The Royals have acquired left-handed starter Bailey Falter from the Pirates, with lefty Evan Sisk and minor league first baseman Callan Moss headed back to Pittsburgh in return. Both teams have announced the trade.
Falter, 28, settled in as a capable back-end starter for the Pirates over the past two seasons. From 2024-25, he has made 50 starts, averaging just over five innings per game. He has a 4.12 ERA and a 4.99 SIERA in that time. Neither a strikeout pitcher nor a groundball pitcher, none of Falter’s pitches stand out as especially dangerous, but he survives thanks to average control and elite extension. He will offer the Royals some much-needed rotation depth, with Kris Bubic out for the season and Cole Ragans, Michael Lorenzen, and Alex Marsh also on the IL. Falter might not be the kind of pitcher the Royals want starting in a postseason series, but he can help them in the uphill climb they’re facing to get to the playoffs. He is making $2.22MM this year and will be under team control through arbitration for another three seasons.
Sisk, now 28, was drafted by the Cardinals in 2018 and traded to the Twins in 2021 as part of a package for J.A. Happ. A year and a half later, the Twins flipped him to the Royals as part of the deal that brought Michael A. Taylor to Minnesota. Almost seven years after he was drafted, Sisk made his MLB debut for KC earlier this year. He threw a total of 5 1/3 innings in two separate stints with the big league club, giving up just one earned run and striking out 11. He also pitched to a 3.77 ERA and 3.83 FIP in 28.2 innings with the Triple-A Omaha Storm Chasers. Sisk has never been a top prospect, in no small part due to questions about his ability to retire right-handed hitters at the highest level. That helps explain why he has pitched at Triple-A with two different organizations in parts of four separate seasons, and he’s only managed to earn five big league appearances.
Moss, now 21, signed with the Royals as an undrafted free agent last summer. While he is not a highly-regarded prospect, the righty batter crushed the baseball last year at Single-A (177 wRC+ in 22 games) and has continued to hit well this year at High-A (123 wRC+ in 92 games). He’s also added a total of 17 stolen bases in 24 attempts.
Jon Heyman of The New York Post was the first to report that Falter was heading to Pittsburgh, while Alex Stumpf of MLB.com was first on the return of Sisk and Moss.
For what loser prospect?
Royals adding some arms. I like it…
If you don’t have a ton to sell go for it. I like it but Royals fans wanted to sell.
Not all of us. We want offense.
AI is crazy. What was there to sell? This is allowing us to still be semi-competitive this year, then trade Bubic in the off-season for a bat, and be MORE competitive next year, with a healthy Ragans.
not this Royals fan!
We really only wanted to sell Lugo. That was only due to him being gone at the end of the season. Once that was fixed we wanted to make the team better for this year and the next few years. They did that.
Underrated pitcher but not flashy! See if we get anything worth talking about
Exactly falter pitches like a 3-4 pitcher most days
Yep, that’s a very Royals move
We have soon two deasline traditions come to an end it seems: the Phillies and Angels making trades and the Padres getting a lefty starter from the Pirates
Red Sox sitting this one out it appears
Picking up Dustin May they probably should have
I wonder what that “Richard Jarzynka” has to say about all this.
Or one of his other accounts
He would say that pittsburgh is a bad baseball town. That they are losing money.
Typical of his trollness.
Royals brand new rotation.
Why?
Even with Ragans hurt, SP was the least of the Royals problems, so not sure why they are stacking them, but at least they are controllable beyond this year
Bubic is out for the year.
three rotation pitchers on the injury list, one that is out for the year. two are still on the injury list. these trades address a need for the pitching staff and Moss the first baseman minor-leaguer was blocked anyway by Vinnie.
Annual passage of end of summer. Pirates bending over.
ROYAL FLUSH OR PIRATE SLUSH?
Hopefully this means Bubba Chandler will be freed from Bob Nutting’s Prospect Prison
I guess the Pirates were determined not to falter.
Everyone must go!!
Free agent next year. Not unexpected. Heaney is going to be close behind.
Huh? Falter is under team control until 2029.
