Ranking the Pittsburgh Pirates third base options
Third base is a potential question mark for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Ke’Bryan Hayes once looked like the long-term answer, especially after his 2022 extension and 2023 breakout, but back injuries greatly affected his game, and he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds during the 2025 trade deadline. There are multiple routes the Pirates could take to improve the third base. However, based on their current depth chart and the players they have shown interest in acquiring, these four options seem like the most likely. Let’s first start with the best decision they could make, and work our way down.
Sign Eugenio Suarez
Eugenio Suarez is one of the best free agents left on the market, and he so happens to play a position the Pirates need some help at. The corner infielder has long been one of baseball’s more underrated sluggers, but he had one of his best displays of power in 2025, as he batted .228/.398/.536 with 49 home runs over 658 plate appearances with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Seattle Mariners. His .298 isolated slugging percentage was the fifth best in the league, trailing MVP winners and finalists including Aaron Judge, Cal Raleigh, Shohei Ohtani, and Kyle Schwarber. Overall, he had a .347 wOBA and 125 wRC+.
Suarez isn’t a perfect hitter. He struck out at a 29.8% rate, with only a 7% walk rate. The latter is the second-worst mark of his career, with his lowest being set at 4.3% in his sophomore 2015 campaign. Still, Suarez has hit at least 21 home runs every season since 2016 (not including the shortened 2020 season), and has had a wRC+ of 100 or greater in seven of the last eight seasons (again, not including 2020).
Suarez’s defense at the hot corner did not grade out particularly well, with -6 defensive runs saved and -3 outs above average. However, Suarez is not far removed from being a solid defender, as he received a positive score in OAA in 2023 and 2024, clocking in at 14 outs above average. DRS has never loved his glovework, and hasn’t been above-average at the hot corner in this regard since 2017.
The Pirates only hit 117 home runs last year, when no other team hit fewer than 148. For reference, the LA Dodgers hit 118 home runs during the 60-game 2020 season. Acquiring Brandon Lowe, then signing Ryan O’Hearn, are massive steps in the right direction, and signing Suarez would be the perfect way for them to cap off their offseason, even if Suarez is older with strikeout concerns.
Stick with Jared Triolo
Fans are going to roll their eyes at this, but hear me out.
Jared Triolo only batted .227/.311/.356 with a .296 wOBA, and 86 wRC+. But it was a very promising .667 OPS/86 wRC+. Triolo took a big step forward in his plate discipline, going from a 26.5% K% and 27.4% whiff rate in 2024 to a respectable 20.2% strikeout rate and 24% whiff rate in 2025. He did that while maintaining a 10.4% walk rate and a 24.3% chase rate.
That’s not the only area Triolo improved in. Triolo also went from an 88.4 MPH exit velocity and 5.3% barrel rate to an 89 MPH exit velo and 6.2% barrel percentage. This improved batted ball led to his xwOBA going from .296 to .310, which is only slightly below the league average xwOBA of .316.
Slightly below average production is definitely playable for Triolo, given his defensive prowess. Triolo saw playing time at all four infield positions this season, where he combined for +9 DRS and +7 outs above average. Triolo is a quality defender wherever he plays, but he has the most DRS at +13, and the most OAA at +9 for his career at the hot corner in 1096.2 innings. The Pirates are the only team whose third basemen have had at least 100 DRS at 107, and more than 55 OAA, at 81, since the 2020 season.
It only took Triolo 376 plate appearances over 107 games to reach +1.5 fWAR last year. That’s about +2.0 fWAR over the course of 500 plate appearances and 150 games. A wRC+ hovering around 95 with Triolo’s elite defense at third base would easily make him a valuable asset for the Pirates, and arguably better than what they could find in non-Suarez trade or free agent targets. However, the question then becomes whether league-average value is good enough to help the Pirates significantly, and if sticking Triolo at one position most of the time is worth it, given his versatility and defensive skills.
Trade for Alec Bohm
Alec Bohm has proven to be a consistently solid bat over the last three years. However, his 2025 season marked a noticeable step back from 2024. He still turned in a respectable .287/.331/.409 triple-slash with a .322 wOBA, and a 105 wRC+. Bohm only hit 11 home runs over 504 trips to the dish with a .123 isolated slugging percentage, and walked at a below-average 5.8% rate. On the plus side, he has never struck out much and only went down on strike three in 16.3% of his trips to the dish last season. He also owned a .324 xwOBA, suggesting luck wasn’t a major factor in his performance.
His slightly above-average offense was paired with slightly below-average defense at third base. Bohm had -3 DRS and -2 OAA at third base. He has developed into an acceptable defensive third baseman, after putting up -36 DRS and -11 OAA at third throughout his first three seasons in Major League Baseball.
Bohm put up about the same fWAR as Triolo last year at 1.7, but in 128 more plate appearances. But he’s not far removed from a quality 2024 season when he hit .280/.332/.448 with a .335 wOBA, and 113 wRC+. Bohm hit for much more power, with 15 home runs in 606 plate appearances and a .168 ISO. His defense also graded out much better, with zero DRS and +4 OAA. Plus, he was in the 80th percentile of xwOBA at .345. All of that led to a fWAR coming in at +3.4.
Bohm is only under control through the 2026 season. If Bohm can play more like he did in 2024, and if the Pirates can acquire him without giving up anything greater than a top 15 prospect, acquiring him may be more worthwhile than Triolo. But in four of the five seasons Bohm has had 500+ plate appearances, he has put up an fWAR below +2.0. Bohm has more offensive upside than Triolo, but there’s certainly more risk, considering what the Pirates would have to give up, and whether he’d be more valuable than Triolo.
Sign Yoan Moncada
While signing Yoan Moncada would not be ideal, there is still some upside in going this route. Moncada can provide a solid bat. Last year, he slashed .236/.336/.448 with a .339 wOBA, and 118 wRC+. The switch-hitter went yard a dozen times with an ISO over .200 at .214. While his 26% K% was anything to write home about, he also walked at a strong 11.1% rate. While Moncada is more of a platoon bat, he had a strong .815 OPS vs RHP, and has a career .774 OPS when facing right-handers.
But his defense at third base is questionable, to say the least. Last year, Moncada had -10 DRS and -13 OAA at third base. He was one of only three players in 2025 with less than 300 plate appearances and -10 or fewer fielding runs, with Moncada sitting at -10. For what it’s worth, though, Moncada only had -1 DRS and +5 OAA from 2021 through 2024 at third base, which consisted of 2899 innings.
The biggest question is whether Moncada can stay healthy. He had just 289 plate appearances and made 84 appearances in 2025 with the LA Angels. Moncada first dealt with a thumb injury in early April that kept him out until early May. He also missed all but one game in June due to right knee inflammation. This isn’t an outlier occurrence either. Moncada only has 691 plate appearances over the last three seasons and hasn’t had more than 450 plate appearances since the 2021 campaign.
While Moncada has questions about whether he can stay healthy for a full season and needs to show he can still handle third base, the Pirates do need offense, and a guy with a wRC+ around 115 and an ISO over .200 is valuable. There are worse free agents the Pirates could sign to deepen their depth chart at third base than Moncada, but this would be the last resort option.
