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Pirates Notes: Chandler, Infield, Rodriguez

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After months of anticipation, top pitching prospect Bubba Chandler’s debut didn’t disappoint — though it probably looked quite different than most fans had anticipated. Chandler tossed four shutout frames in relief of fellow well-regarded pitching prospect Braxton Ashcraft, earning a save in his first MLB appearance. Despite debuting in the ’pen, Chandler will be considered for rotation looks down the stretch, general manager Ben Cherington told reporters this weekend (video link via Colin Beazley of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).

“He could still make starts,” Cherington said of Chandler. “But pitching in the major leagues is important. We wanted him to get that experience, get that feedback, and start it early enough where there was enough innings where it was a real experience that could inform his offseason going into 2026.”

Cherington went on to note that starts won’t be guaranteed and that manager Don Kelly “will guide” the decision on Chandler’s role from appearance to appearance. There’s no scheduled start on the immediate horizon for Chandler, who’ll turn 23 in a few weeks. Pittsburgh has Johan Oviedo, Mitch Keller, Ashcraft, Mike Burrows and Paul Skenes lined up, respectively, for its next five games. Logically, it seems fair to expect that Chandler could again follow Ashcraft in a piggyback role Wednesday, as the two are on the same schedule.

However he’s deployed, Chandler should reach a new career-high in innings pitched. He tossed 119 2/3 frames last year and is up to 104 innings this season with a bit more than a month remaining on the regular-season calendar. He’ll very clearly be in the mix for a rotation spot in 2026, so even narrowly edging his season-long workload past that 2024 mark would be beneficial as he eyes a first full year of rotation work in the majors.

Chandler’s MLB readiness isn’t the only long-term question the Pirates are focused on in the season’s final few months. In a full column highlighting some of Cherington’s comments — readers are encouraged to check it out for greater context on this and several more Pirates issues — Beazley writes that Pittsburgh’s GM feels infielder Jared Triolo has begun to prove his ability to handle shortstop on at least a part-time basis in the majors.

Triolo, 27, has spent the bulk of his big league career between second base and third base, but the Bucs have given him 15 games at short since being recalled to the majors following the trade deadline. While Cherington stressed that this doesn’t mean Triolo will open next year at shortstop, the Bucs also wanted to gauge how much of an option he is there. Konnor Griffin, the No. 1 prospect in all of MLB according to both Baseball America and MLB.com, is seen as the long-term answer but is only 20 years old and was only recently promoted to Double-A, where he’s played just six games thus far.

Cherington suggested earlier in the month that the Bucs will pursue infield help in the offseason and doubled down on that thought in his latest media session. A short-term addition at shortstop would be sensible. Any work Triolo is doing now would certainly strengthen his candidacy for a bench role, however, and it’s worth noting that he’s doing more than instilling Pirates brass with some confidence in his glovework. Dating back to his Aug. 1 recall, Triolo is slashing .324/.418/.500 (158 wRC+) in 80 plate appearances.

A lot of that production is due to a bloated .400 average on balls in play that he won’t sustain, but Triolo is also chasing off the plate less, walking more often, and more frequently making contact on balls within the strike zone. It’s a small sample, but there are some positive strides being shown, and if Triolo can keep that up for another month to close out the season, it’d bode well for his chances of having a steady role in 2026. He’s still hitting just .213/.308/.343 overall, but he’s a strong defender at second and third with good speed. The pieces for a solid utility option are there, if the bat can rise to even slightly below-average levels.

The catching role, of course, has been a question in Pittsburgh for years now. Several attempts to bring in high-end young players to claim the spot long-term have yet to pan out. Endy Rodriguez’s recent elbow surgery — his second elbow surgery since Oct. 2023 — further calls into question his candidacy for eventually claiming that role. Cherginton said after his recent surgery, however, that the organization still views Rodriguez as a catcher (link via Alex Stumpf of MLB.com).

Cherington called the 25-year-old Rodriguez (26 next May) “a catcher who we believe can be good at the position defensively and hit left-handed” and touted the value of having both left- and right-handed-hitting options behind the dish. Rodriguez’s long-term defensive outlook is something the Bucs will again visit in the offseason as he continues to mend, the GM conceded, but the idea of Rodriguez as a catcher isn’t one that the Pirates “want to give up on easily,” per Cherington.

