The Pirates appear to be preparing to deal away some veteran assets this summer, according to reporting from MLB.com’s Jon Morosi. While the Bucs have obviously not yet committed to a path, Morosi tweets that the organization is “likely” to offer up some of its shorter-term players at the trade deadline.
It’s not surprising to hear that the Pittsburgh organization has begun to think about selling this summer. After a strong opening run, the club has faded fast and now sits two games under .500 and eight games back in a tough NL Central division. With three quality teams stacked ahead in the standings, it’s a bit difficult to see the Pirates staying in the hunt all season long.
Under the circumstances, says Morosi, the club plans to open the door to trades barring a sudden reversal of fortunes. Given the caveats sprinkled through the report, it’s clearly too soon to declare the Pirates a deadline “seller.” But the trend lines are all pointing in that direction, as Fangraphs’ playoff odds tracker illustrates.
We held off on including any Bucs players in our recent ranking of the top fifty trade deadline candidates. As we noted there, however, the club has a solid list of assets that it could put on the market. It’s worth checking through some of the top names to consider here, as some will likely appear on the next iteration of our top-fifty list.
There aren’t many pure rental pieces. Shortstop Jordy Mercer would be an appealing infield addition for the right contending team. Sean Rodriguez has struggled but could still turn himself into an asset given his versatility. Though his deal includes an option for 2019, corner infielder David Freese will mostly be viewed as a rental piece and could draw some interest as an experienced bench bat.
The Bucs are much more interesting when you expand the search to players that are under contract for future seasons. Veteran backstop Francisco Cervelli, a respected defender who is on fire with the bat, would make for an interesting entrant onto the trade market. He’s under contract for 2019, which increases his appeal but also his value to Pittsburgh. Similarly, righty Ivan Nova has another year to go on his deal. He isn’t thriving in the results department, but his peripherals remain quite strong and he’d be a nice addition for a team looking to add good innings to a rotation. Utilityman Josh Harrison remains a quality, versatile player who’d fit just about anywhere. His remaining two years of contract control aren’t cheap, but they come via option. And Corey Dickerson could still be of interest with another arb season left, though he has cooled of late.
There are yet more controllable pieces worth considering, too. While the Pirates would surely be hesitant to blow up their core, they’ll surely also listen if the market comes to them. Closer Felipe Vazquez is playing under an amply affordable extension, while Jameson Taillon continues to be a quality rotation piece. In both cases, the Pittsburgh front office will no doubt hold out for exceedingly high returns, if they’re really all that willing to talk at all. The same would hold true of star outfielder Starling Marte or other controllable position players, in all likelihood.
For the time being, then, it’s all guesswork as to which of those players might turn up in another uniform. Any chatter on deadline moves is surely still in the preliminary stages, if it’s really even taking place at all for a team that is still straddling the fence with ten weeks of the season in the books.
shut ’em down, open up shop
Woah!
Oh. No.
That’s how the Buccos roll…
I like the Pirates but they’re the same as the royals among others. Operate as a small market , and once they build up a core nucleus the window is small to win, and then the tear down begins. Unfortunately a lot of teams are like this which is sad. The majority of players from that list aren’t exactly that desirable.
In fairness, they moved their two most desirable chips in Gerrit Cole and Andrew McCutchen this offseason.
Marte is by far their most desirable asset
The groundskeeper is their most valuable asset. Have you seen their field?!
Perksy: Agree with your view on the Pirates and Royals being small market teams and is why there needs to be a salary floor and ceiling that benefits the players. owners and fans. Maybe if free agency continues like last off season, the MLPA will at least be open to discussions.
NH does a good job, IMO, of keeping the team’s competitive window open enough to entice the fans. Maybe the team peaked in 2015, but the Gerrit Cole trade brought back Moran and Musgrove, both of which have been solid regular pieces, and the team was off to a strong start. It’s a hard job when they can’t regularly splash $40 MM at veteran free agents.
Neal Huntington, repeat after me: “Code zero zero zero… destruct zero.”
BLOW IT UP!
Package a prospect with Polanco to get rid of him? They have lots of pitching, could package one of their main pitching prospects with polanco and get a middle infielder, preferably a SS
His contract is extremely unattractive, at least he turns things around.
