The Pirates have had a little power surge of late and are now 17th among MLB teams in terms of hitting home runs. The Pirates have hit 73 home runs in their first 72 games, which puts them on pace to hit the most home runs they have had since 2014,
And while being 17th in the majors in home runs may not seem like a significant feat, it is when you consider how devoid of power the Pirates have been in recent years. If they finish the season 17th, it would mark the first time since 2014 that they finished higher than 25th. There are only 30 teams in the majors, so the fact that the Pirates have regularly finished 25 or below means they have been one of the worst power hitting teams in baseball.
Part of it was the previous front office had a philosophy of playing to batting average and on-base percentage as opposed to power ,but the larger part of it was the Pirates just didn’t have a lot of players capable of hitting home runs.