Heaney wasn’t traded
Pirates sitting on IKF, Rogers, Heaney and Santana.
Maybe they give Santana the closer role.
No clue why they are holding their rentals
Rogers was traded to the Cubs
Give Santana the close and try to build even more value in him for the offseason or next year’s deadline
A team trying to win would have little to no use for IKF Heaney.
After Bednar Falter trades thank the gods they held onto Santana.
Pham though seems like a movable piece.
Maybe try to contend with Kelly ball next 2 months. 20 game win streak lead by red hot Pham.
They’ll just DFA whatever free agents didn’t move before they hit any bonuses.
Guy not having a page isn’t optimistic
He has a page
Didn’t expect that.
As a Pirate fan, how much worse can it get? Trading players who could help next year instead of players on one tear contracts. Cherington is definitely the best of what he does, I.e. trading for prospects that he fails to develop.
I understand if he was trading Falter for a major league ready bat. But he traded the guy for NOTHING. It’s so bad it looks like sabotage.
Id understand if he traded Falter for a 10 to 20 prospect in A ball. This reliever could be good but doesn’t mean you can’t get more.
Skeptical- These trades really show us what Cherington is really like.
No ML ready players.
He still thinks that he can develop young position players.
The proverbial salary dumps in Hayes,Bednar,and Rogers,even though the last was an obvious necessary one.
Why make this trade of a valuable starting pitcher for an A level first baseman?Does he not remember all of the trash AAA and AAAA starters that he used to have to bring up in August every year?
Why spend time on this trade but not trade IKF and Pham and Heaney for this type of young player?
I really have given him the benefit of doubt over the years but this clearly begs the question-How can anyone think that this guy is competent enough to be a ML GM?
maybe no team wanted Pham, Heaney or IKF
regardless, Cherington brought no one back to help the current offense and that’s unbelievable
I wouldn’t want IKF Heaney. Pham maybe if desperate.
After Hayes trade I was ready to extend Cherington. After Bednar I was having 2nd thoughts. After Falter your fired Ben.
I think that teams must be shying away from Pham because he is Pham.
Keep him.Batting 370 the last six weeks.
IKF was desirable before and I think that he is underrated and my guess is that time just ran out after doing the other priority trades.
Heaney pitched well last game but was awful for almost a month before.They could have traded him a month ago and at least got something for him.
Been a long time since IKF has hit. Never hit for power. Just so many better players moved. I didn’t see anyone worse than IKF moved. Heard Cherington liked his leadership. Can’t believe they would take leadership over $. Same with leadership for Cruz over $. I think it’s a lame marketing leak. Teams would need to buy that Pham miracle contacts story as well.
IKF Heaney suck. They would have been just given away if anyone did want them.
Pirates don’t want to give him a big arbitration raise next season.
How big would it be
Cbee could be right.
Bednar would earn $8M anyway and be well worth it.
But they can keep Santana for a lot less and think that he can replace Bednar.
It would not be the first time that Nutting was looking at the pocketbook first and foremost.
And they may think that they could sign Bednar in 2027.
He’s talking about Falter
if these trades were salary dumps why are Pham, Heaney and IKF still on the roster?
They could have easily dfa all three or put them on waivers before the deadline
Keller makes as much as Bednar Hayes combine. Dump his salary.
Hayes hit a three run homer in his first game with Cincinnati
ESPN gave the Bucs a C- grade for the Bednar trade saying the Pirates should have got more for him
Exactly and Falter was making less than half of what Heaney was making and had an ERA a whole run better. Just an awful trade.
This was a good trade by BC for once to get falter for Rodolfo Castro he stunk. See what sisk turns into a lot of walks in his small sample
Just a 22 year old in High A with 7 HR?
Ok it’s 6pm. Fire BC
here’s my guess
There wasn’t any takers for Heaney and they wanted to bring up Chandler so trading Falter was the best option available
DFA Heaney.
They are too cheap.
You know the rule.
Keep the free agents until at least early September.
Doesn’t matter. They are paying them either way.
Then release Heaney or put him in the bullpen.
Tail wagging the dog.
