If life had carried on as normal, we would now just be a matter of days away from the start of the new MLB season. As it stands now, though, we don’t really have a clear idea of when opening day will finally arrive. The most recent guesses are that we are looking at the middle of May before we hear the crack of the bat, but this is a very fluid situation that we are in at the moment, which is perhaps why none of the major leagues are making concrete plans for a return. The reality, though, is that we should expect baseball back at some point, which is why we are doing our season previews as we normally would at this time of the year. We are going to cover every team in the league, but for the purposes of this piece, we will be shining the spotlight on the Pittsburgh Pirates. Let’s check the MLB Odds and World Series Odds for the Pittsburgh Pirates 2020 Season.
Pittsburgh Pirates Analysis Before 2020 Season Start
Pittsburgh Pirates 2019 Season Performance
You need to go back to 2015 to find the last time that the Pittsburgh Pirates made it into the postseason, and there is better than average chance that they will extend that streak when the new season finally gets underway. The Pirates have seen a dramatic drop off since that 2015 season, when they racked up 98 wins. Last year was a real low, with Pittsburgh finishing last in the Central Division with a 69-93 record.
When you have a season that bad, you can’t really look at just one thing as being the problem, although the pitching and defense needs to shoulder a lot of the responsibility for such a poor year. That’s not to say that the offense was on fire, because they certainly were not, managing 758 runs on the season. That pales, though, to the 911 runs that the Pirates surrendered in a truly woeful season.
As you will se in the next part of this article, fans of the Pirates can probably expect a whole lot more of the same this coming season.
Pittsburgh Pirates Offseason Moves
The biggest moves that the Pirates made in the offseason were in the front office as opposed to on the field. It was a total clear out at the top, with Ben Cherington, the man who was GM with the Boston Red Sox when they won the title in 2013, being chosen as the one to lead the Pirates back to respectability. With almost zero moves on free agency, it is clear that this is not going to be a quick turnaround for Pittsburgh. Instead, they will look to the likes of Chris Archer to have a rebound year, while also hoping that Gregory Polanco can return to form after missing a chunk of last season to a shoulder injury. All of that suggests that it’s going to be a long, long season for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
How the Bookies See the Pittsburgh Pirates for 2020 Season
Getting this team back to a decent level is a massive undertaking that is not going to happen very quickly. The odds on the Pirates this season are very much indicative of that. The Pirates are in at +5500 to win the Central Division, while also being a huge +25000 underdog to win the World Series.
