No team underwent a more extreme lineup makeover this winter than the Pittsburgh Pirates.
After having no qualified hitter post at least a league-average, 100 wRC+ mark last season, the Pirates are now projected to field six for the upcoming season, according to Steamer projections.
Those forecasted above-average bats include returning players in first baseman Spencer Horwitz, who dealt with injury last year, and expected bounceback campaigns for Oneil Cruz and Bryan Reynolds. But there were also notable external additions. The club traded for slugging second baseman Brandon Lowe, and added Ryan O'Hearn and Marcell Ozuna via free agency.
Yes, these are not the kind of seismic signings you might see elsewhere, but the transactions suggest urgency for the Pirates -- and for good reason.
NL Cy Young winner Paul Skenes posted a 1.97 ERA last season but recorded just 10 wins as the club ranked last in the Majors in runs (583). Overall, the Pirates were just 17-15 in games started by Skenes last season. The Pirates enjoy an incredible wealth of young pitching in addition to their ace, but they needed much more offensive help to maximize this window of opportunity.
All told, only three Opening Day starters from a year ago -- Cruz, Reynolds and catcher Joey Bart -- are likely to be in the Game 1 lineup versus the New York Mets on March 26. And perhaps top prospect Konnor Griffin will also be debuting.
But there's a catch.
Like many clubs, they were not in position to sign all-around stars like Alex Bregman. Rather, the Pirates had to choose between offense or defense when retooling.
And after the Ozuna signing, which likely pushes O'Hearn from DH to an outfield corner, there was public debate about whether the Pirates have traded too much defensive ability to improve their lineup.
Some on social media joked that the Pirates have a shortstop, catcher, third baseman and six DHs.
The Pirates are not alone in having to choose, and electing to pivot to offense-first profiles.
The Reds signed slugger Eugenio Suárez to add much-needed thump to their lineup. He fits best as a DH. The Mets are set to start players at both infield corners who are new to the respective positions in Bo Bichette and Jorge Polanco. The Orioles offseason was highlighted by the additions of bat-first players Pete Alonso and Taylor Ward.
This pivot to offense in some markets came as teams had generally placed more and more weight on defensive ability, as more data quantifying the value of gloves became available. Defense-first approaches were also in part tied to rosters becoming increasingly stretched to accommodate additional pitching. There became a greater preference for versatile position players.
The Pirates' approach, and that of some other clubs, is a move in the opposite direction.
Will it work? I was curious to learn what history would tell us.
I examined the last decade of play to identify teams that have faced similar trade-offs to see how they fared.
I first evaluated team seasons that included at least 10 runs added, while shedding at least 10 Defensive Runs Saved, teams that improved offensively but declined defensively. I also considered the inverse: teams that shed run-scoring but improved in preventing runs.
After removing COVID-impacted seasons, there are 47 team seasons since 2016 to trade defense for offense by the criteria studied. That's compared to 30 team seasons in which teams added defensive ability while offensive output declined.
We cannot always know whether the trade-offs were intentional, but we do have examples of them occurring in the real world, some dramatic, to evaluate how effective the strategy is.
Those 47 such teams that traded gloves for bats combined for 17 additional wins, year over year, a fairly modest improvement on the average.
But included among those teams are two World Series champions -- the 2017 Astros and 2018 Red Sox -- who improved by 17 and 15 games, respectively, in the regular season. Two other teams trading gloves for bats were pennant winners in the 2025 Blue Jays and 2023 Diamondbacks.
The Blue Jays enjoyed a 20-win improvement last season despite losing a staggering 51 Defensive Runs Saved, declining from +102 to +51. That decline was more than offset by the 127 more runs they scored as a team.
The Blue Jays signaled the intent to improve offensively entering last season.
They pivoted from an extreme run-prevention focus in 2022 and 2023 to adding slugger Anthony Santander on a five-year, $92 million deal prior to last season. But it was their internal improvement that led to the dramatic turnaround.
It's important to note some of these improvements are not led by external additions; rather, they’re tied to young players improving, player development gains.
The 2017 Astros were an emerging young team with Bregman becoming a regular, though the team did add Carlos Beltrán as a free agent.
The 2018 Red Sox signed J.D. Martinez, who was a middle-of-the-order stalwart. But they also enjoyed the first full season of Rafael Devers.
Teams that traded runs saved for runs gained also include 100-win teams in the 2023 Braves and 2022 Mets.
As for the teams that improved defensively while declining on offense? They averaged 2.4 fewer wins per team.
Of the 30 teams in the sample, none reached the World Series -- and only one reached an LCS series (2018 Astros).
I also evaluated the trade-off question employing the offensive (batting and baserunning value) and defensive components (defensive value and positional adjustments) that make up FanGraphs' WAR formula.
Using that methodology, there were 39 teams that traded defense for offense in a meaningful way since 2016, and those teams improved season over season by 4 wins on average. The 40 teams that shed offense and enjoyed defensive gains declined by -2.7 wins on average.
Again, similar findings.
For good measure, I also considered the offense-at-the-expense-of-defense trade by employing the ballpark- and run-environment-adjusted measure wRC+, and the Statcast-based Outs Above Average, which dates back to 2016.
There were 24 teams since 2016 that added at least five wRC+ points year over year while losing at least 10 OAAs in the field. They enjoyed an additional 7.9 wins. And teams that lost at least 5 wRC+ points but gained at least 10 OAAs? They lost 8.1 wins on average.
While one wRC+ point is more meaningful than one OAA, it speaks to the direction of choice and impact.
Ideally a team would improve at fielding and hitting, of course, but oftentimes a choice must be made.
The Pirates ranked 10th in DRS and seventh in OAA last season. They almost certainly will not rank as well in 2026. But what matters more, of course, is scoring more runs than the opponent. As the Blue Jays showed us a year ago, dramatic offensive improvement can have dramatic results on the field.
Outslugging opponents never really goes out of fashion, but it was back in style this winter.