The Pirates Want… Framber???

Ken Rosenthal recently reported that the Pittsburgh Pirates have officially entered the chat (no, Ken did not use that terminology). I can’t tell if the Pirates are really going for it or if they are trying to get their “get back” after being dumped by Eugenio Suarez. Today alone it’s been reported they are in on Framber and Marcel Ozuna.

Good for the Pirates honestly. Paul Skenes deserves this. The world tells you he has it all: the looks, Livvy Dunne, the talent, but the one thing this man hasn’t had is a serviceable supporting cast. In the year of our Lord 2025, the Cincinatti Reds made the playoffs as a Wild Card team. You can’t tell me after acquiring Brandon Lowe and Jake Mangum, signing Ryan O’Hearn, and potentially adding these two pieces that the Pittsburgh Pirates can’t be competitive.

Their interest in him makes a lot of sense. Right now, Fangraphs projects them to have 5 right-handed starters, which includes the likes of Braxton Ashcraft, Mitch Keller, and Carmen Mlodzinski. Not dogging on any of those guys (they’d strike me out any day of the week), but they aren’t the fiercest trio in the game. Adding Framber would immediately strengthen this rotation. I can hear you guys now saying “Glad he’s gone! He crossed up Salazar!” or “He fell off and isn’t good anymore!” or “TK, Blummer, & Julia mentioning how he acquired his package of peanuts is annoying!”. Say what you want about Framber, the man EATS innings. The Mickey Mouse trio at the back end of the Pirates rotation would benefit greatly by having him. I’m not a statistician or anything, but typically, bad players have bad games more often than good players. When all your starters not named Paul Skenes get chased after 3 innings, your bullpen is toast. Insert Framber.

(side note about Framber - rewatched some of 2022 season & kind of forgot how much of a DAWG Framber was that year. people forget that & I wanted to make sure that was noted)