Cherington talks progress, 2027 outlook at end-of-year conference

DETROIT — With two games left to play, 2026 has already featured the best season of Ben Cherington’s tenure as general manager. The Pirates have secured a non-losing season and improved by double-digit wins since a year ago. Cherington addressed the media pregame on Saturday in the visitors’ dugout at Comerica Park as his end-of-season news conference. “Our goal was to play games in October. That’s not happening, so we fell short of that goal. We made real progress. We’ve got to stay laser-focused on the work necessary to put ourselves in that position next year that we’ll be playing…