Rodriguez hasn’t hit at all in limited big league looks yet, slashing just .210/.276/.311 in 261 plate appearances dating back to his 2023 MLB debut. Rodriguez missed nearly all of the 2024 season recovering from Tommy John surgery but had a monster 2022 season in the minors and hit decently in 2023’s Triple-A run before being called to the big leagues. He’s expected to be ready for next spring trainings but isn’t a lock to make next year’s roster.

Both Rodriguez and Triolo have one minor league option remaining after the current season, so next year’s camp won’t be a firm make-or-break for either player, but with both in their mid-20s and down to one option year, they’ll need to establish some staying power at some point within the next calendar year.

Pirates Claim Ryan Kreidler

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The Pirates have claimed infielder Ryan Kreidler off waivers from the Tigers, according to Colin Beazley of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The Pirates had an open spot on their 40-man roster for Kriedler, so no corresponding move was necessary. The club’s roster now stands at 40 players.

Kreidler, 27, was a fourth-round pick by the Tigers back in 2019. He made his big league debut during the 2022 campaign and has spent each of the past four seasons in an up-and-down role with the Tigers as a utility man. He’s gotten into just 89 total games at the big league level, but hasn’t shown much with the bat in that time. Across 211 MLB plate appearances, Kreidler has a lackluster .138/.208/.176 slash line with an ugly 31.8% strikeout rate. That’s a tough slash line to stomach from even a bench player at the big league level, though what he lacks in offensive ability he makes up for with versatility; Kreidler has split time between shortstop, center field, and third base throughout his time in the majors with brief cameos at second base and in left field as well.

He’s played those same positions in the minors over the years, and is generally regarded as a high-level defender at both shortstop and in center field. Still, that wasn’t enough to assure Kreidler of his 40-man roster spot with Detroit. The Tigers are in the midst of a banner year where a number of role players have stepped up to contribute to the team’s offense. Kreidler’s role as a versatile, quality defender who hits from the right side has been usurped by Javier Baez, who has enjoyed a rebound campaign after dealing with injuries and ineffectiveness during the majority of his time with the Tigers.

While still just an average to slightly below average hitter overall, Baez’s performance is a big step up over Kreidler, and now that he’s no longer the club’s everyday shortstop he can pitch in as a more versatile piece with reps at third base and in center field—a change that covers all of Kreidler’s usual positions. Even as Kreidler no longer has a clear role with the Tigers, however, he’s managed to find himself a role with the Pirates. Pittsburgh has had one of the weakest offenses in the sport for a few years now, so the club is no stranger to light-hitting players on the roster. Perhaps Kreidler will get the opportunity to compete with Liover Peguero or Ronny Simon for a bench job down the stretch, a role in which his elite glove and defensive versatility can shine a bit more.

There even could be some room for optimism with Kreidler’s bat if he can get some reps over the season’s final few weeks. In 84 games at Triple-A Toledo this year, Kreidler has slashed a perfectly respectable .251/.374/.410 with 25 doubles and 14 steals. Expecting that level of production from Kreidler would be unrealistic at this point, but if he can even bring his numbers into the 80-90 wRC+ range it would go a long way to establishing him as a viable glove-first bench piece.

Pirates Promote Bubba Chandler

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August 22: Pittsburgh officially selected Chandler’s contract. They already had two openings on the 40-man roster.

August 20: The Pirates are promoting top pitching prospect Bubba Chandler to the major leagues, according to a report from Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Alex Stumpf of MLB.com adds that Chandler’s contract will be selected to the roster on Friday, while Hiles notes that Chandler will pitch in a long relief role.

It’s a long-awaited promotion for Chandler, who entered the season viewed as a consensus top-20 prospect in the sport and on the shortlist for the league’s very best pitching prospects. The 22-year-old hurler reached the Triple-A level last year and opened eyes with a brilliant 1.83 ERA in seven starts where he struck out 34.0% of batters faced, and that led many to speculate upon whether or not Chandler would be brought up to the majors early in the 2025 campaign or perhaps even join the club’s Opening Day rotation.

That’s not the route that Pittsburgh decided to take. Chandler has spent the entire 2025 campaign at Triple-A to this point and will now will only get promoted to the majors for the final weeks of the season. The right-hander did everything he could to force the issue early in the season, with a sterling 2.03 ERA and a 35.0% strikeout rate in 11 starts through the end of May. His call to the majors never came, however, and Chandler began to struggle as the summer began. Since June began, Chandler has struggled to a 5.96 ERA due in part to vanishing command. He’s struck out just 22.1% of his opponents during that time while walking a hefty 13.1%.

