The Pittsburgh Pirates have finally managed to snap their own streak of tightness.
Word broke on Tuesday that the Pirates have signed first baseman Ryan O’Hearn in free agency. Robert Murray of FanSided reports that O’Hearn has gotten a two-year, $29 million deal from Pittsburgh (including $500,000 in performance bonuses for each season).
In the wake of the O’Hearn signing, an insane fact went viral on social media. O’Hearn now becomes the first very free agent to have landed a multi-year deal from the Pirates since pitcher Ivan Nova all the way back in 2016.
Ryan O'Hearn's reported 2-year, $29M deal with the Pirates is their first multi-year free agent deal since they signed Ivan Nova to 3-year, $26M contract on December 27, 2016 pic.twitter.com/O0FEBf8dnS
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) December 23, 2025
Nova, now 38 years old, has not pitched in Major League Baseball since 2020 and has not pitched professionally at all since the 2022 season with the SSG Landers of the KBO League in South Korea. But somehow, he was the most recent player before O’Hearn to land a multi-year free agent deal from Pittsburgh.
The lefty-hitting O’Hearn batted .281 last season with 17 home runs and 63 RBIs over 144 games combined between the Baltimore Orioles and the San Diego Padres. In addition to first base, the 32-year-old O’Hearn is capable of playing in the outfield and at designated hitter as well.
As for the notoriously miserly Pirates, their sudden offseason “spending spree” may actually be the result of salary-floor and revenue-sharing considerations (as was the case last year with another small-market penny-pincher in the Athletics). Still, Pittsburgh also has a generational pitcher in Paul Skenes to keep happy, so they have a competitive incentive to open up their checkbooks now as well.
