Gregory Soto Ready to Help Pirates in Any Role

Gregory Soto is joining a Pittsburgh Pirates roster that, admittedly, is pretty strong and deep with its pitching staff. A team can

Soto has been experiencing pitching in high-leverage situations. Even though he isn’t technically considered a closer at this point in his career, the left-hander has racked up six saves over the last three seasons when he was a member of the New York Mets and Baltimore Orioles .

The 30-year-old doesn’t exactly know what his role will be with the Pirates for the 2026 season, but that doesn’t matter to him. Soto is ready to contribute in any way he can, and that mindset alone will make him a solid addition to the roster.

During Soto's introductory press conference, “I will try different colors this season for the Pirates, You can write it down. It really doesn't matter to me,” Soto said through his interpreter. “That's what I know to do, back end of the bullpen. Whatever role they need me to, I'll be ready, and I'll be more than happy to help the rest of the bullpen to win some games.”

Soto has the track record and experience to be a team’s closer or the guy the skipper turns to in a jam. Maybe those will end up being his roles with Pittsburgh at some point during the 2026 season, but he’s not expecting it to be; he’s not expecting anything.

This attitude of being alright with not being locked into a single role is a huge boost for the Pirates for a couple of reasons.

One, they can souffle Soto around the bullpen and see where he best fits to help the team win right now, but it also shows the veteran is ready to play a leader and won’t get in the way of developing some of Pittsburgh’s other young relief arms.

Plus, Soto is hoping that being put in different positions out of the bullpen will help him return to his All-Star form from a few seasons ago.

“Definitely will learn from situations from last year. Maybe the season did not end like I wanted it to last year, but one thing for sure – I’m going to be positive, go back at it again and try to be available for my team every time,” said Soto.

The mindset Soto is already showing is certainly pointing to this being a great signing for the Pirates.