A .377 BABIP since the start of June is surely the culprit for at least some of those struggles, however, and it’s also possible that the challenge of a new level could help invigorate Chandler upon his arrival to the majors. After all, this is the same prospect who dominated Triple-A to the tune of a 1.94 ERA, 2.79 FIP, and 34.6% strikeout rate across his first 18 starts at the level. High as the right-hander’s upside clearly appears to be, however, his recent struggles can’t be ignored. Perhaps that’s why the Pirates will look to ease him into the majors with a bullpen role to start off his big league career.

It’s hardly an unprecedented path for even a potential star player to take. Chris Sale and, more recently, Garrett Crochet both spent years pitching out of the bullpen before moving into the rotation and becoming the ace-level arms we know today. That doesn’t appear to be the plan for Chandler, of course, as Stumpf writes that the Pirates view Chandler as a starter long-term and he could get starts at the big league level later this year. Future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer served as a swing man for the Diamondbacks during his first year in the big leagues, while current rookies like Joey Cantillo, Brad Lord, and Ryan Gusto have also broken into the majors by starting out in a hybrid role between starting and relief work. That’s also true for a few of Chandler’s Pirates teammates like Braxton Ashcraft and Mike Burrows.

Chandler’s impending ascension to the major leagues brings together Pittsburgh’s fleet of young starting pitchers. Led by likely NL Cy Young award winner Paul Skenes, the Pirates’ 2026 rotation figures to feature Ashcraft, Chandler, and Jared Jones as young, talented arms who have yet to reach arbitration. It’s a highly talented, exciting group of arms that should be a strong basis for a contending team, but if the 2025 season has been any indication the club will need to assemble a much better lineup than what they’ve put together this year if they hope to compete with the rest of the NL Central for a playoff spot.

Oneil Cruz is a toolsy player with star upside, and perhaps Bryan Reynolds will rebound from his down season in order to put up the solidly above-average numbers fans in Pittsburgh have grown to expect from him. Outside of that duo, however, there isn’t much to get excited about. While top prospect Konnor Griffin turned heads in the lower minors earlier this year, he’s only just made his debut at Double-A and isn’t especially likely to debut next year. If the team is to compete next year, the team will either need massive steps forward from under-performing young players like Spencer Horwitz, Henry Davis, and Nick Gonzales or they’ll need to make meaningful external additions to the lineup via either trade or free agency.

Strong performances from young arms like Chandler and Ashcraft down the stretch this year could go a long way to convincing Pittsburgh brass that now is the time to make a significant investment in short-term competitiveness. For now, however, the focus will simply be on getting Chandler acclimated to the majors in his first few weeks as a big league player. The Pirates have space on their 40-man roster already, so they’ll only need to make an active roster move in order to bring Chandler into the fold later this week.

Though Chandler struggled a bit in the summer, that’s surely not the only factor that went into the timing of this promotion. At this point in the schedule, it’s no longer possible for a player with no major league experience to accrue 45 days of service time before the season is done. That means a prospect promoted now will still be a rookie going into 2026, as long as his club limits him to fewer than 50 innings pitched or 130 at-bats.

That’s notable in this era of baseball, with the prospect promotion incentive. The PPI rules are designed to reward clubs who promote top prospects for an entire season, or enough of a season for the player to earn a full year of service time. As such, teams will often target these promotions so that the player will keep that rookie status going into the following season.

To qualify, a player needs to begin a season on two of the top 100 lists from Baseball America, MLB Pipeline and ESPN. As mentioned, Chandler is already a consensus top-20 prospect in the league. If the Pirates keep him under 50 innings this year and then put him on their 2026 Opening Day roster, he will be PPI eligible. He will then earn the Pirates an extra draft pick if he wins Rookie of the Year or finishes top three in Cy Young or MVP voting during his pre-arbitration seasons.

Since the Pirates aren’t competing here in 2025, they didn’t have much incentive to bring up Chandler in the summer, apart from starting the process of him getting acclimated to the big leagues. By waiting until now, they are giving Chandler less big league time in 2025 but will keep that potential extra draft pick in play for future seasons.

