{"id":106342,"date":"2025-08-26T19:39:58","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T23:39:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=106342"},"modified":"2025-08-26T19:39:58","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T23:39:58","slug":"pirates-jared-triolo-staking-claim-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/08\/26\/pirates-jared-triolo-staking-claim-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates Gold Glover Staking His Claim for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Jared Triolo<\/a> has performed well in August, but is it enough to win a job for 2026? There\u2019s never been any question about his defense. Last year, he won a Gold Glove Award<\/a> in the utility category for the National League. He\u2019s unlikely to repeat this year. Players who spend three weeks in Triple-A are rarely considered for postseason awards.<\/p>\n

\"Jared
Jul 6, 2025; Seattle, Washington, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Jared Triolo (19) breaks his bat during the seventh inning against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A poor performance at the plate necessitated that trip to Indianapolis<\/a> on July 11. At that time, Triolo was hitting .158\/.253\/.266 in 55 games. He had seen much of his action as the right-handed half of a platoon at first base, where offense is paramount. At Indy, he hit .239\/.397\/.413 in 15 games. Somehow, that was enough to earn him a promotion<\/a> back to the big leagues on August 1, after an infield spot opened up due to the trade<\/a> of third baseman Ke\u2019Bryan Hayes<\/a> to the Cincinnati Reds.<\/p>\n

\n

#Pirates<\/a> trade K. Hayes for 34 year-old relief pitcher who will be a free agent after the season and a class A shortstop. Nothing to help the team next year. Can you say salary dump?
\nCherington adds to his miserable legacy<\/p>\n

\u2014 Bob Smizik (@BobSmizik) July 30, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Pirates Infielder Jared Triolo Staking His Claim for 2026<\/h2>\n

Since his recall, Triolo, 27, is hitting .333\/.422\/.514 entering Tuesday\u2019s schedule while playing regularly at shortstop or third base. Sometimes, he\u2019s played third base alongside regular shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa<\/a>. Most times, Triolo has played shortstop with \u201cIKF\u201d at third base. If you\u2019re wondering what sense that makes, don\u2019t. It\u2019s clear that, once again, the Pirates are using August and September to conduct a tryout camp for next season.<\/p>\n

In any event, it\u2019s his sudden burst of offense that\u2019s drawing the most attention to Triolo. He\u2019s enticed the Pirates before with late-season offense. In 2023, he hit .350\/.458\/.567 in September and October. That all but guaranteed Triolo a place on the active roster when the Pirates broke camp in 2024. Unfortunately, by May 7, the combination of a .216\/.303\/.259 slash line and the return of Nick Gonzales<\/a> from Indianapolis forced Triolo back into a Swiss Army knife role. Triolo\u2019s offense continued to suffer. Finally, from September 11 to the end of the season, he hit a more palatable .268\/.303\/.366.<\/p>\n

Is Triolo once again convincing the Pirates with a strong late-season performance, only to see him slump when the next season starts? There\u2019s a song by the Who<\/a> called \u201cWon\u2019t Get Fooled Again.\u201d However, Pirates general manager Ben Cherington might be unfamiliar with that concept, as he happens to be one of the few people in the world who has never been a touring member of the Who during their many farewell tours since the deaths of Keith Moon and John Entwistle. Furthermore, unless this season is Cherington\u2019s farewell tour as Pirates GM, it looks like shortstop belongs to Triolo in 2026. Make no mistake, this is Cherington\u2019s call. Like all major league managers, Don Kelly<\/a> is simply executing the front office\u2019s game plan.<\/p>\n

The People’s Choice<\/h3>\n

Pirates fans would love to see the 24-year-old Liover Peguero<\/a> get a shot at the shortstop position. Peguero was acquired in Cherington\u2019s first trade<\/a> as Pirates GM back in January 2020. The supposed shortstop of the future hasn\u2019t gotten much of a look since appearing in 59 games in 2023. In those games, he hit just .237\/.280\/.374 but showed surprising pop with seven home runs. This season at Indy, he was moved around the infield and outfield while being groomed for a utility role. Since joining the Pirates<\/a> on July 18 after the Adam Frazier<\/a> trade<\/a> opened up a spot for him, Peguero has seen action in the middle infield while assuming Triolo\u2019s former job as the right-handed half of a platoon at first base.<\/p>\n

Peguero is hitting a woeful .206\/.275\/.413 with the Pirates this season, but the power is back. He has four home runs since his recall, including three on August 2 in a losing effort at Colorado.<\/p>\n

The Last Word<\/h3>\n

Stubbornness is a quality found in many successful people. Cherington certainly has it, although he has yet to have any success since he joined the Pirates. He\u2019s shown remarkable patience with struggling players whom the fans wanted sent to Siberia. Some, like David Bednar<\/a> and Tommy Pham<\/a>, have rewarded him. Others, like Colin Holderman<\/a> and Jack Suwinski<\/a>, have not. Henry Davis<\/a> is in a gray area. His offense hasn\u2019t lived up to the hype of being the first overall draft pick of 2021, but his defense has exceeded expectations so far.<\/p>\n

As for the roles Triolo and Peguero play for the Pirates in 2026, it\u2019s been etched in stone by Cherington. Triolo will be a regular in the infield in 2026. It seems that he\u2019ll be the shortstop, but he may also be at third base. Peguero will be a backup all over the infield and outfield.<\/p>\n

This is all subject to change if Cherington isn\u2019t back in 2026. That, as we say in Pittsburgh, is \u201ca whole \u2018nother story.\u201d For now, I\u2019ll tell the story that\u2019s in front of me. But we may find that what we thought was etched in stone was merely molded in clay.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Katie Stratman-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Jared Triolo has performed well in August, but is it enough to win a job for 2026? There\u2019s never been any question about his defense. Last year, he won a Gold Glove Award in the utility category for the National League. He\u2019s unlikely to repeat this year. Players who spend three weeks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5010,"featured_media":88889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1071,35],"tags":[3215,5829,28961,4875,5720,6463,3070,3329,3605,1087],"class_list":["post-106342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pirates","category-mlb","category-news","tag-ben-cherington","tag-david-bednar","tag-don-kelly","tag-henry-davis","tag-jack-suwinski","tag-jared-triolo","tag-kebryan-hayes","tag-liover-peguero","tag-nick-gonzales","tag-tommy-pham"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5010"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106342"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106371,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106342\/revisions\/106371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}