Pirates hitting coach Andy Haines has been pubic enemy number one in recent weeks here in Pittsburgh.

As the Buccos have seemingly lost all ability to hit the baseball (which, as you may have guessed, is a crucial aspect in winning baseball games), the team has found itself in a spiral. Now 14-16, the Pirates are two games under .500 for the first time all season, and last night featured a season-low two hits against the A’s in Oakland.

Only one of those hits was managed off Oakland’s starter Joe Boyle, who came into last night’s game with a 7.06 ERA. The only run scored in that game for Pittsburgh came off a wild pitch in the first inning, which brought the runner from third home.

Their offense has been abysmal, and as I touched on last night, it’s extra shameful considering that their starting rotation, which wasn’t expected to be very good, is currently a top-10 team in ERA rankings.

So what do you do? How do you fix this?

Is the answer to call up some bats from Triple-A (like Nick Gonzales and/or Ji Hwan Bae)? Or should the Pirates do what most fans are clamoring for, and fire hitting coach Andy Haines?

Let me preface my piece with two points: 1) this topic is, in all likelihood, incredibly moot. Unless the Pirates shock the world and move on, any talk about firing him is just that, talk. 2) this is absolutely nothing against Haines as a person. I feel like that should go without saying, but in this day and age you have to say it anyways. I’m sure he’s a very nice guy; this is solely about his work with the Pirates.

But let’s get into the topic more, in the event that it actually does become relevant.

The argument from the “don’t fire him” side, or at the very least, the “it isn’t all his fault” line of thinking is fairly valid.

Firing one coach in particular doesn’t fix everything. It isn’t a magical on-off switch that will suddenly turn every Pirates batter into Barry Bonds.

But here’s what it would do.

It would prove that the Pirates are a semi-serious organization. It would show that the team actually means it when they say they are aiming to be competitive.

By moving on from him or, at the very least, bringing in other coaches and quietly moving Haines somewhere else, Pirates fans can genuinely start to believe the organization.

After a shortened 2020 season played at a 100+ loss pace, and two actual 100+ loss season, this depressed and hopelessly romantic fan base deserves to see some sort of success.

That started last season when the team turned out a 76-86 record. That started the groundwork for competitive baseball in this city, and you could see some of the pieces on the roster start to truly come together.

You saw Bryan Reynolds continue to be a good big league batter. You saw some depth players chip in in ways the Pirates didn’t have in previous years. And you really saw Ke’Bryan Hayes take off at the end of last year. Why was that?

Oh yeah, it turned out that as soon as he looked for outside help, coming in the form of Jon Nunnally, who helped him correct his swing and find his groove, he got better.

Nunnally was the hitting coach for Altoona Curve, the Double-A affiliate for the Pirates, and because it would be bad for a franchise cornerstone to find success at the plate, Nunnally was fired after the season.

I get it, it’s a bad look for any organization to have coaches for farm teams essentially doing the major league coach’s job for him, but that should have been a wake up call for the Pirates that something was deeply flawed in their approach.

Firing the guy who helped Hayes, and at the same time keeping the man who is bogging down hitters, is only hurting the team at large.

And once again, firing Haines is not an automatic fix, but it would at least prove that the Pirates can recognize problems and are willing to at least make attempts to correct them.

Because we as a city are so intertwined with our teams, we often equate the happenings of teams in different sports and leagues to try and find parallels. I hesitate to do this because there truly are so little similarities between the Pirates, Steelers, and Penguins.

But I’m going to give it a shot here.

Matt Canada, the former offensive coordinator for the Steelers, was TERRIBLE at his job. We all knew it, we all watched it every week, and we all have lasting trauma from watching an offense like that.

We begged the Steelers to fire him as soon as his first season was over. They, like they often do (or at least used to do), stuck with him, because the Steeler Way did not have a chapter for firing a coach. The following season, 2022, was much the same. And then finally, midway through 2023, the Steelers finally found their better judgement and moved on.

It paid dividends immediately. Quarterback Kenny Pickett and the Steeler offense had their first 400+ yard game in 58 games, which spanned over Canada’s entire reign of terror. The Steelers hadn’t had as many yards (421) since December 23rd, 2018.

Part of firing a coach is a wake up call to the troops. It’s a natural feeling, when a coach or coordinator gets fired, the players feel somewhat responsible. It sparks something in them (hopefully) and inspires them to clean up their act.

Another part of it is the acknowledgement that the team should be better than what it is performing.

When Canada was in charge, opponents to him being fired proclaimed that the offense simply didn’t have a ton of talent, and that a new coach wouldn’t do much better.

That argument, whether you believed it or not, rested on Canada having the Farewell Tour Ben Roethlisberger in his first year, and the tandem of Kenny Pickett and Mitch Trubisky in his second.

But by the time 2023 rolled around, the Steelers had plenty of talent on that side of the ball, regardless if Pickett still wasn’t all that. Canada had Diontae Johnson and George Pickens, a dominant run game, and other weapons as well.

Similarly, the argument could have been made for Haines that in his first two years, the Pirates were devoid of talent.

And you know what, I’ll give that to him in his first year. The 2022 team was awful all around. In 2023, that argument was less sound, but just for the sake of argument, let’s give that to him again.

Now, however, in 2024, that is no longer the case. Does Haines have a World Series roster around him? No, but he has a team that is better than this.

In just the same way that Matt Canada didn’t have a Super Bowl contender on his hands, but he had a team that was better than what he produced.

The Steelers acknowledged their flaw, and at least tried to make their offense better. They violated the Steeler Way and fired a coach for the first time since the height of World War 2.

Maybe it’s time the Pirates change their ways and prepare to have Haines walk the plank. It would at least prove they care.

(Featured photo by Charles LeClaire/USA Today Sports)