The Pirates aren’t the only club to follow this playbook. The Mets recently promoted Nolan McLean. The Orioles called up Samuel Basallo and Dylan Beavers. Surely, other top prospects will get the call in the coming days and weeks.

Pirates Release Ryan Borucki

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The Pirates released veteran reliever Ryan Borucki, according to the MLB.com transaction log. That was the expected outcome after Pittsburgh designated the southpaw for assignment on Friday. Borucki has more than five years of service time and had the right to refuse a minor league assignment, making the release a formality.

Assuming no team claims Borucki off release waivers, he’ll be a free agent. The Pirates will remain on the hook for the rest of his $1.15MM salary, while a signing team would pay him the prorated $760K league minimum rate if he gets an MLB opportunity. If he does sign somewhere, it’d likely come before the beginning of September. Players need to be in an organization by September 1 to be eligible for postseason play. They don’t need to be on the 40-man roster by that point, so Borucki would be playoff eligible even if he signs a minor league contract within the next two weeks.

The 31-year-old would be a long shot to make a postseason roster but should get attention from teams seeking left-handed relief depth. While he has struggled to a 5.28 earned run average through 30 2/3 innings, his underlying marks are a little more intriguing. Borucki has kept the ball on the ground at a huge 55% clip while posting slightly worse than average strikeout and walk marks.

Borucki recently returned from a six-week absence due to a lower back injury. He reeled off five straight scoreless outings upon coming off the IL, but he gave up three runs in an inning of work in Milwaukee last week. The Pirates designated him for assignment after that, calling up lefty Evan Sisk to take his spot in the bullpen. Sisk is a 28-year-old rookie reliever, so the ceiling isn’t exactly high, but the Pirates liked him enough to acquire him from Kansas City in the Bailey Falter deadline deal. It’s understandable they’d rather take a look at Sisk for the final six weeks of the season than continue pitching Borucki, who was headed for free agency at season’s end.

Andrew McCutchen Intends To Continue Playing In 2026

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Andrew McCutchen hopes to return for an 18th season in the big leagues. “I want to continue to play. I think I’m still capable of doing that,” the former MVP tells Jason Mackey of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

McCutchen has spent the past three seasons playing on one-year deals with the Pirates. The franchise icon has previously suggested he plans to remain in Pittsburgh until he retires.

Asked by Mackey whether he still wants to be a Pirate, McCutchen replied that he “(wants) to win” and added that he needs to show he’s capable of playing well enough to be part of that. While the “(wants) to win” response will be viewed by some as a shot at an organization stumbling to yet another last-place finish, McCutchen concluded by saying he needs to “show that (he) was able to have a good year and still can play the following year and not (fill) in a spot.” Readers are encouraged to view Mackey’s post for the full scope of McCutchen’s comments.

In any case, it’d be a surprise if McCutchen were anywhere other than Pittsburgh next season. The Bucs have not considered trading him at either of the past two deadlines even though he could’ve helped a contender as a bench bat. If McCutchen actually had any interest in leaving the Pirates, they’d presumably have accommodated him in trying to arrange a trade to a playoff team.

The 38-year-old has a slightly below-average .239/.326/.370 slash line with 11 home runs through 437 plate appearances. His numbers have trended gradually down over the past three seasons. It’s not strong production for a full-time designated hitter. Yet he’s far from the biggest problem in a completely punchless lineup. The Pirates have had 17 different hitters take at least 50 trips to the plate. Not a single one has turned in an above-average offensive showing, as measured by wRC+.

Among the team’s position players, only Oneil Cruz and Nick Gonzales have been worth at least one win above replacement, according to FanGraphs. Baseball Reference WAR has impending free agents Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Tommy Pham as the team’s two most valuable position players. It’s a bleak picture.

Even if McCutchen shouldn’t be an everyday designated hitter, the Pirates could surely find room for him on the roster. He told Mackey he still believes he’s capable of playing the outfield despite only starting seven games there this year. McCutchen has had a nice season against left-handed pitching (.282/.359/.398), so perhaps he’d fit best in a part-time DH/corner outfield role that allows whomever is managing the 2026 team to use him more selectively. McCutchen has signed for $5MM in each of the past three offseasons.

