Ben Cherington discusses the Pittsburgh Pirates' elimination from the playoffs.
For the 11th consecutive season, the Pittsburgh Pirates won’t be playing playoff baseball. There are certainly some tough questions that must be answered, with this unwanted streak now lasting over a decade.
Pittsburgh’s elimination in 2026 feels different, though, and that’s because the Pirates made a conscious effort to be competitive and make a playoff push, going back to their moves last winter.
Needless to say, Pirates Ben Cherington is not satisfied with the outcome of this season. However, the question now is what needs to change in 2027 so the Pirates don’t suffer the same fate for a 12th straight season.
"If you're not playing games in October, you haven’t met what you set out to do,” Cherington said on Sunday during an appearance on the Pirates Insider Show on 93.7 The Fan.
“If we look back, and certainly I’ve asked myself and we’ve asked ourselves, ‘Is there anything we could have done sooner?’ If there was something obvious we could have done sooner, we would have done it.”
May 12, 2024; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Ben Cherington looks on before the Pirates host the Chicago Cubs against at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY SportsWhat the executive will fall back on is that this still relatively young and inexperienced team did make some improvements and showed plenty of growth.
“I think we look at this team as clearly taking a step forward, and not a big enough one. There's more work to do,” he said.
Still, Cherington acknowledged that this isn’t enough to fully deem the 2026 season a success.
"Nobody's gonna jump up and down and pat ourselves on the back about improved run differential,” said Cherington.
“The only reason it matters is because it’s a pretty important sign that the roster has improved. Now we have to make sure it keeps improving and be dogged about improving the areas that are still not as strong as others."
It’s undoubtedly frustrating that another fall will go by without there being playoff baseball at PNC Park, but Cherington is correct: the Pirates did make noticeable improvements throughout the season.
Pittsburgh has 78 wins as of Monday morning, and even if it loses out, that would still be the most wins for the franchise since 2016.
The building blocks are also in place: Paul Skenes, Braxton Ashcraft, Konnor Griffin, Esmerlyn Valdez, Rafael Flores, and Mason Montgomery, just to name a few. Re-signing Brandon Lowe would also do wonders for the team’s overall stability.
It’s another disappointing season for the Pirates, but on the bright side, pieces are there for the team to hopefully build off this winter.
