How the 2025 MLB All-Star Game may have triggered the Pirates' offensive resurgence

WASHINGTON — Eighty players arrived at Truist Park last July for the 2025 MLB All-Star Game. But as they flew home or to their team’s next road city, an unlikely pair boarded the same charter flight bound for Tampa, Fla.

One played for the Rays, the other the Orioles. They had only spoken in passing but have since become key cogs in the Pirates’ offensive resurgence, as well as respected leaders in the clubhouse: Brandon Lowe and Ryan O’Hearn.

While becoming teammates the following year wasn’t exactly something they discussed that week — Lowe had never played anywhere other than Tampa, O’Hearn would be traded to San Diego just a few weeks later — there was some important groundwork laid a year ago in Atlanta.

Lowe and O’Hearn talked a lot at the field, around batting practice and various obligations. Then when the Rays offered to fly O’Hearn to Florida on a plane they chartered for their four representatives, the families grew closer in what, looking back, seems like a fateful flight.

“Brandon’s son Emmitt has a big personality, so I ended up joking around with him for a good amount of time,” O’Hearn said this weekend at Nationals Park. “It was cool. I had talked to Brandon quite a bit at the All-Star festivities. We knew each other from playing against each other. I really liked his swing and how he plays the game.

“But we got to know each other a little bit more there. A crazy coincidence that we ended up in the same place the next year.”

Lowe backed up the story of O’Hearn and Emmitt hitting it off. He added that the conversation between families was plenty easy and natural.

“Our bus ride to the airport took a little bit longer than it should have,” Lowe recalled. “I think we got caught up at the gate for 30-some minutes. My wife [Madison] and I were just talking to [O’Hearn’s wife] Hannah the whole time. Pretty sure he got closest with Emmitt out of the whole group. It wasn’t awkward or weird at all.”

Seeing how Lowe and O’Hearn have carried themselves around the Pirates clubhouse, it certainly makes sense now. They’re total pros, universally respected by teammates and hitters who pretty much always deliver solid at-bats.

But back then, they only knew each other from a distance. O’Hearn has long admired Lowe’s compact, powerful swing, how he juices an incredible amount of power out of his 5-foot-9 frame.

On the flip side, Lowe had heard good things about O’Hearn’s attitude, his ability to bring teammates together and how seemingly everybody who’s ever met the guy likes him.

“I remember Zach Eflin told us, ‘You’re gonna love this guy,’ ” Lowe said. “We played against him in the AL East, so I understood who he was. But I never sat down and talked him.

“Then this offseason, after I got traded to Pittsburgh, I was kind of like, ‘Man, I’d really like him to sign in Pittsburgh.’ Him actually [signing with the Pirates] came out of nowhere.”

Not in O’Hearn’s mind, though.

The two didn’t talk much after that flight to Tampa. However, O’Hearn paid a little more attention to what Lowe was doing, which last season included 31 home runs, 83 RBIs and a .785 OPS — numbers he’s on pace to blow past this season.

But beyond Lowe as a hitter, O’Hearn really took notice when the Pirates traded for the former Ray. In O’Hearn’s mind, that signaled to him that Pittsburgh was serious about contending.

Three days after the trade that brought Lowe, Jake Mangum and Mason Montgomery to Pittsburgh for Mike Burrows, O’Hearn agreed to a two-year, $29 million deal to also join the Pirates.

“But when he got traded here, it definitely influenced my decision,” said O’Hearn, who has a higher OPS (.807) now than he did during his 2025 campaign (.803).

These days, Lowe and O’Hearn have been two big reasons why the Pirates rank third in Major League Baseball with 475 runs scored entering Monday’s games and their team OPS (.762) trails only the Dodgers.

As left-handed hitters, they’re also two of the biggest reasons why no team has accumulated more bases against right-handed pitching than the Pirates (1,000) or why the Pirates are still just three games out of a playoff spot despite not yet playing their best baseball.

It’s a crazy story to consider now, the guy who only ever played with the Rays, an empty row on a plane and the former Oriole learning more about one another during an 80-minute flight south.

That familiarity helped Lowe and O’Hearn hit the ground running, and it has helped them work together as leaders helping to change the culture for Pirates position players.

“I remember we talked after I signed,” O’Hearn said. “We were just both excited to play together and about what this team could be.”

Added Lowe, “It’s awesome. He’s a heck of a ball player. He’s very professional in everything he does. Whether it’s doing small leadership things around the clubhouse or joking around, having a good time, he’s a joy to be around.”

Jason Mackey: Jason.Mackey@pirates.com and @JMackey_PGH on X.