PITTSBURGH — The easiest way to formulate an opinion on the Pirates agreeing to terms with outfielder Tommy Pham on a $4,025,000 contract last week would've been to examine numbers, to look at his .248 batting average or .674 OPS with three teams last season and probably criticize the move.

I'm certainly guilty.

But no matter how many numbers you pull — Pham was worth 1.9 FanGraphs Wins Above Replacement for two clubs in 2023 and actually has the same OPS (.774) as former Pirates first baseman Carlos Santana did in 2015 — I'm not sure we're considering the right stuff.

The more I learn about Pham the person, the less I'm worried about numbers — and the more I like the signing.

In fact, it might turn out be one of the better things Ben Cherington has done as general manager of the Pirates.

Hear me out. Actually, no. Let's listen to St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright.

Appearing on 101 ESPN St. Louis last July, Wainwright told a story about one of Pham's early seasons with the Cardinals. Wainwright said it happened at Citi Field, a place where Pham first played in 2016.

The Cardinals were struggling. Team morale was low. Players were sitting in silence, heads down, when Pham apparently stood on a stool in the middle of the clubhouse and addressed the room, a rare example of a young guy calling out his more seasoned teammates.

"Tommy Pham goes around the room, pointing at people, 'You don't work hard enough. You show up too late. You play too many video games. You aren't playing hard enough on the field,'" Wainwright recalled. "A couple young guys look up at me like, 'Are you gonna stop this guy?' But everything he was saying was right.'"

Wainwright then described an exchange of glances that he had with Yadier Molina, the two veterans surprised that Pham had the guts to do this ... but also realizing the Cardinals needed the tongue-lashing.

"A lot of times that stuff might make you roll your eyes," Wainwright said. "But he backed it up."

It's why I might actually love the acquisition of Pham, who comes with a surly reputation but could also be the in-your-face, demanding and brutally honest type of personality the Pirates have needed for years.

A.J. Burnett? I don't know about that. Feels aggressive at this point, especially given how well Burnett pitched, the Pirates' need for offense (still there), the fact that Pham will have to produce some, and there are also plenty of negative assessments of his personality or temper.

I also don't care.

If done right, the Pirates might actually benefit from having a player whose give-a-damn is busted, a veteran who's unafraid to chew someone out, to call things as they see them, to demand effort and accountability and who really doesn't care if they're well-liked, so long as they're doing something that's in the best interest of the team.

Pham, from everything I've been reading, takes his job incredibly seriously and demands nothing less from his teammates. Upon further review, I'm actually thrilled to see the Pirates add that ingredient to their clubhouse, even if it might make some people uncomfortable.

"Listen, this dude is a winner," Wainwright said. "He's going to do what it takes to get himself ready to play. If you don't play to that standard, he's gonna let you know about it.

"Guys who really know how to win, we love it. Guys who can't take it, who are soft, they probably need to [change or leave] because Tommy Pham ain't gonna put up with it. I love that about him."

You know about Pham's vagabond career. The Pirates will be his 10th MLB team, the eighth since the start of 2022. You probably also know about him trying to fight Luke Voit, how he slapped Joe Pederson or how he ripped the Mets' desire and work ethic in '23.

What you probably don't know is that Pham nearly lost his professional baseball career due to a rare vision disorder (keratoconus), or that he had a pretty rough upbringing. Born to a 17-year-old mother and incarcerated father, Pham has seen his share of crime and poverty; everything Pham has achieved on a baseball field, he's had to earn.

With that context, I can understand why his dial often rests on 11, which seems to be the rub on him — that he's maybe a little too intense at times.

Given what I've watched over the past five years, I want that hair-on-fire level of desire. I also want how Pham believes the game should be played.

To further illustrate that one, let's jump to an Aug. 15, 2023 game between the Diamondbacks and Rockies at Coors Field. Pham was two weeks into his time with Arizona when he missed both cutoff men on a play. The Diamondbacks still got an out and won the game, but Pham was extremely upset with himself afterward.

In an Athletic piece from later that season, Pham cited Tony La Russa's intolerance for poor fundamentals when the outfielder was coming up through the St. Louis system, bemoaning how that sort of sloppiness simply can't occur on winning clubs.

"I just thought it was a bad message, being new on the team, and a bad message to my outfield coach," Pham said.

The Pirates in recent years have missed too many cutoff men. They've played sloppy baseball, have done dumb stuff and "pissed games away" (Paul Skenes' words). They also really haven't had anyone willing to air out a teammate for jogging to first, making careless decisions on the bases or lacking the right approach in key offensive situations.

I'd rather have both, believe me. But at this point, if I have to sacrifice some offense to improve that stuff, I'm good with it. It's also not just between the lines.

Pham has said he doesn't have time for cards or other clubhouse games. It's work, work, work, something he learned from guys like Wainwright and Molina. When the Diamondbacks advanced to the World Series in 2023, Pham volunteered to push the team's young guys in ways that were required ... but that also might've made him unpopular at the time, much like a parent.

"He's a very intense competitor with zero room for nonsense," Torey Lovullo said in October 2023, according to Jake Mintz of Fox Sports and the Cespedes Family BBQ podcast. "And I think that personifies who we are when we get between the white lines at 7:05 every night."

Added Mets manager Buck Showalter in that Athletic piece: "He's blatantly honest. Some people have trouble with that. Most of the time, the things he says, if you really think about them, he's right.

"If you can't handle the truth, you can't handle him."

Pham could work out from a baseball standpoint. The Pirates need him to handle left-handed pitching, which he's done to the tune of an .817 OPS throughout his career. Some reasonable facsimile of his .346 on-base percentage (Bryan Reynolds' career OBP: .352) also wouldn't hurt.

But most of all, I've changed my thinking on this move for reasons that you can't really quantify.

Pham is unabashedly himself. Throughout his career, he has welcomed criticism of his own play while demanding the same from others, a back-and-forth that has been framed by his tireless work ethic and obsession with winning.

The Pirates hit the lottery with Burnett, who was 21-26 with a 5.20 ERA in 66 starts for the Yankees the two seasons before he became a Pittsburgh legend. I don't know if the same will happen with Pham. But I'm excited to find out.

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