Tom Verducci boldly predicts Pirates will make postseason in 2026

Tom Verducci is going out on a limb, or, one might say, a plank.

The veteran sportswriter, who is a regular contributor to Fox’s MLB coverage and MLB Network, boldly stated on the latter’s predictions show that the Pittsburgh Pirates — who haven’t sniffed October baseball in nearly a decade — would make the postseason in 2026.

“How’s this for being bold? The Pittsburgh Pirates are going to the postseason,” Verducci said, while pegging the Pirates as a Wild Card team. “I think all they need is just mediocre offense. This pitching staff is loaded. It’s not just Paul Skenes; it’s [Braxton] Ashcraft, it’s [Jared] Jones, it’s a deep bullpen. So, even if the middle of the pack — which they haven’t done in about seven or eight years offensively — they will be an 87-win team and go to the postseason.”

Tom Verducci BOLDLY predicts that the Pittsburgh Pirates will make the postseason in 2026… pic.twitter.com/id9pGuy4PI

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 25, 2026

The offense is the other side of the ledger, and that’s where the Pirates have spent a decade failing their pitching. For years, owner Bob Nutting ran one of the most aggressively cost-controlled rosters in baseball, a strategy that became increasingly indefensible once the team drafted Skenes with the first overall pick in 2023 and handed him a franchise to build around. The criticism finally reached a tipping point this winter, and Nutting — at least by his own historical standards — blinked.

This winter felt different, if only marginally. In addition to O’Hearn, Pittsburgh signed Marcell Ozuna to add a legitimate power bat to the middle of the lineup, then pulled off a blockbuster trade with the Tampa Bay Rays to land Brandon Lowe and Jake Mangum. By any other franchise’s standards, it’s a modest offseason. By Pittsburgh’s, it might as well be the moon landing. Whether those additions actually add up to a functioning offense — something the Pirates haven’t consistently fielded since the Obama administration — is the one thing standing between Verducci being right and very, very wrong.

Verducci is hardly alone in believing in Pittsburgh’s upside, as plenty of MLB writers have tabbed the Buccos as their sleeper pick for 2026, drawn to the same combination of elite pitching and a roster that at least looks more serious than it has in years. But believing in the Pirates and betting on them are two different things. They currently sit at 65-1 to win the World Series, 30-1 to win the NL pennant, and +600 to win the NL Central.

If Verducci’s right, though, Pittsburgh fans will have earned the right to enjoy it. And they won’t have to trade themselves to the Dodgers for a fan to be named later — as Jim Bowden suggested — after all.