Pirates To Move Andrew Heaney To Bullpen Role

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Andrew Heaney has made 23 starts for the Pirates this season, but manager Don Kelly told reporters (including Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) today that Heaney will be utilized out of the bullpen for the remainder of the season.  The news creates an immediate vacancy in the Bucs’ rotation, as Heaney was slated to start Sunday’s game against the Cubs.

Just to quell any immediate speculation, Hiles reports in a follow-up message that star prospect Bubba Chandler won’t be called up to take Heaney’s spot.  Chandler is scheduled to start for Triple-A Indianapolis today, and fellow prospect Hunter Barco just pitched on Wednesday, so he doesn’t have enough rest to be ready for another start tomorrow.  Turning to Triple-A pitchers already on the 40-man roster, Johan Oviedo just pitched yesterday, and Tom Harrington is on Indianapolis’ injured list.  It is possible the Pirates could just use a bullpen game tomorrow, with Carmen Mlodzinski the likeliest candidate to soak up the majority of innings.

However Pittsburgh decides to ultimately fill the rotation spot, it is noteworthy in its own right that Heaney is headed to the pen.  Heaney has posted a 4.99 ERA over 119 innings, with lackluster advanced metrics pretty much across the board except for a decent 7.4% walk rate.  The long ball has once again been a problem for Heaney, as only four pitchers in all of baseball have allowed more homers than the left-hander’s 24 big flies.  After being a very adept strikeout pitcher earlier in his career, Heaney’s strikeout rates were middling in 2023-24 and have now plummeted to just 16.1% this year.

The Bucs inked Heaney to a one-year, $5.25MM free agent deal last winter, and the thinking behind the signing was that the southpaw would be a veteran bridge for the rotation until some of the younger minor league arms were ready for prime time in the latter half of the season.  This tactic assumed that Heaney would’ve been dealt at the trade deadline, though the Yankees were the only team publicly linked to Heaney’s market, and ultimately the southpaw stayed put since Pittsburgh apparently couldn’t find an acceptable offer.

The move to the pen will have an impact on Heaney’s wallet, as his contract contains up to $750K in incentive bonuses related to his innings totals.  He’ll receive an extra $50K for pitching at least 120 innings, a $100K bonus for hitting 130 innings, plus an extra $150K for the 140, 150, 160, and 170-inning thresholds.  The 120-inning bonus is a lock and 130 innings seems plausible, though the higher bonuses will be harder to achieve with a more limited relief workload.

Between Heaney’s lack of production and the fact that the Bucs never saw him as a long-term option, there are plenty of legitimate baseball reasons behind the southpaw’s removal from the rotation.  However, given the Pirates’ notoriously tight budget, the financial element to Heaney’s role change can’t be ignored.  It was just last season that Rowdy Tellez was released in late September when he was just four plate appearances shy of unlocking a $200K bonus from his Pirates contract.

Heaney has mostly worked as a starter during his 12 MLB seasons, but he has made his share of bullpen appearances and worked as a swingman.  Posting some good numbers as a reliever might help him finish 2025 on a high note, and perhaps give him another way of promoting himself in free agency.  It seems likely that Heaney would prefer a starting job if he can find it, but working as an innings-eating reliever or as a swingman could help open up his market to teams wary about his recent results as a starter.

Pirates Designate Ryan Borucki For Assignment

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The Pirates have designated left-handed reliever Ryan Borucki for assignment, manager Don Kelly announced to reporters prior to this afternoon’s game (link via Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). Pittsburgh also recalled righty Colin Holderman and lefty Evan Sisk from Triple-A Indianapolis and optioned righty Cam Sanders.

The 31-year-old Borucki has had a second straight rough season with the Bucs. Back in 2023, he turned in a sharp 2.45 ERA with a 21.7% strikeout rate and superlative 2.6% walk rate through 40 1/3 frames. He’s since turned in successive ERAs of 7.36 and 5.28 over a combined 41 2/3 frames while navigating multiple injuries. Borucki was out for more than a month due to a lower back injury earlier this summer, and a triceps injury limited him to just 11 innings in 2024.

Even with that rough stretch, Borucki still carries a career 4.38 ERA in 252 big league innings. He’s set down 19.6% of his career opponents on strikes and walked 8.7% of them. Neither is a plus mark, but neither is too far from league average. Borucki’s career 48.3% ground-ball rate (55% in 2025) is several percentage points north of average.

