The Pittsburgh Pirates enter the final weekend of the 2024 season with an interesting gambit.
After Thursday’s loss, the Pirates are 74-85. They can finish with 77 wins at best, which would be a one-game improvement over the 2023 record. Unless they win the final series of the season, on the road against the New York Yankees, they will finish with a worse record than last year.
The Pirates currently have the eighth worst record in baseball. That’s where they finished last season, and it gave them a 3% chance of the first overall pick in the draft lottery.