This story was excerpted from Alex Stumpf¡¯s Pirates Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

The Pirates had plenty of questions going into the Winter Meetings, and got some answers. Who is the first baseman? Well, they traded for Spencer Horwitz. Who is the bullpen coach? We got that answer right after they got back from Dallas: Miguel Perez.

It was a productive couple of days, but there is still plenty of work to be done, and with that, plenty of questions that still need to be answered. Here are three burning ones that need to be addressed before the Pirates travel to Miami to start the season.

1. Who is in right field?

The Pirates came into the offseason wanting to upgrade their offense, and the two positions that needed the biggest boost were corner outfield and first base. The latter is taken care of with Horwitz in the mix, but what¡¯s going to happen in the outfield?

A handful of veteran free agents who could have been theoretical fits found new teams this week and are now off the board: Tyler O¡¯Neill, Michael Conforto and Mike Tauchman. Looking at the list of free-agent outfielders still on the market, only four have been worth more than three combined WAR over the past two seasons: Anthony Santander, Teoscar Hern¨¢ndez, Max Kepler and Jason Heyward. It¡¯s hard to see the Pirates being in the mix for the first two.

There¡¯s also the trade market, and the Pirates materialized one trade of a starting pitcher and some prospects for Horwitz. It¡¯s not out of the question it could happen again, but that can¡¯t be the solution for every hole that needs to be filled.

¡°At some point you have got to be careful,¡± general manager Ben Cherington said. ¡°We want to maintain that as a strength and you go too far, you start to dig into it too much and all the sudden, you can get yourself in trouble. So we'll need to be thoughtful and careful about it. Still feel like that's an area of strength and depth. We'll just have to see what comes.¡±

2. How will this bullpen take shape?

The Pirates have their coach in place. Who is he coaching? Derek Shelton and Cherington are optimistic that David Bednar will bounce back, but Shelton opted to not declare him the closer yet. The Pirates were interested in bringing back Aroldis Chapman, but he signed with the Red Sox earlier this month.

The bullpen needs a talent infusion, both in terms of quantity (depth) and quality (leverage arms). The signing of Elvis Alvarado to a Major League deal helps with the depth, and he isn¡¯t going to be the only arm they add.

"We're looking to add as many talented, young pitchers with good stuff to our bullpen mix as we can going into Spring Training,¡± Cherington said. ¡°I'd expect that we'd look to target as many guys, whether it's through Minor League free agency, Major League free agency, trades, whatever combination. We want to build as much bullpen depth as we can going into Spring Training and as many guys with interesting pitch traits as we can find. Try to get them into our system and leverage our people and information to try to help put guys in the best position.¡±

3. What should the Pirates do with this young pitching?

Last year, there was a starting opportunity in the rotation and Jared Jones took advantage of it with a huge Spring Training, earning a spot on the Opening Day team and keeping it. That¡¯s worth keeping in mind when looking at how this 2025 staff could look, especially regarding Bubba Chandler, the No. 15 prospect in baseball, per MLB Pipeline. There¡¯s also Braxton Ashcraft (No. 85) and Thomas Harrington (No. 91) also waiting in the wings at Triple-A Indianapolis. (Ashcraft is already on the 40-man roster as well).

Dealing them doesn¡¯t seem all too likely, nor them moving into the bullpen (though Cherington did acknowledge it is a path they could take). You need starter depth over the course of a season, and the Pirates have it. The question is do they want to keep them waiting in the wings, or is there a way to implement earlier in the season and maybe fill some holes?