The Pittsburgh Pirates only had one All-Star representative in 2025. That was Paul Skenes. The last time the Bucs sent more than two representatives to the Mid-Summer Classic was over a decade ago in 2015. During that season, it was Andrew McCutchen, Gerrit Cole, Mark Melancon, and A.J. Burnett, who was in his final year in pro ball. But the Pirates have a much better team in 2026 compared to the last few seasons. They could send multiple players to their first All-Star team, but these three stand out as the best candidates.
Spencer Horwitz
The Pirates acquired Spencer Horwitz in the 2024-2025 offseason from the Cleveland Guardians. The first baseman followed up his quality 2024 rookie season with very similar production in 2025. Last year, Horwitz batted .272/.353/.434 with a .344 wOBA, and 119 wRC+. Horwitz went yard 11 times in 411 plate appearances, resulting in a solid .162 isolated slugging percentage. He also walked at a healthy 10.7% rate with an 81st percentile chase rate (23.3%) while only striking out in 17.8% of his plate appearances and posting an 86th percentile whiff rate (17.8%).
Horwitz missed about the first month-and-a-half of the 2025 season recovering from wrist surgery. He got off to a slow start and had just a 74 wRC+ by the All-Star break. However, Horwitz went on a tear after the break, slashing .305/.396/.520 with a 154 wRC+. He struck out (13.9% K%) nearly as often as he walked (12.6% BB%) over his last 230 plate appearances of the season. Nine of Horwitz’s home runs came after the break. Horwitz leaned heavier into his pulled flyball power, going from a 14.5% pulled air percentage before the break to 18.5% after the break.
Horwitz doesn’t need to put up the same insane numbers he had in the second half of last year to represent the Pirates at the All-Star Game this year. If he stays consistent and continues to post a wRC+ around 120, he’ll likely earn a spot as a reserve on the National League roster. Horwitz has proven he can hit for contact, walk at a healthy rate, keep his strikeouts down, and hit for power to his pull side. He has the skills to be an All-Star in 2026.
Dennis Santana
Dennis Santana was outstanding for the Pirates in 2024 and lights out once again in 2025. He pitched a total of 70.1 innings, making him one of only 20 relievers who reached the 70-inning benchmark without starting a game last year. Santana pitched that many frames while working to a 2.18 ERA, 3.21 FIP, and 0.87 WHIP. His 22.2% strikeout rate was about league average, and he only walked 6.3% of opponents. Santana was very immune to home runs, with a HR/9 of just 0.64.
Nearly all of Santana’s struggles came from just a single game in 2025: the nightmare August 1st game against the Colorado Rockies. Outside of this one outing, Santana owned a 1.54 ERA, 22.4% strikeout rate, and 6.1% walk rate. The biggest improvement was to his HR/9, which dropped to a microscopic 0.39. This one game accounted for nearly 30% of the total earned runs Santana allowed. In total, he allowed 17, with five coming from this one outing.
Santana eventually took over the Pirates’ closer role and saved a total of 16 games in 2025. We know Santana can be even better than this. His final 42.2 innings of 2024 yielded a 31.1% strikeout rate, 84.3 MPH exit velocity (89 MPH in 2025), and 2% barrel rate (10.5% in 2025). He ranked in the top ten in the league in ERA (1.27), K-BB% (25.5%), exit velocity, and first in barrel rate from June 18 through the end of 2024 (min. 40 IP). If he can replicate anything as he has over the last two seasons, gets his strikeouts back up, and limits more hard contact, Santana isn’t just going to the All-Star game; he’ll be one of the best closers in MLB.
Braxton Ashcraft
Braxton Ashcraft will be one of the most dominant pitchers on the Pirates this year. That’s because he was the Pirates’ second-most dominant pitcher last year. Ashcraft pitched 69.2 innings in his rookie year, working to the tune of a 2.71 ERA, 2.78 FIP, and 1.25 WHIP. He struck out 24.3% of batters he faced with an 8.2% walk rate. The right-hander allowed just three home runs all year and was excellent at limiting hard contact. He was in the 80th percentile of exit velocity (88 MPH) and the 94th percentile of barrel rate (4.6%).
Ashcraft spent most of 2025 as a long reliever. However, when the Pirates began giving him more starts, he only got better. Seven of his nine outings were starts. In those nine games, Ashcraft had a 2.23 ERA, 29.1% K%, and 8.1% BB% in 39.1 innings pitched. It only became harder for opponents to get good wood off of Ashcraft, with an 87.5 MPH EV and 4.4% barrel percentage. The most impressive thing is that Ashcraft did not see a downturn in stuff moving from a long relief role to a starting pitching role. His FanGraphs Stuff+ throughout his first 33.1 innings and 17 games, where just one of his contests was a start, was 105. His fastball velocity came in at 96.9 MPH. During his last nine outings, he still maintained a 105 Stuff+ with a fastball velocity of 97 MPH.
Now that Ashcraft is ready to take on a larger workload in 2026, he’ll get free rein of a starting rotation spot. He has a strong chance of becoming the Pirates’ second-best starter behind Paul Skenes. If he produces anything like he did last year, becoming an All-Star will only be one of his accomplishments. Producing like he did after he moved to the Pirates’ rotation will get him Cy Young votes.
