BRADENTON, Fla. -- The Pirates entered the offseason viewing Ryan O'Hearn and Marcell Ozuna as, essentially, an either/or. They came out of it with both of them.
That’s a good thing for a lineup that ranked last in runs (583) and dingers (117) last year, but it does create crowding at the designated hitter spot, and that’s going to have an impact on the 2026 club’s defensive identity.
So with Ozuna’s one-year, $12 million deal (with a $16 million mutual option for 2027 and a $1.5 million buyout) made official Monday -- and with Ozuna pelting a rental car or two during his first BP session at Pirate City at the first full-squad workout -- let’s take a look at four ways his arrival will impact the Buccos in 2026.
1. Suwinski is the odd man out
First, someone had to go from the 40-man roster, and that someone was outfielder Jack Suwinski, who was designated for assignment Monday.
Suwinski, 27, had looked like a potentially legitimate piece of the next competitive Pirates team back in 2023, when he manned center field and hit a team-high 26 homers along with 21 doubles, with an OPS+ a respectable 13% better than league average in his first full season. But the last two years were marked by injuries and ineffectiveness. He’ll have to pass through waivers to remain with the Pirates’ organization.
With Suwinski gone, the Pirates now have six outfielders on the 40-man roster -- Oneil Cruz, Bryan Reynolds, Jake Mangum, Jhostynxon Garcia, Billy Cook and Esmerlyn Valdez.
That list doesn’t include O’Hearn, who was earmarked as a first baseman/DH when the Pirates signed him to a two-year pact over the winter but whose job just changed with Ozuna’s arrival.
2. O’Hearn will play a lot of right field
O’Hearn is no stranger to the outfield corners, having logged in the vicinity of 150 innings out there each of the last three seasons. But prior to Ozuna’s arrival, the 32-year-old seemed ticketed to spent the majority of his time sharing first base with Spencer Horwitz and DHing.
Now, with the lineup lengthened by Ozuna, there won’t be nearly as many DH at-bats to go around. The Pirates will be careful to protect the 35-year-old Ozuna, whose numbers took a dip as he battled a hip issue last season, over the long season with days off (“He's obviously not 28 anymore,” said general manager Ben Cherington). Still, O’Hearn will spend a lot more time in right than initially envisioned, and that further crowds the floor for trade acquisitions Mangum and “The Password,” Garcia.
“Whatever they want me to do, I’m going to figure it out,” O’Hearn told reporters here. “That’s why we’re here in Spring Training. I’ve got six weeks to get after it in the outfield.”
3. Reynolds is a left fielder again
The veteran Reynolds didn’t play a lick of left last year, though he’s logged more than twice as many innings there (3,062 1/3) in his career than he has in right (1,402). But Reynolds is coming off four straight seasons in which his defensive run value, as calculated by Statcast, was in the negative, and the worst of those (minus-12) was in his last season in left in 2024.
Reynolds, though, did see defensive improvement in the second half last year when he implemented a pre-pitch “tennis hop” that he felt helped him with his reaction time, and he’ll bring that to left. (In Monday’s workout, he made a nice catch in foul territory tracking a fly ball launched by a machine.)
“Wherever they put me,” said Reynolds, “I’m gonna hop in the air and react.”
4. The Pirates are taking defensive risks to score more runs
If the above all sounds like a suboptimal defensive alignment, that’s because it is. Ozuna is strictly a DH, O’Hearn is a better defender at first than in right, Reynolds has graded out better in right than in left. The Pirates also dealt for Brandon Lowe’s productive bat but iffier glove at second base.
This is an acknowledged concession by a Pirates team that desperately needs to put more runs on the board, and history -- very recent history, in fact -- shows us it can work.
Where the Pirates hope to reduce the defensive risk is in the late innings. You’re likely to see them mix and match off the bench more than in the recent past.
“Really excited about the competition that we're going to see throughout spring in a lot of different areas,” said manager Don Kelly, “with the bench being one.”