Canadian/québécois friends, I’ve made my first poutine as a fat American. How did I do visually?

The Near Miss Roundup: Where Are They Now? As we get back to the daily baseball that defines the regular season, this past offseason will start to feel like a distant memory. A year or two from now, you may not even be able to remember anything about it. But not me. This was the year I decided to plant a flag of citizen journalism and produce a daily column on the Pirates, and so every sling and arrow of this offseason is meaningful to me. I’m maintaining an editorial calendar, and I can look back on it wistfully. While the gossip was thick over the last half-year as management went on record with the goal to spend more in free agency, the Pirates were only ever heavily tied to three players who they didn't sign. Call them the ones that got away, the almost-Buccos, who but for a few million dollars and any interest in playing in western PA very well might be in today’s lineup. Kyle Schwarber, DH, Phillies This is the one that started it all. In late November/early December, the Pirates went on record as being one of a handful of teams pursuing Kyle Schwarber. Though he re-signed with the Phillies for 5-years at $150 million, it came as a shock to hear the Pirates had offered the same AAV with a 4-year, $120 million offer. If the Pirates had secured Schwarber, I’m assuming there would have been no Ryan O’Hearn, and certainly no Marcell Ozuna. It’s a fascinating alternative timeline where the Pirates potentially have an opening in LF as a result. I think the Lowe trade still happens in this scenario, bringing Jake Mangum to the team who could easily fill that role. Or maybe Jhostynxon Garcia’s big spring gets him installed. For his part, Schwarber is back hitting second in the Phillies lineup behind leadoff man Trea Turner and ahead of Bryce Harper. He hit a two-run HR in the first inning of the matchup with the Rangers on opening day. At 33 years old, he doesn’t appear to be slowing down… yet. Kazuma Okamoto, 3B, Blue Jays If the Pirates don’t make the playoffs in 2026, I will have no problem blaming the failure to acquire a legitimate 3B as a leading factor. And no third baseman more frustratingly slipped through our fingers than Kazuma Okamoto. Okamoto and his wife are Disney people, we were told, and so their interest was primarily in moving to Anaheim where they could visit Disneyland every chance they got. Then when the Angels passed, we heard that the Okamoto children were prodigious lovers of poutine, that they basically lived on the stuff, and that Toronto offered the best chance to satisfy their immense cravings. Okay, that last part I made up, but such was the online chatter in those handful of days as the Pirates pursued a free agent teams actually wanted. It was exciting! And ultimately, unsatisfying as he did sign with the Blue Jays for what felt like a doable contract of 4-years, $60 million. What the Pirates offered was never published. If the Pirates had successfully signed him, I think that would have ended the acquisitions as O'Hearn had been signed at the end of December (made official in early January). This is my favorite timeline, where the DH spot remains open, potentially allowing O'Hearn to occupy it (or Cruz for that matter) while others manned outfield positions. Okamoto is batting 7th for Toronto and went 2-for-3 with a walk yesterday in a 3-2 win over the A’s. Eugenio Suarez, DH, Reds The last major free agent the Pirates were publicly tied to came later in the cycle, after the market had thinned out and the front office was left pivoting toward the last remaining options. Eugenio Suárez made a degree of sense: right-handed power, potential to play 3B, and only looking for a short-term deal. It wasn’t hard to picture him in the middle of this lineup, especially given how clearly the team needed another legitimate home run threat. Instead, Suárez lands a one-year, $15 million deal in Cincinnati, the team he started with and played for from 2015-2021. By all accounts, the Pirates made him a competitive offer, potentially with an additional year, but he preferred Cincy where he is playing DH. Perhaps he preferred not packing a glove and eating Skyline chili on off-days. The Reds got shut out in the first game of the season against the Red Sox, mustering just 4 hits. Suarez was not one of those hitters as he went 0-for-4 with 3 Ks. Whew! Dodged that bullet! Bottom Line 📌 The team is what the team is. Lowe, O’Hearn and Ozuna is a pretty great haul, all things considered. Mangum, Montgomery and Garcia are high-quality pieces to add to an already talented young core. It all worked out in the end... Or did it? Will the failure to land a 3B end up being Ben Cherington's Achilles heal on the year? If Ozuna or O'Hearn slump, or Lowe gets injured, will there be whispers of what could have been? We're into the next phase -- the regular season. Let's see how this thing plays out.

🚨: This is the surface of Sun, the most detailed image ever taken!

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This is one of our favorite for Sunday brunch... Eggs Benny Poutine!😋 What's yours??? clubfoody.com/cf-recipes/egg…