The Pirates are a clear bottom 3 offense up to this point in the season. They are dead last in runs scored, tied for second least home runs, 23rd in the league in OBP, and next to last in slugging.
Last year you could argue the Pirates may be outside the bottom 5 in the league for offensive output. Even with injuries and doing next to nothing this last offseason, I expected them to be a little better than last year.
They found a way to be worse this year. The Rockies have a win percentage of .175, and the Pirates have scored fewer runs.
Is there any hope for improvement amongst the players currently on the Roster? It seems there are at least a couple who should see a surge at the plate as the season drags on.
The first hitter is of course Bryan Reynolds. He is putting up stronger peripherals than his current production as expected. Reynolds certainly isn't passing the eye test. It seems like every time he can hit into a double play he does so. He has also been chasing more often than in the past especially on non-competitive pitches. It seems some panic is starting to creep to the surface in Reynolds. However, his peripherals are looking good for the most part. His wxOBA is .349 and xSLG is .499. That also comes with above average barrel rate, avg exit velocity, and hard hit rate. Reynolds is not squaring the ball up as much and not hitting at as good of an angle when he makes contact. As the season progresses, this should improve.
A dark horse candidate to improve as the season progresses is Henry Davis. He's got good bat speed, whiff, and k rates. But when he hits the ball he makes very weak contact. I think for Davis practice makes perfect, and he needs consistent reps against major league pitching. With Bart as the primary catcher, that may not happen however.
A third candidate for improvement this season is Andrew McCutchen. His numbers look alright now with a .740 OPS. However, he is hitting the ball much better than those number suggest. Cutch has above average xwOBA, xBA, xSLG, Barrel rate, square up %, chase rate, k, and walk rates. He has below average bat speed, but he makes the most out of his contact, and I expect his production to improve as the season carries on.