2024 in Pittsburgh professional sports: Revamped Steelers' QB room, Pirates' phenom pitcher among top storylines

The year began with the Pittsburgh Steelers losing their fifth consecutive playoff game, keeping alive a streak that dates to the 2016 postseason.

It ended with the Steelers, while reeling from a three-game losing streak, assured of another trip to the playoffs and a chance to end the franchise’s longest drought without a postseason victory in the Super Bowl era.

Team president Art Rooney II laid down the gauntlet early in the offseason when he recognized the sense of urgency for the franchise to make progress toward a seventh championship.

“We’ve had enough of this,” Rooney said in late January. “It’s time to get some wins. It’s time to take these next steps.”

Rooney showed he was serious by approving an overhaul to the quarterback room. Out were Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph. In were three new faces, including one of the highest-profile free-agent acquisitions in team history.

The Steelers signed former Super Bowl champion Russell Wilson shortly after he was released by Denver. A day after Pickett was traded to Philadelphia, the Steelers traded for another former first-round pick, Justin Fields.

The Steelers also signed two starters in free agency: linebacker Patrick Queen and safety DeShon Elliott. They also traded their most established wide receiver, Diontae Johnson, to Carolina in exchange for cornerback Donte Jackson.

While the Johnson trade helped reshape the secondary, it exposed a weakness in the wide receiver group behind George Pickens that management never sufficiently filled.

An injury to Wilson in a conditioning drill on the eve of training camp paved the way for Fields to start the first six games. The Steelers went 4-2, but coach Mike Tomlin switched to Wilson, who led the team to six wins in the next seven games.

The Steelers were 10-3 and on the verge of clinching the division titles — and a home playoff game — when losses to Philadelphia, Baltimore and Kansas City within an 11-day span took some of the luster off the strong start.

Pirates’ Skenes takes MLB by storm

If the Pittsburgh Pirates want to point to positivity in 2024, it was most profound on the mound. Their rotation featured a pair of rookie right-handers in Jared Jones and Paul Skenes who dazzled with triple-digit fastballs, while veteran reliever Aroldis Chapman touched 105.1 mph.

The 6-foot-6, 260-pound Skenes was one of the biggest stories in baseball, going from 2023 No. 1 overall pick to starting for the National League in the All-Star Game to winning NL Rookie of the Year and finishing third in Cy Young voting.

The Pirates can point to the plate, where Bryan Reynolds earned his second All-Star appearance with a red-hot June that featured an MLB-best 25-game hitting streak and broke Bobby Bonilla’s franchise record for most home runs by a switch hitter. Andrew McCutchen notched another major milestone with his 300th career home run, and Oneil Cruz joined the 20-20 club.

That optimism was overshadowed by the status quo, as the Pirates endured a 10-game losing streak in August to finish 76-86 for the second consecutive season and in last place in the NL Central.

The Pirates had several players who struggled at the plate and ranked as one of the worst offensive teams in the majors. Their bullpen blew 29 saves, as Chapman and closer David Bednar — who have nine All-Star appearances between them – struggled to hold late leads. A pair of expected sluggers, Henry Davis and Jack Suwinski, struggled at the plate and spent a good portion of the season in the minors.

And the Pirates raised eyebrows by having the 6-foot-7 Cruz change positions in late August, switching from shortstop to center field.

After a 14-win improvement in 2023, the Pirates expected to become a postseason contender for the first time in the Ben Cherington/Derek Shelton era. Instead, it seemed that for every step forward, they took two backwards — especially after acquiring two bats at the trade deadline.

Where they opened camp with a potential battery of No. 1 overall picks with Skenes (2023) on the mound and Henry Davis (2021) behind the plate, it quickly became evident that Skenes would start the season in the minors on a calculated innings and pitch count.

Instead, it was Jones who earned a spot in the starting rotation and made a dynamic debut. He promised to shove, then struck out 10 in 5 2/3 scoreless innings at Miami. The Pirates swept the Marlins and won their first five games.

Then, after a 9-2 start, the PNC Park crowd booed as Bednar was pulled after blowing a two-run lead in the ninth inning. First baseman Rowdy Tellez came to Bednar’s defense by chastising fans for turning on the two-time All-Star closer — only to draw their wrath amid his own slow start at the plate. Two months later, against the Minnesota Twins, Tellez was booed before coming to bat in the bottom of the seventh before hitting a 403-foot home run to give the Pirates the lead and earn a curtain call as the crowd chanted his first name.

