PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates have spent the last two seasons transforming themselves from laughingstock to legitimate contender.

The next step might be the hardest. Yet the Pirates begin spring training this week confident they’ve made the necessary moves to produce a third straight playoff appearance — one they hope lasts longer than a mere cameo.

“We feel good about our additions,” general manager Neal Huntington said.

Even if those additions have a largely familiar feel. Pittsburgh re-signed starter Francisco Liriano with the most expensive free agent contract in club history. A.J. Burnett, whose arrival in 2012 augured a significant and vital change in mindset, left millions on the table in Philadelphia to make one last run in a place where he revitalized his once flagging career. Rather than wait for the inevitable, the Pirates traded for catcher Francisco Cervelli before Toronto went deep in the vault to lure All-Star Russell Martin to his native Canada.

The club’s payroll will near a team record $90 million in 2015. While its spending still ranks near the bottom of the National League, payroll has more than doubled in the last five years.

“We’ve got to be efficient and effective but our margin for error is a little larger,” Huntington said. “We’ve allocated resources to our bench and we’ve built a deeper club because there is more money available to us.”

Huntington simply hopes it’s money well spent. The Pirates still have several key questions as they look to keep pace with St. Louis and fend off the resurgent Chicago Cubs in perhaps the most competitive division in baseball.

The Pirates hope a change in perspective will change Pedro Alvarez’s fortunes. The former first-round pick saw his right arm betray him time and again at third base last year. He had 25 errors in just 99 games and will start camp in the mix at first. Alvarez doesn’t need to be dynamic defensively, merely adequate. His strength will always be his bat, which — when hot — is one of the most dangerous in the NL.

“He’s not the first player and he’s not the last player that will go through a struggle,” Huntington said. “He’s not going to be the first and the last to come out of that struggle. We need to get him back.”