TNS — When the Pittsburgh Pirates re-signed Connor Joe to a one-year deal Thursday, it was in recognition of both his offensive and defensive contributions over the course of 133 games played in 2023.

The Pirates are now hopeful Joe can build upon both elements of his game.

Joe, who will make $2.12 million in 2024 — a steady pay raise from the $735,000 he earned last season in Pittsburgh — played left and right field plus first base for the Pirates in 2023, demonstrating a willingness to play wherever needed.

“It’s going to be a lot of the same — a lot of bouncing around,” Joe said. “(Manager Derek Shelton) is going to find the matchups and provide me with the opportunities to succeed.”

Joe played 39 games in right field, 38 at first base and 23 in left field.

While the Pirates have a handful of hopefuls who will enter spring training in competition for the starting gig at second base, Joe made it known last year, as well as this offseason, that he’s open to factoring in at the position.

“I’ve expressed that I’m willing to move there,” the 31-year-old said. “And I’ve been working there in the offseason, but I’ve been working everywhere in the offseason. I think it’s good and beneficial to get different angles and ground balls from different spots, so I’ve been taking ground balls everywhere. … As many tools as I can keep makes me more valuable and helps the team.”

Joe, originally selected by the Pirates in the 2014 June Amateur Draft, spent the first three years of his professional career in the organization before being dealt to Atlanta for Sean Rodriguez in the summer of 2017.

The majority of his MLB experience prior to reuniting with the Pirates in the 2022 offseason had been with Colorado, for whom Joe played in 2021 and 2022.

In those two seasons, Joe flirted with becoming an everyday player, but injury troubles limited him to 63 games in 2021 and 111 in 2022.

Last year with the Pirates, Joe made it through the entirety of the year injury-free.

“First and foremost, it was my health, which I was really happy and proud of myself for,” he said. “Preparing myself last offseason to maintain and be able to be healthy — (2023) was my first full healthy year, so that was an accomplishment for me.”

Offensively, Joe quietly set career-bests in just about every category, including home runs (11), doubles (31, which were tied for the Pirates’ team lead) and RBIs (42).

Joe’s slash line of .247/.339/.421 also featured personal-bests in on-base percentage and slugging.

All that said, consistency did prove elusive for Joe.

After batting .288 in April, he endured a rough next few months, hitting .221 in May and .197 in June before rebounding with a .278 July average and hitting .264 in August.

In 247 at-bats against right-handed pitching, Joe slashed .235/.319/.401 compared to .265/.368/.452 in 166 at-bats against lefties.

“I want to continue to be a threat in the (batter’s) box versus righties and lefties,” Joe said. “I’ve had a lot of success against righties and I know that I can continue to have success off righties, so that’s an emphasis. Other than that, just keep hitting the ball hard and that’s going to turn into numbers.

” … I think if my focus is on quality contact and hitting the ball hard, the numbers will come. That’s where I’m focused.”

Joe’s 11 home runs certainly counted as quality contact and ranked fifth on the Pirates.

Heading into spring training, a goal of Joe’s is to keep taking steps toward becoming more of a power-hitting threat.

“I was happy with the power numbers and I still think there’s more in the tank,” he said. “I’ve been exploring in the offseason to tap into that a little bit more, so I’m excited for that this year.”