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First Winning Season Since ‘18 Leaves Pirates Wanting More
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- First Winning Season Since ‘18 Leaves Pirates Wanting More
First Winning Season Since ‘18 Leaves Pirates Wanting More
DETROIT – The Pirates were reigning World Series champions when Don Kelly was born. The 46-year-old manager hasn't been alive to see his hometown team win a playoff series – that's how long it's been.
Since the days of Jim Leyland, a mentor of Kelly who led Pittsburgh to three straight division titles from 1990-92, only one other manager had even guided the Pirates to a winning season. Like Leyland, Clint Hurdle led the Pirates to three straight playoff appearances from 2013-15. Again under Hurdle, the Pirates went 82-79 in 2018, the last time they finished above .500.
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But by winning Sunday's season finale in Detroit, Kelly and the Pirates notched a winning season – their fifth in the last 34 years.
"We all know the goal was to be in the playoffs, and once that was done, we weren't just going to give up," Konnor Griffin explained. "We knew that we could set the tone going into next spring training with being over .500, so being able to get that done, that was big for us."
The Pirates entered the season with playoff expectations. They made it to September still in the hunt for a potential postseason berth. While the team fell short of its goal, there is a silver lining in finishing with a rare winning season. The Pirates aren't satisfied with the result, nor should they be. But it could be a first step in trying to establish a winning culture in an organization that has done so little of that for the better part of the last 34 years.
"I think that culture word is real and I think that we've seen it through the resiliency, through the toughness of this team and it's continued to build as the season has gone on," said Kelly. "I think the foundation is being laid for that winning culture and consistent winning in Pittsburgh."
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A common theme for the Pirates this season was resiliency. Kelly often spoke about the way his team had a knack for dealing with adversity and bouncing back from bad stretches or losses. The Pirates adopted a "1-0 today" mindset for the season.
Injuries were among the reasons the Pirates settled for a winning season despite hoping to make the playoffs. Once they were finally healthy, the team played better. Over the final 30 games of the season, Pittsburgh went 19-11 to ensure they'd finish above .500. The Pirates feel what they showed the final month of the season is a reflection of who they are as a team.
"We had a lot of things we had to work through, a lot of adversity missing a lot of key guys throughout and not really having full strength for most of it," Bryan Reynolds recently said. "I think it was pretty good besides a slide or two we had. We're at full strength now but just a little too late, just ran out of time. It's the best year I've had here, so definitely something to build on."
One of the biggest priorities the Pirates have this season will be attempting to re-sign Brandon Lowe , who paced the offense with 35 home runs and 96 RBI. But even if Lowe lands elsewhere, the Pirates feel they have a core they can build around heading into next season.
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"This definitely feels like a group to build off of. I'm not the GM. I don't make those decisions in the offseason, but it definitely feels like a group that's building together moving forward," Ryan O'Hearn said during the team's last homestand. "Doesn't feel like the end. I've been on teams where it kind of felt like the end of an era-type thing, but this definitely feels like a team that you want to build forward with."
After ending a stretch of seven straight losing seasons, up next for the Pirates will be to snap MLB's second-longest playoff drought. With how the team finished this season, they feel the pieces are in place to get back to the playoffs next year for the first time since 2015.
"Going forward, really excited about what that means for the future of Pirates baseball," said Kelly.
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