The BBWAA announced the official Pittsburgh Pirates team awards a week ago. Brandon Lowe won the Roberto Clemente Award as team MVP. Braxton Ashcraft took the Steve Blass Award as the top pitcher. Both were unanimous.
Those are the establishment picks, the ones that will get printed on a plaque in the press box at PNC Park. But this season deserved a fuller accounting. The Pirates won 82 games and finished above .500 for the first time since 2018. They stayed in the thick of a playoff race until August, and technically were alive into September. After years of "wait till next year," this team finally gave us something worth watching.
So here's my version of the 2026 Pirates awards. The ones that tell the story of how this team finally got over the losing hump and seems to be building towards something even bigger.
No debate here. Lowe was the best player on the roster and one of the best second basemen in baseball. He set the team record for home runs at PNC Park with 19. He finished with 35 homers and 96 RBI, leading the team in both categories. He posted a 5.5 bWAR, also the best on the club.
What surprised most was the defense. Lowe came to Pittsburgh with a reputation as a bat-first player who struggled in the field. He'd posted negative defensive metrics in Tampa Bay . This year, he flipped that completely. The improvement was real and it mattered, as he solidified the middle of the infield along with Konnor Griffin.
Manager Don Kelly put it simply: "What he's meant on the field, in the clubhouse, in the community, you can't put into words".
A pending free agent, whether Lowe returns or not will be the biggest question of the off-season for the Pirates. But before the team begins negotiations, his accomplishments this season should be celebrated.
Sep 5, 2026; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Braxton Ashcraft (35) delivers a pitch against the Los Angeles Angels during the first inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Ashcraft made the leap from promising arm to legitimate rotation anchor. He went 14-5 with a 3.65 ERA in 28 starts. He struck out 173 batters in 165.1 innings. He made his first All-Star team, joining fellow starter Paul Skenes in Philadelphia .
The 14 wins were the most by a Pirates pitcher since Jameson Taillon and Trevor Williams in 2018. He threw a nine-inning complete game in Miami on August 13, the first by a Pirates starter since Mitch Keller in 2024.
His season ended early with right arm discomfort in September, but he told reporters last week that it was out of precaution. He'll presumably be ready to go for Spring Training.
Griffin was the consensus No. 1 prospect in baseball coming into the season. He debuted at 19, creating one of the most hyped MLB introductions in recent memory. Griffin's first game at PNC Park was a highlight of the season, as he laced a double in his first Pittsburgh at-bat. You could feel the earth shake on the North Shore that afternoon.
He signed a nine-year extension shortly after. He had an IL stint that probably cost him National League Rookie of the Year consideration, but he was still the most electrifying young player on this roster.
His final slash line for the season was .272/.324/.404 with six home runs, 33 RBI and 23 stolen bases. He also provided plus defense at shortstop. A healthy Griffin next season should continue his trajectory towards being one of the best young players in baseball.
This is the emotional core of the season. Jones missed all of 2025 after elbow surgery. Jones' return in May of this season provided stability in the Pirates' rotation. Jones had an up-and-down first few months of his season, but finished on a high note.
He had a 1.91 ERA and 50 strikeouts in 37.2 innings pitched in his last seven starts of the season. Jones' ERA for the whole season was 3.72, with a WHIP of 1.08.
His fastball velocity was elite again. His strikeout rate was excellent (123 in 101.1 IP). He looked like the pitcher who gave Pirates fans hope in 2024 that he would combine with Skenes as one of the best duos in baseball. Those conversations are happening again. Any talk of Jones becoming a reliever was quieted by September.
The Pirates acquired Montgomery in the same December 2025 trade that also netted them Lowe and Jake Mangum . Those three combined for 8.7 WAR this season, according to Baseball Reference.
After a shaky first half, Montgomery was one of the best relievers in baseball in the second half. He was dominant in August, not allowing a run in 11 appearances. He didn't allow a run in September until the second to last game of the season.
He carried a scoreless streak from July 26 to September 26. His 1.42 ERA after the All-Star break was the kind of performance that changes a team's late-inning calculus and gives the Pirates confidence that they've found their closer for the foreseeable future.
This one goes to third baseman Murf Gray, with an honorable mention going to starting pitcher Seth Hernandez.
Gray was the Pirates' Competitive Balance Round B pick in 2025, taken 73rd overall out of Fresno State. He'd been a solid college player. Nothing about the pick screamed future star. Then he went out and had one of the best offensive seasons by a Pirates minor leaguer in years.
Gray started the year at Low-A Bradenton and hit .359 with a 1.042 OPS in 38 games. He moved to High-A Greensboro and hit .302 with a .991 OPS in 43 games. He earned South Atlantic League Player of the Month honors in June. Then he got promoted to Double-A Altoona, where he became the first Pirates prospect since Mason Martin in 2019 to hit 30 home runs in a season.
He finished with a .301 average, 30 homers, and a .402 on-base percentage across three levels. He leads all Pirates minor leaguers in home runs, RBI, runs scored, hits, slugging percentage, and OPS.
MLB Pipeline moved him into their top 100 prospects. He's now considered the No. 3 prospect in the organization, behind only Hernandez and Edward Florentino.
Gray has some things to work on. His chase rate is high. His defense at third base may eventually push him to first. But the bat is real, and it carried him through three levels in one season.
If the Comeback award went to Jones, the Breakout award belongs to Flores. He arrived in Pittsburgh as the centerpiece of the originally unpopular David Bednar trade, a 25-year-old rookie who had never gotten a real shot in the majors. He spent most of the season at Triple-A, where he hit just .228 with four home runs in 65 games. Nothing about that line screamed future starter.
Then Endy Rodrguez went down with a season-ending hip injury, and Flores got his opportunity. What happened next was one of the most unexpected developments of the season.
Over his final 28 games, Flores hit eight home runs. He had a two-homer, six-RBI game against Miami. He had another two-homer game in a walk-off win over Detroit . His season OPS climbed to .858 in 47 MLB games, and he produced a .924 OPS against left-handed pitching.
Kelly praised his improvement "offensively and defensively, with his receiving and throwing". We saw proof of Flores' all-around game when he threw out two runners and had four hits in a game against the Brewers .
While Henry Davis had another strong season defensively, he was one of the worst players in the National League at the plate. Flores Jr. has forced a serious conversation about who will be the Pirates' Opening Day starter at catcher.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/pirates/onsi as Pittsburgh Pirates 2026 Season Awards .
