Kevin Gorman's Take 5: Pirates traded with an eye on the future, protecting pitching prospects
With the Pittsburgh Pirates hovering just above .500 going into the trade deadline, there were questions about whether they would be buyers or sellers and what they were willing to give up to get what they wanted.
Somehow, Pirates general manager Ben Cherington managed to address three of their primary needs without significantly altering the major-league roster or selling the future in the farm system.
The Pirates made three major trades, acquiring a left-handed reliever in Jalen Beeks, a versatile infielder in Isiah Kiner-Falefa and a power-hitting corner outfielder in Bryan De La Cruz for four minor leaguers while holding onto their most prized pitching prospects.
Granted, Pirates fans might have preferred Tanner Scott, Jazz Chisholm and Brent Rooker, even if those names were not as realistic. But Cherington was confident Tuesday night that the Pirates ended trade deadline day better than they started it.
Although Cherington was adamant that their trade-deadline plan was formulated weeks ago, the Pirates’ comeback victories over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday and Houston Astros on Monday that pulled them within two games of wild-card contention didn’t hurt their cause.
“It impacted what I said before, about the toughness. You could see that. This is a team that’s not going to quit,” Cherington said. “That’s important, important in terms of the culture we’re trying to build in this organization, on this team. The credit goes to the players in that, for sure. So that certainly stands out.”
A look at what the Pirates got in their trades, what they gave up and, perhaps most importantly, what they didn’t.
1. Start in the back
If the Pirates’ signing of Aroldis Chapman to a one-year, $10.5 million contract was a surprise for a small-market team, their keeping the 36-year-old left-hander at the trade deadline defied conventional wisdom.
Not only was there a major market for high-leverage relievers, but the Pirates could have dumped an expiring contract and filled a need in one move. The Kansas City Royals traded Chapman to Texas last year for Cole Ragans, now an All-Star at the top of their starting rotation, so the Pirates were willing to listen.
“The one guarantee at the deadline is that teams are going to call on relievers. It’s just kind of the nature of the game,” Cherington said. “It was the same for us. We called other teams about relievers, too. We did a lot of calls. There was certainly a healthy amount of interest.”
When the Pirates traded for Beeks and Josh Walker, it only fueled speculation they could be stocking up on lefties to deal Chapman. Instead, they are counting on the seven-time All-Star to complement Colin Holderman and David Bednar in the back end of the bullpen to be a key to their second-half success.
“We’re still probably going to have to win some games in the bullpen and win our fair share of the closer games,” Cherington said. “We felt pretty strongly and were going to be careful about doing anything that would hurt our bullpen in any way.”
2. Now and later
The additions of De La Cruz and Kiner-Falefa should provide an instant upgrade to an offense that ranks in the bottom third of the National League in most major categories.
De La Cruz’s 18 home runs are tied with Bryan Reynolds for the most on the Pirates, and his 19 doubles and 51 RBIs both rank third.
Kiner-Falefa’s .292 batting average (in 80 games) is now the best of any Pirate, and his .338 on-base percentage and .420 slugging percentage also rank in the top three. And he has 12 defensive runs saved this season, including 5 DRS at both second and third base and two DRS at shortstop.
“I think it’s huge for us. If you talk to anybody about him, they’re going to tell you he’s one of the best teammates they’ve ever been a part of,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh pregame show. “This guy’s played all over the field. He started his career as a catcher, has won a Gold Glove, has played third, has played second, has played the outfield. I think you guys know how much I love versatility within a player. Then he’s having a really good offensive year on top of it, which is something that was really important to us.”
Even better, De La Cruz enters his first year of arbitration next year and doesn’t become a free agent until 2028. The Blue Jays reportedly are picking up part of Kiner-Falefa’s two-year, $15 million contract, for which he will earn $7.5 million next season.
“Both guys are under control, so we’re not only talking about this year but for future,” Shelton said. “We talked about wanting to lengthen out our lineup, and we were able to do that.”