Incredibly stupid trade.
Dombrowski stole the Twins reliever.
Preller makes smart deals.
Cherington is a nothing and probably always was.We were just giving him the benefit of the doubt.
I cannot imagine what was going through Cherington’s mind.
If Nutting has any brains at all he will fire him immediately.
Nutting was 100 percent in agreement with these trades. He’s extremely hands on.
I doubt cherrington does have a mind. I’ve heard that cherrington is on his way out the door, so he sabotaged these trades. If this is true,then he’s just as bad as the taco pres
T- Following the Pirates under Nutting and Cherington is like wishing that there was a happy hour at every bar from Noon to Midnight every day so you wouldn’t have to deal with them.
This may honestly have been the worst deadline I have ever seen as a baseball fan. Doing nothing would have been dozens of times better than whatever Cherington just did.
If it weren’t for Littlefield paying Matt Morris the largest contract in Pirates history, this would be by far the worst Pirates deadline ever. But at least Littlefield can point to a few wins in drafting, trading and development. Cherington cannot.
It is almost that he is begging to be fired.
Exactly how does trading away pitchers who still have team control left for a bunch of prospects who haven’t gotten past single A make the Pirates better in 2026?
This reliever is MLB ready.
If you are talking about Sisk just because he is ML ready does not mean that he is any good.
They are not even good enough to make the Pirates better in 2028.
Pirate fans on here have been arguing whether the Pirates should trade from their strength (pitching) for major league ready bats or hold on to their strength (pitching) and build off it. It seems Cherington took a third route: trade from their strength for “prospects” who will not be ready during the Skenes window..
Heaney didn’t draw any interest and subsequently wasn’t traded
In order to promote Chandler a spot in the roster was needed
Still, all we got in return for the trades over the last two days are prospects. Such a disappointing performance by the worst general manager in baseball
Then dfa Heaney and keep Falter
Or they can go with a 6 man rotation.
And prospects turn into suspects under Cherington’s development system.
This one doesn’t make much sense at all. Falter could’ve been the 4/5 guy next year on a low price point.
BC had high asks for the other players that didn’t get traded, but then practically gives away Falter.
So much for Cherington’s claim that the trades would bring back major league ready players to make this team better this year and beyond
BC is more of a bs artist than Nutting.
At this point they are one and the same.
How in hell do the Pirates still have Heaney on the roster but traded Falter for a 28 year old rookie and a guy who doesn’t even merit a link?
Falter has been great. Solid #4 and efficient and lefty. Falter is one of Cherington’s very, very few decent acquisitions. Every Pirates fan assumed he was part of the 2026 rotation, as he’s the only left until Barco arrives (who still has control issues in AAA)..
This is a horrible, horrible trade. And to hear “insiders” say Falter was going to be non-tendered as a $2.2M lefty with a 1.2 bWAR this season is reason to not just fire Cherington (along with the other disasters he signed off on this deadline). It’s reason to stand him against a wall on Federal St. in front of a firing squad.
Cherington needs to be fired last month.
Starting LHP for a reliever and no power 1b prospect. Reliever could be good. Is MLB ready. 6 7 years. But this is what makes you trade Falter? Maybe his arm is about to go or he likes gambling too much.
Bye Bye Ben!Completely dumbfounded by this trade,basically gave Falter away!
Which again begs the question Why do knowledgeable Pirates fans know more about these things than Cherington?
He gets an F on all of these trades and,inasmuch as he has a family,should just be tarred and feathered and run of town on a rail.
The airplane banners should read-Nutting- Even my dog knows that you should fire Cherington.
This dampens any enthusiasm the rest of the year as they have finally started to play well.
Knowledgeable pirates fans? Where? Lol
Most of the trades were good great. Bednar was iffy. Really iffy. Maybe they just seen something with those catchers and had to have them! (Like they did with Davis Endy! LoL Lol) Falter though even if I wanted to and tried my best I couldn’t make a argument that it was good or even average. Maybe they seen something and had to have that guy or something. That happens with real teams. Odds Pirates found a hidden gem? Come on now.
