The Pirates overhauled their offense last season. Brandon Lowe arrived via trade. Ryan O’Hearn and Marcell Ozuna came aboard through free agency. Konnor Griffin was promoted a week into the season.
The moves came with varying degrees of success, but the end result was an offense that ranked sixth in scoring, sixth in OPS, and ninth in SLG. Those numbers looked a lot better until injuries thinned out the lineup in the summer.
O’Hearn was a key cog in the middle of the order. He signed a modest two-year, $29 million deal after a strong season split between the Orioles and Padres. O’Hearn was an above-average bat for the fourth straight season, finishing with a 109 wRC+. He slashed .265/.330/.440 over 451 plate appearances. A severe quad injury derailed his season in August.
After five unremarkable seasons in Kansas City, O’Hearn broke through as a viable big-league bat in 2023 with Baltimore. He cut down the strikeouts, improved his barrel rate, and hit the ball hard at an elite rate. O’Hearn continued to produce even as he was given more opportunities against same-handed pitching. He settled in as a reliable contributor who didn’t have the typical power of a first baseman/corner outfielder but had a higher batting average ceiling.
The 2026 campaign looked different for O’Hearn. His strikeout rate ticked back up to 22%. He didn’t barrel the ball as frequently, but hit a career-high 18 home runs. O’Hearn hit .265 and posted a .247 expected batting average. It’s not a bad profile, but it wasn’t what we’ve seen in recent seasons.
The move to PNC Park presented O’Hearn with new dimensions to tackle. It’s a poor park for power in general, ranking 27th in Statcast’s Park Factor for home runs. Righties are more adversely affected than lefties. It’s actually a neutral venue for left-handed power, ranking 14th for homers. It’s fourth in overall Park Factor for lefties.
The Clemente Wall is 21 feet tall in right field, but it’s only 320 feet down the line. The setup makes the park a great spot for doubles. It’s second in Park Factor for two-baggers, behind only Fenway Park. O’Hearn made changes that would seem to be suited for his new home.
O’Hearn pulled the ball at a 40.2% clip in 2026, the second-highest rate of his career. He pulled it in the air 19% of the time, his highest mark since his rookie season and well above his career norm of 15.5%. He raised his average launch angle to 13.6 degrees, again the highest since his debut.
The change is evident in his intercept point. He contacted the ball 2.3 inches in front of the plate on average. That’s a pretty typical mark league-wide, but it’s a big jump for O’Hearn. He’s been under 1 inch since Statcast began tracking that stat. He had a negative intercept point during his 2023 breakout.
It wasn’t just the batted-ball distribution and contact. O’Hearn had a career-low 70.7 mph average swing speed. He had an 8.7% fast swing rate, basically half of his number in 2025 and well below the league average of 24.4%. It was a committed approach that seemed more intent on lifting to the pull side instead of driving the ball where it was pitched.
O’Hearn set a career mark in homers for the second straight year, but did it in nearly 100 fewer plate appearances in 2026. He also chipped in 17 doubles and recorded some of his best SLG and ISO numbers as a big leaguer. The adjustments bring more strikeout and batting average downside into what was an extremely safe bat-to-ball outlook. It also adds more punch, which could be important for a Pittsburgh offense that probably won’t have Lowe next season.
Photos courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images
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