And they have multiple SS prospects in the minor leagues. But yea, Poland’s is a change of scenery candidate. He could be a good grab by the White Sox.
Why would the White Sox of all teams choose to add?
Because Polanco is under contract til 2023 and 8 million a year or less until his last guaranteed year which is 11 mil with two option years after that so his contract isnt bad unless this is his peak and any team can cut bait once the contract becomes expensive. Plus the White Sox dont have much in the outfield. I agree its not the best fit but not unreasonable.
Watching Polanco the first few weeks of the season I thought he finally turned the corner and was realizing his potential. Unfortunately that didn’t last long, and now he’s back to doing all the things that prevent him from getting to the next level. You’re right – Bucs would have to package him with a high end prospect to move him.
They can trade Freese,Rodriguez,and Nova in order to open up places for young,inexpensive talent who deserve a chance(Osuna,Bostick,Kingham).They should be able to get a decent prospect for Nova.I would keep the others who have one year left at least until this winter unless they can get good young major league ready players for them.
Jeff, you used the word “surely” three times in that post alone; in addition to the other three instances in your previous posts today. Might I suggest “doubtless” or “no doubt” to add a little variety in your writing?
I was going to say all the filler adverbs killed the post. I scrolled back to the top figuring it would be a Kyle Downing or at least a Connor Byrne or Mark Polishuk…surprised to see it was Jeff.
Surely you realize you’re being a douchebag.
The Giants will gladly take Dickerson off your hands
The Giants would actually have to be relevant in the playoff race to buy at the deadline. They are barley the 3rd best team in their own division.
Plus they have zilch desirable to offer…
Giants system is so barren they could only offer prospects they haven’t even drafted yet in deadline trades.
barley the 3rd best? so you’re saying they’d have to hops a few teams?
Sad all teams face same salary cap, sad all teams make in a season roughly the same amount based on sales, sad some owners refuse to truly invest in the teams they own and are ok with losing year in and year out. Sad so many owners would rather make money then win. Certain teams will never stand a chance and that lies solely on ownership refusing to invest what it takes to win. MLB has so many issues when it comes to owners/salary cap/winning vs tanking aka rebuilding.
There actually isn’t even a salary cap in baseball. Not to mention if you’re referring to Pittsburg when it comes to owners not investing you’re not correct either. Pitt had a run of 4-5 years where they were a playoff team. Small market teams just can’t afford to pay out 150M in salaries every year. You can’t expect owners to take a loss to win games. That’s why small market teams have 3-5 windows then they are forced to rebuild when they get young talent again.
“There actually isn’t even a salary cap in baseball” and then the rest of your post gives damn good reasons why there should be one. Unless there is teams like the Pirates, Reds, and Royals are all examples of teams that fit your narratives.
Except I wasn’t complaining about the structure of baseball. Honestly competitive balance wise baseball is probably the best out of all sports. You’ve got teams like the Brewers and Braves leading divisions right now.
Yea I see people on here hollering about how great competitive balance is in baseball vs the other sports, it’s not true. The NFL for example is where all teams are forced to spend the same and a team can go from last place to the playoffs the next season, nobody does years and years of tanking. Rebuilding is a word these small market teams love to throw around, god San Diego ain’t no small market. The Red Sox and Yankees throw money around like no tomorrow, and I don’t want hear how the Yanks are under the tax threshold, cause in Football they’d be like the Reds with a cap..equal footing. I also see people posting that the players union won’t accept a cap, well make them like the other leagues did.
Only if one looks solely at outcomes, instead of opportunities, could one claim that baseball has the most competitive balance.
16-20 MLB teams begin each year knowing they have no chance to win the World Series. The same handful of rich teams sit at the table each year and one or two new small teams get to sit there for a year or two.
The only true small market team to win the WS since big money free agency began is the 2015 Royals. The ONLY one.
Meanwhile, in the NHL, last place teams can make the playoffs the next year and an EXPANSION team can make the Final. That’s parity.
The Pens, Kings and Hawks have hogged most of the recent Cups but that’s the result of good team building and not just outspending everyone like the Yankees, Cubs, Sox, etc.