After a partial tear in his left Achilles tendon ended his 2023 season one home run shy of his career 300th, McCutchen hit the milestone with a two-run shot in the ninth inning at the Philadelphia Phillies on April 14. The designated hitter would hit 20 homers for the 10th time in his career.

Jones became the first Pirates pitcher to throw seven shutout innings with 10 strikeouts with one hit and no walks in a 1-0 walk-off win over the Colorado Rockies, capped by Jack Suwinski’s bases-loaded single on May 4. Two days later, Mitch Keller tossed the second complete game of his career in a 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels.

Skenes finally joined the Pirates on May 11, making the most anticipated MLB debut since Stephen Strasburg in 2010. Their game against the Cubs drew a crowd of 34,924 to PNC Park to see Skenes top triple digits 17 times in recording seven strikeouts while allowing three runs on six hits and two walks in four-plus inning in the 10-9 win over the Cubs.

Six days later, Skenes flashed his dominance. He notched his first major league victory by striking out 11 in six no-hit innings at Wrigley Field. He would shine brightest on the road, with 11 strikeouts in seven no-hit innings at Milwaukee on July 11 and nine strikeouts in five scoreless innings at Cincinnati on Sept. 22. Skenes smashed the club record for most strikeouts by a rookie (170), recording eight or more in 13 starts by relying on a five-pitch mix that featured a splitter-sinker hybrid.

“It’s not like we’re just punching X and O and triangle or whatever it is in ‘The Show’,” Skenes said. “It’s like, ‘Well, I have it so I might as well throw it.’ We’ve gotten to that point a little bit where I can get guys out with two pitches, three pitches, whatever it is but being able to get guys out with all five has been really fun. With the awareness thing, just learning about my stuff and how it plays and the right time to throw all those pitches, it’s been really fun to learn that as the season’s gone on.”

On June 5, Skenes put on a show when he struck out MVPs Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani in succession in the first inning against the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Ohtani hit a two-run homer in his next at-bat and singled his third time up, but Skenes proved that he had no fear facing the game’s best hitters.

It would foreshadow Skenes facing the American League’s best in the first inning of the Midsummer Classic at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. Skenes retired Cleveland’s Steven Kwan and Baltimore’s Gunnar Henderson before New York Yankees star Juan Soto drew a full-count walk to bring eventual MVP Aaron Judge to bat. Skenes got Judge to ground out to end the inning.

“It was cool to be able to face them in the All-Star Game,” Skenes said, “them being teammates and facing them back-to-back.”

The Pirates ended the first half with a three-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox, winning four in a row and six of seven to improve to .500 (48-48). They opened the second half with three sellouts against the Phillies and were 55-52 when they dealt for right fielder Bryan De La Cruz and middle infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa at the deadline.

Soon after, the bottom dropped out.

The Pirates lost 10 consecutive games, including one that involved a two-hour, 40-minute rain delay on Aug. 6 when the warning track at PNC Park flooded as the drainage system backed up. The next day, the Pirates dropped below .500 when Bednar blew another lead and the San Diego Padres won 9-8 in 10 innings.

Although Chapman had his moments — most notably for passing Billy Wagner for most career strikeouts by a left-handed reliever on June 29 — he could be erratic, as well. He threw 12 consecutive balls in one outing and had ridiculous averages of 14.9 strikeouts and 5.7 walks per nine innings. So leads became tenuous for the Pirates, both home and away, where they suffered nine consecutive one-run losses on the road.

That was especially true against the Cubs, who had 21 hits in an 18-8 win on Aug. 26. The Pirates’ bullpen blew a seven-run lead in a 14-10 loss to the Cubs on Aug. 28. And the Cubs trio of Shota Imanaga, Nate Pearson and Porter Hodge threw a combined no-hitter in a 12-0 win over Pirates on Sept. 4.

On top of that, the Pirates’ infield was in flux. After committing a dozen errors in the span of a month, the 6-foot-7 Cruz was moved from shortstop to center field. The Pirates started the season with an NL Gold Glove winner at third base in Ke’Bryan Hayes. That they finished it the same way wasn’t a good thing. Where Hayes endured a bothersome back in a career-worst season, Jared Triolo was awarded the utility Gold Glove after beginning the season at second base, ending it at third and playing everywhere from first base to shortstop to right field in between.

“I think my biggest asset right now is playing a bunch of positions and being ready to take on whatever position they put me at,” Triolo said. “So, I haven’t really thought too much about a position for next season. Obviously, I’m going to get my work everywhere and just kind of see where the cards get dealt. Hopefully it’s not with a catcher’s glove.”

