We are about three weeks into the 2026 season, and broadcasts are starting to show the current-year statistics for players. Some of these numbers are absolutely shocking (good and bad), but for the most part, they will regress towards the mean. Maybe Marcell Ozuna has taken a large step back in his career, but there is no way that he is going to carry a .070 batting average throughout the season. However, there are some stats which we can draw conclusions from, found in the form of splits and underlying metrics. Let’s dive into a few positive trends which could signal good things for a few members of this Buccos squad.
Oneil Cruz Can Hit Lefties (Again)
At the end of 2024, Oneil Cruz made a big adjustment to his swing. Down the stretch of that year, he started hitting lefties consistently, and it carried him to a .259 average in what looked to be a breakout season. Then, in 2025, that progress seemingly disappeared, and he tallied just 11 hits and 1 homer versus lefties all year, hitting .102 versus southpaws. This essentially made him an auto-out late in games when teams could bring in a lefty to face him, and it resulted in an extremely disappointing season for a player who some picked as a dark horse MVP candidate before the season. So, before this 2026 campaign, Cruz hired a lefty BP thrower, determined to improve his game at the plate. The early returns so far have been astonishing.
Cruz has already popped 8 hits and three homers versus lefties in 2026, numbers which exceed or come close to matching his season-long numbers last year. To be blunt, he looks way more comfortable at the plate versus them, no longer waving at breaking balls low and away with reckless abandon. He has a real plan at the plate versus lefties now, and it makes him that much more of a weapon. Obviously he is not going to continue hitting .471 versus lefties, but if he can keep it closer to .250 instead of .100, we could see an absolutely monster season out of Cruz. While his defense is still an issue, he is looking more and more at the plate like the player many thought he could be when got called up, which makes this Bucs lineup that much better.
Carmen Mlodzinski is Surviving in Games
Last year, nearly every Carmen Mlodzinski start was the same. He would look absolutely great the first time through the order, and people would start talking about this might be his breakthrough as a starter. This was evident in the stats – he had a 1.69 ERA his first time through the order as a starting pitcher. Then, he would face an order for the second time, and absolutely implode, as his 8.84 ERA would indicate. This led to the Buccos sending him down to the minors, and then calling him back up as a reliever. Carmen dominated in that long-relief role, but remained adamant that he could be a good starter. He added a few pitches, changed up his mix, and won the Pirates 5th rotation spot going into this year. And, early returns look as though Carmen might have figured something out.
Mlodzinski has just a 3.18 ERA his second time through the lineup in 2026 so far, and looks more and more like a bona fide starting pitcher every start. He no longer is heavily fastball reliant, and now throws four pitches different pitches over 17 percent of the time. He is mixing and matching his pitches to hitters, locating better, and going deeper in games. Still just 27 years old, he appears to have found another gear, and has given up four total runs to the Mets, Orioles, and Cubs. He hasn’t got to the seventh inning yet, but as the season goes on and these Bucs arms are given some more rope, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Carmen get through 7 strong at some point this year, a claim that would’ve seemed outlandish last year. If he keeps pitching like this, the Pirates are going to have the best sort of problem when Jared Jones returns from Tommy John – too much great starting pitching.
Yohan Ramirez is a Leverage Arm
In 2023 and 2023, Yohan Ramriez looked pretty solid for the Bucs. He was basically exclusively a sinkerballer who got a good amount of ground balls and kept the ball in the park. However, he eventually got placed on waivers, and bounced around the MLB and minor league baseball before ending back up with the Pirates last year. He was not good in 2025, pitching to the tune of a 5.4 ERA and actually getting released by the team mid-season before being brought back later on a minor league deal. However, he was able to work on his game in the offseason, looked good in Spring Training, got along well with the clubhouse, and won a bullpen spot for 2026. The early returns have been fantastic.
Yohan is a completely new pitcher. In his previous Pirates stint he used his sinker at a 70% clip, and when he returned last year, he used his four-seam almost 50% of the time. He now combines to use those two pitches just 50% of the time, and has a new primary weapon – his sweeper. Ramirez has lowered his arm angle from 30 degrees to 22 degrees, a massive shift that has allowed his sweeper to fool hitters and get them to chase some ridiculous pitches. This shows in the stats – he went from getting hitters to chase at just an 8th percentile rate in 2024 all the way up to 63rd percentile this year. While there have been a few bullpen arms for the Pirates that have struggled, Yohan Ramirez is not one of them, and looks to keep getting huge leverage innings.
