PNC PARK | PHOTO BY DAVE DICELLO

Give the Pirates credit for this much: they’re consistent to the bitter end.

The transaction they announced late Monday afternoon prior to opening the final homestead of what has been another dreadful season actually captured the spirit of the thing — what the Bucs have been in 2025 and what they’ve become as an organization in a nutshell:

“The Pittsburgh Pirates today ended the rehab assignment of outfielder Jack Suwinski and reinstated him from the 10-day disabled list. Outfielder Ji Hwan Bae was optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis following Sunday’s game at Washington.”

There could not have been a more accurate snapshot for those who haven’t been paying attention (and judging by the attendance, you haven’t).

Suwinski started in center field against the Cubs, went 0-for-3 with a walk and struck out twice in a 4-0 loss. His batting average fell to .129.

Once a prospect of considerable promise, Suwinski hit a combined 45 home runs in 2022 and 2023.

He has had 12 since, three this season, and has long since revealed as a strikeout machine in the big leagues.

And the Pirates keep playing him.

This isn’t the first time such an example has been cited as representative of Buccos Baseball.

Sadly, it won’t be the last.

It wasn’t this week.

The Pirates keep playing guys who aren’t good enough (Suwinski’s an easy target but he’s far from the only one). And when they eventually grow tired of that or are forced to pivot due to injury, the alternative is invariably an acquisition from baseball’s scrap heap or an internal option that hasn’t been developed properly.

Tuesday night was Paul Skenes night, the final PNC Park reminder this season of all that’s been wasted by the organization’s trademark brand of ineptitude and apathy.

Skenes, surprisingly, allowed three earned runs in 3.2 innings. He was a mere mortal for a change but remains a talent that’s best described as “generational.” He’s on his way to winning the National League’s Cy Young Award.

And yet the loss the Bucs absorbed in Game 2 against the Cubs, 4-1 this time, was their 87th. That’s one more than the 86 registered in each of the last two seasons, including last season, when Skenes didn’t arrive until May 11, finished third in the Cy Young balloting and “only” won National League Rookie of the Year.

Suwinski went 0-for-3 and struck out twice.

His average fell to .126.

The Hat Trick of Sadness was completed in Wednesday afternoon’s 8-4 loss to the Cubs, which clinched the Cubs’ first trip to the postseason since 2020.

The Pirates haven’t made it that far since they won 98 games in 2015.

That team was good enough to go all the way but couldn’t get past the Cubs in the NL Wild Card Game.

Seems like 100 years ago, doesn’t it?

Suwinski didn’t start in the series finale against Chicago, but he pinch hit and eventually wound up in right field.

He went 0-for-2, struck out twice and his average dropped to .124.

That’s 51 strikeouts in 129 at-bats in 2025 (39.5%).

And the series finale against the Cubs was the Bucs’ 11th loss in their last 12 games and completed the 12th series in which they were swept.

Any questions?

In the event there were somehow any at the outset of this week, consider them emphatically answered.

Mike Prisuta is the sports anchor/reporter for Randy Baumann and the DVE Morning Show. He’s also the host of the Steelers Radio Network Pregame Show and the color analyst for Robert Morris University men’s hockey broadcasts.