Borucki’s minor league deal with the Pirates contained a $1.15MM base salary that locked in when he was added to the big league roster. Any team that claims him off waivers — he obviously cannot be traded now that the deadline has passed — would be responsible for the prorated remainder of that sum, about $272K through season’s end. Since Borucki has more than five years of big league service, it doesn’t make much of a difference whether he’s placed on outright waivers or release waivers. He has the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency and still retain the remainder of his guaranteed money.

For the Pirates, it’s an understandable decision to move on. Borucki allowed three runs in his most recent outing and has struggled for much of the season when healthy. He’d have been a free agent at season’s end, so they’ll instead give his innings to younger arms who can be controlled beyond the current season. If a team claims the remaining $272K that’s on his contract, it’s all the better, but either way his departure will allow the Pirates more opportunity to evaluate potential future pieces in the ’pen.

Endy Rodríguez Undergoes Ulnar Nerve Transposition Surgery

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The Pirates informed reporters today, including Alex Stumpf of MLB.com, that catcher/first baseman Endy Rodríguez has undergone ulnar nerve transposition surgery. Stumpf says Rodríguez is expected to be ready for spring training, so he seems to be done for 2025.

It’s another unfortunate twist for Rodríguez’s career. He was one of the top prospects in baseball ahead of his debut. When he got up to the show in 2023, he didn’t hit much but his defensive grades were strong. Since he had been a good hitter throughout his minor league career, it was hoped he could be the club’s long-term catcher.

But going into 2024, he required surgery on his ulnar collateral ligament and flexor tendon, which wiped out that entire season. He got back on the field here in 2025 but this season has also been significantly marred by injuries. A laceration on his right index finger put him on the injured list in mid-April. He was reinstated from the IL in late May but was back on the shelf again about a week later due to elbow inflammation. He was pretty quickly transferred to the 60-day IL, suggesting the Pirates knew he was in for a long absence. Today’s news confirms that. Due to all those injury issues, Rodríguez only played 18 big league games this year. Since he missed all of 2024, it’s been close to two lost years.

That’s less than ideal for Rodríguez personally but it also means the Bucs will go into 2026 with question marks behind the plate again. As of a few years ago, they had two of the top catching prospects in baseball. In addition to Rodríguez, they also had Henry Davis, taken first overall in 2021.

While Rodríguez has been mostly out of action, Davis hasn’t delivered on his promise. Davis currently has a .183/.271/.298 batting line in 579 big league plate appearances, including a .169/.247/.281 showing here in 2025. With Rodríguez out last year, the Bucs acquired Joey Bart in April. That looked like a masterstroke when Bart hit 13 home runs in just 282 plate appearances last year. But here in 2025, he has just two homers in 256 trips to the plate. His glovework isn’t highly rated, so the offensive drop-off hurts his value.

The Pirates have a great pitching staff but the lineup is lacking, with clear issues on the infield and behind the plate. Ideally, Rodríguez would have taken over the job this year and cemented himself as the man for the job. Instead, it’s more time rehabbing from surgery and more question marks.

Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images

Cherington: Pirates Expect To Pursue Infield Help In Offseason

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The Pirates’ 2026 infield figures to look considerably different than the group that’s been trotted out for much of the season. Pittsburgh succeeded in shedding all of the money owed to third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes beyond the current season when they shipped him to the Reds prior to the trade deadline, and veteran Isiah Kiner-Falefa is a free agent at season’s end. The Bucs have plenty of young infielders who could step up and get looks next year, but general manager Ben Cherington acknowledged this weekend that some offseason additions could be on the horizon (link via Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review).

Though he didn’t make any definitive declarations, Cherington noted that he “would expect we would” add to the infield in some capacity. That comment came amid a broader discussion of Jared Triolo’s defensive versatility. Triolo isn’t hitting at all this season but has played quality defense at first base, second base and third base while even showing the ability to handle shortstop on occasion. Cherington suggested that Triolo “at least … part of a shortstop solution” as an option the Pirates could consider.

Triolo’s ability to play anywhere at a relatively high defensive level is a nice perk, but if he’s to be a real part of the Bucs’ solution around the infield, he’ll need to show more offense. The 27-year-old instilled hope in Pirates fans with a .298/.388/.398 slash in 209 plate appearances as a rookie in 2023, but that production was propped up by a colossal .440 average on balls in play. Triolo has predictably regressed since that time, recording just a .204/.290/.304 line (67 wRC+) in a much larger sample of 641 plate appearances.

