How Choi can help the Pirates

Of all the areas where the 100 loss 2022 Pirates struggled, there was no greater weakness than first base.

As a team, Pirate first basemen finished last in baseball in batting average (.206), on-base percentage (.264), slugging percentage (.337), hits (119), runs scored (51) and WAR (-3.0, according to FanGraphs). Compared to other first basemen across baseball, they had just a 61 OPS+, meaning they produced almost 40% less offense than the league-average player at that position.

Talking with Ben Cherington at the general manager meetings in Las Vegas Wednesday, he told me the Pirates would have to be open-minded to "solve" the issue at first. A day later, they brought in someone who could…