The ability to build a team in the NHL and the NFL was brought about by true salary caps. No team in either league can simply outspend the others in an effort to win a championship. The Pens had gone bankrupt at least twice in their existence and would have been out of Pittsburgh if the salary cap would not have been imposed after the lock out in the 2004-5 season. With a hard cap, no team can simply outspend the others no matter their income. That allows every team a chance to compete for players. No one can out bid you if you have cap space available. Even if teams like the Pirates/Royals/Reds/Twins/etc raise their payroll $50 million, they have to be almost perfect on who they give the money too plus hope that other richer teams don’t just out bid them for the players because a) they can afford to and b) even if they player busts, they have the resources to absorb the contract and go buy another player. A bad large contract for a small to mid market team can cripple that team for years.
Very well said..
“16-20MLB teams begin each year knowing they have no chance to win the World Series” spot on mate. The NFL draft and one offseason can get a team to the playoffs, because of the salary structure. What really makes me chuckle is when some posters write things like “NFL contacts aren’t guaranteed and teams can cut injured players” first of all that’s not true. They also post how cruel it is to cut someone when their not performing, who cares they’re not relations. Wouldn’t it be great if someone like Hanley could be cut and not being on the hook for millions. There’s one guy on here who actually said 99% of NFL players have CTE, what an idiot and what a crock.
They have thoer rebuild/ coverage gonna happing.
Most of this article is nonsense. The core of this team is adequate. Staff is better than average. Trading Nova or Freese is fine. Trading Cervelli or Taillon and we come with pitchforks and torchs. Two huge issues to fix this team: bullpen and 1B. When your shortstop has the same amount of homers as your first baseman, you are going to fail. Bell is a good kid and a decent hitter but trade him to the AL for more power. All of our recent losses have come after the 4th inning We need another shark tank.
Who in the AL is gonna give up someone with “more power” for Bell. That doesn’t make any sense for any team.
Bell has bulked up too much and it’s cost him some of the flexibility he needs to make his unorthordox swing work. He’s going to need to lose some of that muscle mass and regain his limberness.
I think you have all of your talent to replace what you would trade down in AAA or already on the bench. Bostick would be a good replacement for Harrison. Newman or Kramer to replace Mercer, Mathisen to replace Freese, Osuna if Bell or Polanco don’t step up, and Stallings to serve as the backup for Diaz. As for the bullpen, Hellweg, Neverauskas, and Smoker are up for redemption. You also have some nice starters in Brubaker, Eppler, Holmes, and Kingham. That’s only Indianapolis. You also have a lot of nice talent in Altoona too that shouldn’t be dismissed. Blow it up, it’s not like they are on the path to win the division.
Since Pirate fans don’t like the term “bridge year” and the team refuses to utter the words “rebuiilding or retooling”….
This is an audition year. The entire point of this season is identifying who can and cannot be part of a legit contending core going forward.
Players who are not going to be part of that could definitely be traded. But, a lot of them have marginal value and probably won’t cost that much to keep, so I wouldn’t get rid of everyone.
Realistically, are teams going to want Jordy Mercer? I would keep one of him or Freese and trade the other. Listen on Harrison, he’s got years left here if need be, so don’t move him without a strong offer. Same with Nova.
Keep Cervelli. Extend him, actually.
Corey Dickerson must be either signed to an extension or traded at this year’s deadline. No other move makes sense. If he’s not staying, sell high.
Polanco is the hard one. Not sure anything can be done with him. AAA maybe.
PS- This might sound a bit crazy, but I think the Pirates should consider trading for Manny Machado…as the third team before flipping him to another team. The Pirates have a lot of good young arms creating a bottleneck. IF they could offer some of them to O’s to get Machado and flip him for a package built around a younger top 50 prospect, they should do it. Rule 5 issues could be coming if they don’t.
Getting a decent return for Dickerson may be tricky. He’s proven to be a strong 1st half player so far in his career, but he fades in the 2nd half. His first 2 months have been fantastic, but he’s already losing steam, and he hasn’t homered in several weeks. Unless a contender needs an OF really bad I think it will be tough to get value back.