Developing hitters has been an immense struggle for Pittsburgh — a problem that spans multiple front office leaders and multiple iterations of the dugout staff. The emergence of recurring back injuries for Hayes has played a part in that, but he’s just one of several notable Pirates position prospects who simply haven’t been able to hit in the majors.

Henry Davis, Liover Peguero, Travis Swaggerty, Endy Rodriguez and Ji Hwan Bae have all struggled upon reaching the majors. Nick Gonzales has been a bit better than league average at the plate this season, which makes him one of the system’s most prominent success stories in recent years. Other top prospects like Termarr Johnson and Lonnie White Jr. have seen their stock take a major hit as their bats have slowed in recent minor league seasons.

The lack of development among the team’s young position players leaves the Pirates with glaring needs up and down the roster. Among Pirates hitters with at least 100 plate appearances this season, only Gonzales (104 wRC+) and Spencer Horwitz (102 wRC+) have provided even average offensive output. Oneil Cruz was hot earlier in the season but has fallen off considerably since early June.

It leaves the left side of the infield, in particular, wide open. Kiner-Falefa spoke to Gorman and indicated an openness to returning, perhaps with more time at the hot corner, but said he’ll leave any such discussions to his agent and Cherington in the offseason.

The Pirates do have some hope on the horizon —  and meaningful hope, at that. Nineteen-year-old Konnor Griffin currently ranks as the No. 1 prospect in the entire sport over at Baseball America. Last year’s No. 9 overall pick has split the season between Class-A and High-A, hitting a combined .332/.410/.532 with 16 home runs and 53 steals in 438 plate appearances — all against older and more advance competition. It seems unlikely that he’d be pushed to the majors early next year, but later on in the 2026 season and certainly in 2027, Griffin could be an option at shortstop if he can remain healthy and if the Pirates can finish off his development in a way that’s eluded them with countless other prospects.

Pittsburgh was never going to make a play for a multi-year option at shortstop in free agency anyhow. As MLBTR’s Contract Tracker shows, the Bucs haven’t signed any free agent to a multi-year deal since giving a three-year contract to righty Ivan Nova back in December of 2016. In general, it’s a light class for free agent infielders anyhow, with Bo Bichette and Alex Bregman standing head and shoulders above the rest of the group (and, obviously, miles out of the Pirates’ financial comfort zone). Eugenio Suárez will be a free agent as well, but he’ll be well beyond the Pirates’ comfort levels.

That said, exploring the trade market will be a feasible option. The Pirates are deep in young pitching. Paul Skenes and Bubba Chandler won’t be going anywhere, but Pittsburgh also has names like Mike Burrows, Braxton Ashcraft, Thomas Harrington, Johan Oviedo, Hunter Barco and, of course, veteran Mitch Keller as options to potentially bring in some infield talent at either left-side position. Any help would be sorely needed.

Pirates shortstops this season have combined for an awful .246/.292/.315, translating to a 69 wRC+ (i.e. 31% worse than league-average at the plate) that ranks 27th in MLB. Third base has been even worse. Hayes, Kiner-Falefa and Triolo have combined to hit .229/.280/.299 while manning the hot corner. No team in baseball has a lower wRC+ from their collective group of third basemen than Pittsburgh’s 60. The Reds — the team that acquired Hayes — are next-lowest at 65.

Pirates Outright Genesis Cabrera

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Pirates reliever Génesis Cabrera was outrighted to Triple-A, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Pittsburgh designated the southpaw for assignment on Monday when they welcomed Johan Oviedo back from the injured list. Cabrera has the right to refuse the assignment in favor of free agency.

The Pirates were Cabrera’s third team of the season. He had brief stints with the Mets and Cubs earlier in the year. He pitched nine times for the Bucs after signing a major league contract at the end of June. He gave up six runs in 11 innings, striking out seven while issuing one walk. Cabrera is now up to 28 frames with a 5.79 earned run average. He has recorded a below-average 18.8% strikeout rate.

Cabrera throws hard, averaging nearly 96 MPH from the left side. Teams continue to give him opportunities in the middle innings as a result. The 28-year-old hasn’t translated that into enough strikeouts over the past two seasons. He has also been increasingly prone to the home run ball, leading to an ERA above 4.00 in three of the past four years.

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