3–14-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
There were a number of offensive pieces in the Pirates system who underperformed expectations in 2024 but one who fell off perhaps harder and faster than any other was Jack Suwinski.
Jack has notably drawn the ire of many fans over the years. His tepid approach both at the plate and on the field have demonstrated a hesitancy by Suwinski to fully commit to a free-swinging, three-true outcomes bat and a take-charge outfielder who is willing to take control in center field.
Following an encouraging sophomore season in 2023 where Jack improved upon nearly all of his metrics, including clubbing 24 home runs over 144 games, Suwinski dropped off a cliff in 2024, posting a paltry .588 OPS over 277 plate appearances on the season after a combined .758 mark over his first two big league seasons.
In franchise history, only six players have had more homers through their first 250 games as a Pirate than Suwinski (45): Brian Giles (64), Dick Stuart (55), Bob Robertson (52), Ralph Kiner (51), Jason Thompson (48) and Jason Bay (47).
So, why the steep decline in production?
One of the things that appeared to be evident in his approach was intention to strike out less as he became significantly more wary of strike 3 calls after posting a 32.2% K rate the prior season.
Unfortunately, strikeouts are an inevitability in today’s power market and while, ideally, he would be able to reign in the strikeouts while still hitting for power, it’s just not in his skillset.
So while his K% dropped to 28.5%, his overall production likewise suffered as he was swinging more often at bad pitches just to put the ball in play and making poor contact.
His GB/FB rate in 2023 was 0.52 but jumped to 1.30 in 2024 with his barrel rate (8.8% down from 15.7% in ‘23) and hard hit rate (38.2% down from 43.4%) both taking a dive – not the recipe for success in today’s game. Jack has to be focused on a 3-true outcomes approach, something that he has, at times, been among the top in baseball at achieving:
So far this spring, he looks more confident and comfortable overall. Maybe it’s due to an offseason where he (like many other hitters) made tweaks to his swing to become more efficient at the plate, or maybe it’s the work with new hitting coach, Matt Hague.
Either way, he enters play today with a .320/.393/.560 line, hitting for hard, loud outs and getting under the ball more often than not. Compare that to last spring when he slashed .269/.296/.558 but was pulling the ball nearly as much (29.3% compared to 52.9% thus far this spring), which is where his power excels.
If he can manage to keep this going into the regular season – even in a reduced role given the addition of Tommy Pham – maybe he can run it back this year.
Steel City Pirates 