Jason Mackey: Pirates' offseason directive has been clear. Now, the push for more offense better work.

PITTSBURGH — Sitting in a coffee shop with Paul Skenes while discussing his addiction to winning, the thought is hard to ignore.

The same for a conversation with Don Kelly at the Clemente Museum about managing his hometown team, or the rare time Bryan Reynolds' voice rose above a monotone drawl during a phone conversation we had while he was driving to hit.

There's a lot riding on what the Pirates have done this offseason to improve their offense — and it better work.

We're talking about at least a 20% increase in runs, which in 2025 would've moved the Pirates from last to 19th in Major League Baseball. For some context, the Pirates were 20th in runs back in 2013, when they also had the sport's seventh-best ERA.

Matching those numbers, perhaps relative to the additional offense that exists in today's game, should be attainable for an organization that made a few key moves this offseason — trading for Brandon Lowe, Jake Mangum and Jhostynxon Garcia, plus signing Ryan O'Hearn and a few more moves to come in spring training.

But those moves also have to be the right ones, not failures.

"It's gonna be exciting," Kelly said. "The additions have been really good. There's a great energy and vibe around the team right now. Looking forward to getting down to spring training and pulling it all together."

It's what has been on everyone's mind this offseason, not to mention their fingers tapping into texts or tweets, as well as conversations inside and outside the organization.

If only the Pirates can pair a respectable offense to go with that pitching staff ...

It's what Skenes and I discussed during my weekend trip to see him — whom they've added, what that signals and how the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner can't wait to prove perceptions of the Pirates wrong.

If the Pirates can do that, if they can hit, perhaps that opens the door to extension talks with Skenes or Konnor Griffin, once-in-a-generation talents who want — OK, need — to win.

It's the same thing recently with Eugenio Suarez, the power-hitting third baseman who spurned them to sign with the NL Central-rival Cincinnati Reds. They never had much of a chance, in part because the Pirates have not yet delivered assurance for free agents that they'll win.

That needs to change.

And doing it starts not with pitching, fielding or better fundamentals — though they're all important. The offense has to offer something.

"We're super excited to lean on each other," Spencer Horwitz said. "If somebody's having an off day, we know there's someone else there to pick them up."

To quantify the chase for offense, there's an interesting starting point with FanGraphs' runs above replacement (RAR) metric, which tells us Lowe and O'Hearn last season added 46 RAR in 2025.

That's a solid start. We're also less than halfway home.

Bryan Reynolds and Oneil Cruz, meanwhile, were worth 26.1 RAR in 2025. That number has to be much, much larger.

For context, Reynolds generated 63.2 runs above a replacement player in 2021, while Cruz topped out at 34.8 in 2024 — which tells me that a 20% increase in runs might actually be reasonable.

Even if Cruz matches his 2024 total and Reynolds gives the Pirates his career average over six full seasons (34.3 RAR), we've taken our team total to 89 of the desired increase of 117 runs.

"I think it's going to be a lot better this year," Cruz said at PiratesFest, with major league coach Stephen Morales translating. "The pieces that we added to the team, I think it's going to help add that motivation that we need. Those guys are going to bring it."

But it can't just be the new guys or bounce-back seasons from fringe stars. The Pirates need improvement on the margins, too.

Jared Triolo should have a regular role and needs to recapture the form he found late last season, after he returned from Triple-A. We know he can field. But can he hit like the guy who had a .276 average and .775 OPS over his final 52 games? The Pirates should certainly hope so.

The Pirates also need a positive development story behind the plate. Give Henry Davis credit for his defensive improvement, and he figures to catch a bunch this season. But more important — he needs to hit.

The talent is there. Work ethic, Davis is off the charts. But it hasn't come together.

The No. 1 overall pick in 2021 actually had a negative effect (minus-1.0 RAR) on the offense in 2025, which obviously has to change.

If Triolo and Davis can combine for more than 13.6 RAR, that could and should push the Pirates' offense into an acceptable range, one good enough to pair with elite pitching to spur winning.

If that doesn't happen?

You know the consequences. They know the consequences. General manager Ben Cherington is fully aware results are required at this point.

There've also been bad trades and free-agent signings. More would not not reverse the narrative in a way the Pirates need.

But if it works, if the Pirates can make good on their offseason push to improve the offense, it could turn into an incredibly fun summer.

"If we want to accomplish something, there's nothing standing in our way other than ourselves," Skenes said. "We have to go put in the work and do the right things starting [next week].

"Really, it started a long time ago. It started the moment our season ended. But if we want to accomplish something, we have to take it."

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