3. Dealing depth
The Pirates have traded starting pitchers on one-year contracts at the deadline under Cherington, from Tyler Anderson to Jose Quintana to Rich Hill, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise that lefty Martin Perez was dealt to San Diego.
But sending Quinn Priester, a 2019 first-round pick, to the Boston Red Sox sent a message that the Pirates were willing to deal from a position of depth.
In the short term, the Pirates have to replace Perez in the starting rotation — he was scheduled to face the Astros on Wednesday — but he might have been on the verge of losing his spot.
Luis Ortiz appears to have earned a starting job, Bailey Falter returned Tuesday and Jared Jones is expected back by late August or early September.
“We appreciate everything Martin did,” Cherington said. “He’s helped us this year. He’s provided innings, dependable innings, been a good pro, been a respected teammate. Feel good about where we are now.”
"The ability to hit. He can play second base. He can play in the corners which is important for us."
Derek Shelton on the addition of INF/OF Nick Yorke@mearshannah_ | #LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/cCqKhsiW2L
— SportsNet Pittsburgh (@SNPittsburgh) July 30, 2024
4. Focus on future
While Cherington was intent on giving the Pirates a chance to make the playoffs, he didn’t deny he was looking ahead with some of his moves.
The Pirates added a pair of hit-first players in Triple-A infielder/outfielders in Nick Yorke, a former first-round pick and top-10 prospect for the Red Sox, and Billy Cook, a top-30 prospect for the Baltimore Orioles. To get Yorke, the Pirates gave up Priester; to get Cook, they dealt High-A righty Patrick Reilly.
MLB Pipeline moved both newcomers into the Pirates’ top 20, ranking Yorke their No. 5 prospect and Cook No. 18.
Of course, the Pirates also subtracted some top-20 bats by including Double-A infielder Charles McAdoo and High-A infielder Garret Forrester in the trades to Toronto and Miami, respectively. But Yorke and Cook are closer to the majors, and the Pirates didn’t rule out the possibility of a promotion.
“We did come into the week … with the desire to try to add upper-level position players, near-major league ready, upper-level position players who we believe in, who we believe have traits that we believe in, that have a chance to contribute offensively and defensively,” Cherington said. “We believe Nick Yorke has a chance to do that. Billy Cook kind of fits in that mold, also. So, those two trades were about that, not about not liking anything, or wanting to move on from a pitcher.”
Bubba Chandler picks up a strikeout in his scoreless inning of the All-Star Futures Game
He's going to be so so good pic.twitter.com/6UEbVpGqww
— Platinum Ke’Bryan (@PlatinumKey13) July 13, 2024
5. Keepers
Whether any of Cherington’s moves work out remains to be seen, as the Pirates made an effort to improve but certainly didn’t go for broke in the process.
Last week, Jonathan Mayo of MLB Pipeline told TribLive that No. 1 prospect Bubba Chandler, a 21-year-old right-hander at Double-A Altoona, was “the only guy I would absolutely refuse to trade.”
Some talent evaluators believe Chandler, a 2021 third-round pick who signed for an above-slot bonus of $3 million to bypass a football scholarship to Clemson, has a chance to be as good as, if not better than, Jones.
That’s high praise. No wonder the Pirates didn’t budge.
And they didn’t deal 20-year-old second baseman Termarr Johnson, who was considered a generational hitter when he was picked No. 4 overall in the 2022 MLB Draft.
It will be interesting to see how the Pirates fare compared to teams ahead of them in the wild-card race — especially the San Diego Padres, who traded five top-10 prospects and seven of their top 30.
Kevin Gorman is a TribLive reporter covering the Pirates. A Baldwin native and Penn State graduate, he joined the Trib in 1999 and has covered high school sports, Pitt football and basketball and was a sports columnist for 10 years. He can be reached at kgorman@triblive.com.
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