pay for their team’s expenses. The Cubs were more than happy to take the freshly emerged power hitter for peanuts and a healthy dose of embarrassment for a rival team.
In 2001 he hit 34 homeruns for 112 RBI with 40 doubles a .300 average and an .885 OPS. In 2002, he fell back a little, but still hit 18 for 71, but he was totally back on track in 2003 before the trade.
Ramirez to the Cubs along with Kenny Lofton and cash for Jose Hernandez (no not the reliever they have today), Matt Bruback and what would turn out to be Bobby Hill.
Excuse me, I have to vomit….
4. Reggie Sanders (2003)
For one glorious year, former Cincinnati Reds player turned journeyman Reggie Sanders graced us with his talent. He was masterful, scary even.
His overall numbers are probably more impressive than you know, but let’s focus on what he did as a one year stop gap signing. 498 plate appearances, 129 hits, 27 doubles, 31 homeruns, a .285 batting average and an OPS of .913.
So of course the friggin’ Cardinals signed him for 2 years that offseason.
3. Jason Bay (2003-2008)
Jason gets glazed over because he was part of two trades, each of which claimed to be kicking off a rebuild. First being acquired from the Padres along with Oliver Perez, who might be a vampire by the way, dude looks like he’s 35, for Brian Giles and a PTBNL (Corey Stewart – enjoy your next trivia event).
Then after hitting 139 homeruns and 151 doubles in only 719 games with the Buccos he was off again, this time part of a 3 team deal with Boston and LA that brought back Andy LaRoche, Bryan Morris, Craig Hansen and Brandon Moss. Yeah, none of them are on the list…
From 2005 to 2008, Bay was consistently one of the better hitters in baseball, even with average.
2. Brian Giles (1999-2003)
For a time there, Giles was just about everyone in baseball’s example for the fish that got away. Traded to the Pirates from Cleveland in 1998 for eventual Moneyball featured target Ricardo Rincon.
All Brian did is hit 165 of his 287 homeruns in Pittsburgh with a career batting average of .291 and an OPS of .902.
From 1999-2003 he was just about everyone’s focus when they game planned for the Pirates lineup and he was unflappable. He hit big moment homeruns, timely hits and hustled to the point of endangering others and himself on the basepaths. What a find in a deal, and what a player.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=urnsa8uwKnY%3Fsi%3D81JNmq5FljsAgAAV
1. Andrew McCutchen (2009-2017 / 2023-?)
Andrew is still building his career numbers of course, thankfully back in the Black and Gold so we can watch it first hand.
As we sit here right now his team history rankings are kinda eye opening as to how damn good he’s been.
Andrew is…
4th in Homeruns with 215
11th in Runs with 869
7th in Doubles with 311
He won the MVP in 2013 but was in the running for it from 2012 through 2015. For those 4 years, NOBODY wanted to face Andrew McCutchen.
Cutch has worked his way into the top of many of these lists that didn’t force the exclusion of the franchise’s most successful eras.
Steel City Pirates 
I was lucky enough to met and ge 3 of those autographs King,Martin, & Giles. Of the 3 Giles was class act & still wear his jersey to this day
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I’m not sure if you left off Bonilla and Van Slyke since it kind of fit in that Barry Bonds era. The one I would have added was Kevin Young.
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