PITTSBURGH — Termarr Johnson hasn't lived up to expectations many Pittsburgh Pirates fans had, but the franchise still has great faith in him.
The Pirates selected Johnson with the fourth overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft out of Benjamin E. Mays High School in Atlanta, Ga., but he's had his struggles since joining and still needs time before he makes his MLB debut.
Johnson was poor from the plate for a large part of 2026 with Triple-A Indianapolis, then suffered a grueling knee injury that has him out for the long term.
The Pirates are still confident in Johnson and believe that 2027 will be a big year for their former first-round draft pick.
Pirates Scouting Director Shows Faith in Termarr Johnson
Johnson did not have the 2026 season he wanted, hitting .199/.336/.319 for an OPS of .655 in 96 games, with 66 hits, 14 doubles, eight home runs, 37 RBI, 68 walks to 101 strikeouts and 24 stolen bases.
He was especially poor to start the campaign, batting .167/.284/.215 for an OPS of .499 through the end of May, marking the lowest slugging percentage and OPS, the third-lowest batting average and the seventh-lowest on-base percentage amongst all qualified International League hitters at that point.
Johnson did turn things around from June onwards, batting .223/.373/.399 for an OPS of .772 with seven of his eight home runs.
Pirates farm director Michael Chernow spoke to the media on Oct. 20 about what he saw from Johnson in 2026.
Chernow said that Johnson worked with them extensively to fight back after a tough start and that he gave it everything to get better before the injury.
He also said Johnson never gives up and that he worked constantly to try and become the player they know he can become.
"Termarr, he certainly didn't meet his own expectations or standards early in the year, but what I think is the most impressive takeaway going back to looking at things as challenges are opportunities — he didn't start out the way Termarr wanted to start out," Chernow said.
"But we sat down with him, continued to pour into him and challenge him and then he started to see that counterpunch. A really talented player who gets punched -- how do you fight? How do you learn from the way the league is attacking you? How do you respond?
"What we were able to see unfortunately before that injury was a guy who had dug himself a little bit of a hole but didn't quit every single day. Played the game as hard as anyone that we have in the organization, which is consistent with what we've seen from Termarr.
"He loves the game of baseball, he respects the game of baseball, he attacks everything that he does relentlessly and he worked to climb himself out and put himself in the spot to show himself as the player that we believe he is..."
On Termarr Johnson Injury Timeline
Johnson suffered a massive setback when he tripped near first base on Aug. 8, which ended up as tears to the ACL and LCL, requiring pre-op surgery for a left knee ACL reconstruction and an LCL procedure.
These kinds of injuries take months and can take close to a year to fully recover from, making it a long rehab process for Johnson.
Chernow is optimistic about Johnson returning early, mentioning Opening Day as a potential return date, but wasn't exactly ready to commit to confirming that yet until they have more information.
"...Again, adversity hits for him when he had the ACL injury, but all the reports that we've gotten from the rehab process and our medical group is the way he is going about it — he is checking every single box, he is hopefully going to beat the return to play timeline," Chernow said.
"That's his goal. We'd love to see that as long as we don't cut corners and make sure that we're 100% healthy when we get back out there.
"He's trending in the right direction and there's so much belief in Termarr and what he's going to be able to accomplish to ultimately help us achieve our goals of winning in Pittsburgh."
Add us as a preferred source on Google