Brent

Strom

It’s a pretty interesting wrinkle for the Pirates as Strom played a pivotal role last decade in building the Astros juggernaut before a three-year stint with the Diamondbacks. He brings a wealth of experience to a talented Pittsburgh staff headlined by the tandem of Paul Skenes and Jared Jones with top prospect Bubba Chandler on the doorstep of the big leagues.

There’s no question that the Diamondbacks’ pitching staff disappointed in 2024, finishing with a team ERA of 4.63 which was 27th in all of baseball. However, how much of that is on the coaches, and how much of it is that the front office used a lot of resources to bring in underwhelming free agents Eduardo Rodriguez and Jordan Montgomery? Strom was the Astros’ pitching coach from 2014-21 and Houston never finished worse than 11th in the league in ERA. He has struggled to duplicate that in Arizona with the team finishing 22nd in ERA in 2022 and 20th in ERA in 2023, so the team will hope another coach can get more out of their pitching staff.