Despite the late-season nosedive, Shelton survived his fifth season as manager. Instead, the Pirates fired hitting coach Andy Haines and bullpen coach Justin Meccage. They have since hired Matt Hague from Toronto to replace Haines, added Brent Strom as an assistant pitching coach and promoted Triple-A Indianapolis manager Miguel Perez to bullpen coach.

The Pirates also shook up their front office by moving pro scouting director Will Lawton into a new role, hiring a new analytics director in Kevin Tenenbaum and Max Kwan as international scouting director. They also traded for first baseman Spencer Horwitz, sending starter Luis Ortiz and a pair of prospects to Cleveland in the deal.

“I believe we’re going to go into 2025 with as strong a major league roster as we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Cherington said in October. “Just as importantly, I think we’re going to go into 2025 with as strong a baseball operation as we’ve had since I’ve been here, and we need both. Ultimately, proof’s in the pudding. Got to do the work and get the results on the field. I’m excited about what’s ahead in 2025 and beyond because I do believe we’ll go into ‘25 in the strongest position we’ve been in all of those areas.”

The strongest position, of course, is at the top of the starting rotation. With Skenes, Jones and Mitch Keller — who went 10-5 with a 3.46 ERA in the first half but 1-7 with a 5.65 ERA in the second — the Pirates have a trio of righties who can pitch deep into starts. They need help offensively and in the bullpen, but Skenes is confident they can contend.

And Skenes had a message for Pirates fans: “We’re going to be better next year. We’re going to win a lot more games next year. So just keep coming. It means a lot to us. We’re going to give it back to them.”

Unfamiliar position for Penguins

The calendar year for the Pittsburgh Penguins saw them do something they had not done in nearly two decades.

They were sellers at the trade deadline.

All-Star forward Jake Guentzel, a vital component of the franchise’s most recent Stanley Cup championship in 2017, was dealt away on the day before the NHL’s trade deadline March 8 and sent to the Carolina Hurricanes.

In exchange, the Penguins received NHL forward Michael Bunting as well as forward prospects Ville Koivunen, Cruz Lucius and Vasily Ponomarev along with a draft pick used to eventually select defenseman Harrison Brunicke in June.

After that trade, the Penguins made a furious but futile push in the final weeks of the regular season for a playoff berth. Despite going 8-2-2 in their final 14 games of the 2023-24 campaign, they finished three points short of reaching the playoffs.

Much like their approach to the trade deadline, the Penguins did not pursue big names. Instead, they patched up any holes in their lineup with smaller signings with limited commitments such as the one-year contracts they extended to the likes of forward Anthony Beauvillier and defenseman Matt Grzelcyk. A handful of trades were made to add veteran forwards Kevin Hayes and Cody Glass, but those transactions were geared more toward acquiring the draft picks that were attached.

Perhaps their most notable offseason addition came in August when prized forward prospect Rutger McGroarty was acquired via trade with the Winnipeg Jets after he reached an impasse over a contract with that team.

Their biggest signing over the summer was someone already under contract for one more season. Sidney Crosby, the franchise’s long-time captain, was inked in September to a two-year contract extension at salary cap hit of $8.7 million, identical to the figure on his current contract.

Even as the Penguins transition to a more youth-oriented movement, Crosby remains the franchise’s anchor on and off the ice.

As for their business on the ice during the ongoing season, it has been a mixed bag. The team struggled considerably with a 7-12-4 mark to open the season. Much of that happened as would-be franchise goaltender Tristan Jarry was sent to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League for a conditioning stint to repair his malfunctioning game.

Eventually, Jarry and the Penguins managed to get things squared away, and since Nov. 27, the team has surged to an 9-3-1 record and is within sonar range of a playoff-worthy position of the standings.

Hounds fall in first round

The Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC went 9-1-6 in the season’s home stretch to reach the USL Championship playoffs but fell 1-0 to the Charleston Battery in the opening round.

The Riverhounds have made the playoffs for seven consecutive seasons. They’ve lost in the first round in five of those seven years.

Pittsburgh gets USL W team

Pittsburgh will have an expansion team in the USL W League called the Pittsburgh Riveters.

The team, owned and operated by the Riverhounds, will begin play in the 2025 season at Highmark Stadium.

Scott Gibson, the director of the Pittsburgh Riverhounds Academy and head of the Academy’s girls program in the Elite Clubs National League, has been named the head coach.