You have to get what you can for the free agents.I get that.And Huntington and Nutting had the philosophy to trade good players one or two years before free agency.I got that.
But Huntington would get ML ready or ML players in return.
I am OK with the Hayes trade because he did not want to be here,and other teams knew that,and they knew that he had a contract that overpaid him,so nothing of note was coming back.
The young players for Bednar could prove to be prospects.
I was wary thumbing through the new trades and did not want to trade Bednar.
I did not expect to see the Falter trade.
Falter is no Sandy Koufax but he has pitched better each year for the Pirates and they have at least two years of control.
It shocked me that they would trade depth like that.
I knew that they were not smart but it amazes me that they are this stupid.
Nothing of note for Hayes? No idea why people think this. Stafura is Pirates 5th best prospect. Better than Cook Solometo Yorke Harrington I’ll even put him ahead of TJ.
When will Stafura be making his major league debut?
2030?
2028
AI MORON….WILL YOU JUST SHUT THE HELL UP
Go see a psychiatrist you crazy pathetic lil man
The only accomplishment for BC is that all these prospects he’s accumulated over his tenure have made High A Greensboro 41 games over .500, and AAA Indy 21 games over .500.
Maybe this deadline was to improve Altoona and Bradenton since they are under .500.
Jim- You are thinking outside of the box but I like that.
I have always said that it is important to have winning minor league teams.
Both Indianapolis and Altoona have surprised me this year.
Hopefully that transmits to wins for a future Pirates team.
He keeps the free agent at and of year and trades a pitcher we have under control for three more years that is pitching well for scrubs. Pirates fans
Almost five hours after the deadline and I’m still in shock. The two beers didn’t help.
I had a margarita but only one and I should have had two or three.
It is not easy being a Pirates fan.
Another salary dump as Falter can be replaced by a player making league minimum. Nutting was afraid that Falter could get a raise over his current $2 million salary next year through arbitration. Any player over league minimum could be part of next salary dump. This trade does not make the Pirates better in 2026. Cherington is the biggest BS artist in MLB and Nutting loves him because he will spin any story to cover up Nutting’s desire for more profits.
I’m guessing that Triolo will be coming back up to play 3rd base and Jack should be either sent back to Indy or DFA
All he does is strike out and while looking
I think its time to bring up the player we got from the Frazier trade who hits for power and plays all of the infield positions
TheMan 3
Agree and I would go further and bring up Cooke, Yorke, Simon etc and play them regularly to see if they can adjust to MLB pitching. There are plenty of guys on expiring contracts and awful players such as Jack that you could demote or DFA.
There’s an article in today’s New York Post where Cherington admits he could have gotten a top 10 prospect in the Bednar trade and turned it down in favor of the 3 players he wanted
TheMan 3
Thanks, just found that, amazing that Cherington knows more than everyone else. Still don’t understand why we haven’t left last place with such a genius in charge.
They can’t hit minor league pitching how they going to adjust to MLB.
Suwinski can barely hit major league pitching and neither can Davis
Come to think of it, Cruz has his own problems as proven by his strikeouts, and while I am posting, Triolo has issues hitting major league pitching
Take Cruz out of the question, the lack of offense by these other 3 players, what would it hurt to promote others who might be better than these bums?
The season is over, why not find out who can hit?
They already know who can hit
Man3..I think they will play peguero at short and use kiner-flipflop at 3rd
I read in the Trib that by trading Hayes, they wanted to use Triolo strictly at 3rd base
They wanted out of Hayes contract. They don’t give a it about Triolo
They got rid of a 2026 rotation piece that excelled in the Pirates organization. Seems like they’re going to risk going with Skenes,Keller,Burrows and Chandler while hoping Jones can come back a full strength next season and fair shot they pick up another rental. Keeping Falter would have accomplished similar.
Sisk looks promising on Paper but risky, Moss looks like he can move up his stock but probably 2-3 years out at best..
IMO: low return for a backend pitcher with control. Flip the roles around for a promising near-term bat and a crapshoot relief arm would’ve been preferable. I would’ve probably kept Falter and looked for a FA reliever in the offseason.