After years of speculation, the Pirates traded their closer at this past summer’s deadline. David Bednar was shipped off to the Bronx for a three-player package headlined by catching prospect Rafael Flores. That opened the ninth inning for breakout setup man Dennis Santana, who got an extended run as a closer for the first time in his career.
Santana has been a revelation since the Pirates claimed him off waivers from the Yankees in June 2024. The Dominican-born righty tossed 44 1/3 innings of 2.44 ERA ball down the stretch that year, earning some stability with the fifth team of his big league career. He began this season in a setup role, then briefly took over as closer when Bednar’s early-season struggles got him demoted to Triple-A. Bednar was back in the ninth by the end of April, but the closer role became Santana’s for good after the deadline.
The various roles didn’t slow him down. The 29-year-old Santana turned in 70 1/3 frames with a career-best 2.18 earned run average. He recorded 16 saves and 12 holds while only relinquishing three leads all season. Santana had a less impressive 3.75 ERA after the trade deadline, yet that’s mostly attributable to a five-run blowup at Coors Field on August 1. He worked to a 1.90 ERA while holding opponents to a .152/.236/.291 slash in 23 appearances after that.
Santana doesn’t have the usual closer profile. He struck out 22.2% of batters faced, right around the league average for big league relievers. His 94.7 MPH average fastball speed is fine but not exceptional for a late-inning arm. Santana’s wipeout slider is his bread-and-butter offering, a pitch that gets enough whiffs that teams could project his strikeout rate to climb by a couple percentage points. He’s never going to be Mason Miller, though, and most clubs would probably project Santana more as the second or third-best arm in a contending bullpen.
Pittsburgh received trade interest in Santana at the deadline. The Phillies were the only team specifically known to have checked in, but it stands to reason the Bucs heard from at least a handful of clubs. They clearly didn’t find an offer to their liking. They’re now down to their final season of contractual control. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Santana for a $3.4MM salary that easily fits within the budget of any team, even one that runs payrolls as low as the Bucs do.
The Pirates aren’t intentionally rebuilding, but they’re coming off a 71-91 season that represented a step back from their consecutive 76-win campaigns before that. Should the Pirates view this offseason as a sell-high opportunity while letting Isaac Mattson, Justin Lawrence and Carmen Mlodzinski compete for the ninth? Will they?
Weigh in on our latest poll.
At some point the Pirates have to try to compete….right? Right? RIGHT?
They have the young pitching to take a big step forward, but they’ll never be a playoff team in the NL unless they find a few good bats. Cruz could be one, but even if he starts fulfilling his potential the lineup is still short.
At some point they have to or they will lose all fan interest. Luckily Skenes and now Bubba are keeping fans around. But they have to do something with the position players. Their rotation looks to have some dominant/good pitchers but they need runs. It’s time to open up the checkbook and see what you can get. Give the fans something to latch on to
Not true. The Pirates recently had 20 below .500 seasons in a row and the fans still stuck around. Most fans are not that fickle. If they see the team trying to compete, even if they are not successful, the fans will support them. It is why I remain a Rockies fan. They may suck, but at least they keep trying.
We have an owner who is not interested in winning.
I would think they are planning on it. They held onto Mitch Keller at the deadline and a couple of their hitters finally started to emerge, particularly 1B Spencer Horwitz and 3B Jared Trillo.
If veterans like Brian Reynolds and O’Neil Cruz return to form, then this could definitely be an mid to high 80 win team
Cruz is only a league average bitter at best who has no defensive value, he’s not going to propel this team to 80 wins alone and Reynolds is probably starting his decline
Yeah the pirates have to compete. That’s why they should be shopping relief pitchers. Everyone was saying how pirates needed pitching recently, now they need hitting. That’s the volatility between years but relief pitchers are even worse.
Movevthe high risk relievers for high risk prospects. That’s how the Rays keep winning year after year
Are they getting back someone who they can plug in immediately on their mlb roster? Probably not so I’d say no. If he’s good he’ll be in much demand come trade deadline.
At the deadline unless they can get a decent high minors position player for him this off-season
Phillies should be all over him this off season if available just like they were doing the trade deadline
Its been 6 days since a Pirates article, so its post-a-dumb-question time
Only trade him for a quality bat. If not keep him. The pirates have a young staff of starters and have some wicked young arms in the pen. I think a good free agent signing would be Cody Bellinger,only 30. Probably 4 years at 100 million would do it. And by trading Keller they would be saving 50 million. Cherrington can’t screw this off season up.
They should. He has no track record of being this good
Should they? No. Will they? If he’s due to make more than minimum wage than expect Nutting to ship him out
Ben must give a good bj that’s all I can figure…
I agree figuratively and have no comment on literally
Don’t need a closer if you seldom have a lead in the 9th