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Cubs Designate Nate Pearson For Assignment

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The Cubs designated Nate Pearson for assignment, according to the right-hander’s official MLB.com profile page.  The move clears a 40-man roster spot for right-hander Eli Morgan, who was activated from the 60-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A Iowa.

Pearson first joined the Cubs in a trade from the Blue Jays at the 2024 deadline, and he seemed to benefit from the change of scenery.  After posting a 5.63 ERA in 40 innings for Toronto prior to the deal, Pearson stabilized things and posted a 2.73 ERA across 26 1/3 innings for the Cubs.  Even though the secondary metrics had a less-favorable view of Pearson’s performance, it looked like he had earned himself a spot in Chicago’s bullpen picture for 2025.

However, Pearson got off to a rocky start and found himself optioned back to Triple-A by the middle of April.  He has been recalled and optioned down a couple of more times since, with the end result of an ugly 9.20 ERA and more walks (10) than strikeouts (seven) over 14 2/3 innings in the Show.  Pearson’s numbers in Iowa have been considerably better, yet even his 2.22 ERA and 30.6% strikeout rate over 44 2/3 Triple-A frames have come with the red flag of a 12.9% walk rate.

Walks have been a persistent issue throughout Pearson’s career, and his seemingly improved control in 2024 may have proven to be a mirage based on his 2025 numbers.  He has also had a lot of trouble keeping the ball in the yard, as Pearson has allowed 28 home runs over his 156 2/3 career innings in the majors.  Formerly one of baseball’s top pitching prospects during his time in the Jays’ farm system, Pearson battled injuries while in the minors, and a move to relief pitching still hasn’t allowed him to find a niche on a Major League roster.

Pearson has two years of arbitration eligibility remaining, so between that team control and his past prospect pedigree, there is a chance he might get claimed as a reclamation project.  Since the 29-year-old has more than three years of MLB service time, he has the right to elect free agency rather than accept an outright assignment to Triple-A, assuming he clears waivers.  It seems probable that the Cubs might just release Pearson if he clears waivers — since he is a clear non-tender candidate anyway, an early release would give Pearson an early jump on the offseason free agent market.

Morgan posted a 12.27 ERA over 7 1/3 innings before his season was all but erased by an inflamed ulnar nerve in his throwing arm.  The righty’s last MLB appearance was on April 14, and a setback during a minor league rehab assignment in June pushed his clock back even further.

Finally returning to the mound in August, Morgan has looked quite sharp in posting a 1.69 ERA over 10 2/3 innings with the Cubs’ high-A and Triple-A affiliates.  With his 30-day rehab window over, he is now back on the 40-man roster and continuing his rehab work in Iowa, and it is unclear if he might get another look in the majors before 2025 is over.  Given his long layoff, it seems unlikely that Morgan would factor into Chicago’s playoff roster plans unless other pitchers get hurt.

Astros Notes: Pena, Alvarez, Rodgers, Polanco

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6:16PM: During the Astros’ pregame radio show, GM Dana Brown said that Pena’s oblique injury “could be just a two-day thing.  It’s minor based on the initial evaluation of it.”  Pena will still get some testing done out of due diligence. (Hat tip to Chandler Rome).

5:40PM: As the Astros head into a critical matchup with the Mariners tonight, Houston will be without one of its key players for at least this game and perhaps beyond.  Jeremy Pena was included in the initial lineup but has now been scratched due to left oblique soreness, according to an announcement from the team.

Needless to say, losing Pena would be devastating to the Astros’ chances of winning the AL West, or even making the postseason given how the standings have narrowed.  The Astros trail Seattle by two games in the division race after losing the first two games of this weekend series, and another loss tonight would put Houston out of the playoff picture entirely, as the surging Guardians would have a matching 84-72 record and the tiebreaker edge.

Because the Astros don’t play on Monday, it provides some extra time to evaluate Pena’s condition.  If it is just a matter of soreness and tonight’s scratch was more of a precautionary move, it’s possible the shortstop could be back in action as soon as Tuesday.  Oblique issues are notoriously hard to project, however, so even if Pena remains short of an actual oblique strain, there might still be enough discomfort that the Astros don’t want to risk putting him into a game.

Pena is having the best of his four Major League seasons, hitting .304/.363/.477 with 17 homers and 20 steals (in 22 attempts) over 543 plate appearances.  Each of those slash categories is a new career high for Pena, and he has also matched his personal best in stolen bases.  Between his big numbers and excellent defense, Pena has been worth 5.7 fWAR this season, even though he missed all of July recovering from a rib fracture.

Injuries have been the biggest problem of Houston’s season, as it is rather remarkable that the Astros are still in the race given how many key players have missed substantial amounts of time.  Yordan Alvarez is one of those figures, as the slugger has been limited to 48 games due to a hand injury that included a finger fracture, and most recently a sprained ankle that sent him back to the IL on September 16.

Alvarez provided media (including the Houston Chronicle’s Matt Kawahara) with an update on his status today, saying that he has yet to begin baseball activities since the inflammation in his ankle hasn’t fully settled.  On the plus side, Alvarez is no longer wearing a protective boot, and he feels he is healing a little quicker than expected.  In the absolutely best case scenario, Alvarez would be eligible to be activated off the IL on Friday, when the Astros visit the Angels in the opener of their final series of the year.

One player who won’t be an option is Brendan Rodgers, as manager Joe Espada confirmed to MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart and other reporters that Rodgers’ season is officially over.  The news is no surprise, as Rodgers hasn’t played in a big league game since June 14.  Initially sidelined by an oblique strain, Rodgers suffered a concussion and a nasal fracture after an on-field collision in his first minor league rehab game in July.  He returned to play one more minors game in August but was then sidelined by back problems.

Signed to a minor league deal in February, Rodgers made the Opening Day roster, and thus locked in a $2MM salary for the 2025 season.  He hit .191/.266/.278 over 128 PA and 43 games before his injuries prematurely ended his season, and Rodgers will surely have to settle for another minor league contract with Houston or another club this winter.

Rodgers was brought aboard to add second base depth due to Jose Altuve’s planned move to left field, and he may have been a fallback plan after Houston missed on signing Jorge Polanco.  The Astros were the runners-up to the Mariners in signing Polanco, as the veteran infielder told Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times that Houston was “very close.  They made a good offer, but Seattle came back with a better offer.”

The Mariners were also given the chance to counter, as Divish writes that Polanco’s agent gave Seattle a last chance to top the Astros’ offer.  The end result was a one-year, $7.75MM guarantee plus a mutual option for 2026 that has now vested into a player option.  Missing out on Polanco might well end up being the difference for the Astros in the AL West race, as Polanco rebounded in a huge way from a lackluster 2024 season to hit .265/.325/.489 with 24 homers for the M’s this year.

2025-26 Qualifying Offer Projected To Be Around $22MM

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This offseason’s qualifying offer will be worth approximately $22MM, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post.  The exact figure won’t be known for another five or six weeks, though Sherman writes that the final total will probably be a little under $22MM, according to sources within both the league and the players’ union.  This would track with Sherman’s early estimates about the QO in each of the last two seasons — he reported a $20.5MM approximate for 2023-24 that ended up being $20.325MM, and a $21.2MM projection for 2024-25 that wound up at $21.05MM.

The value of the QO is determined by calculating the mean salary of the league’s 125 highest-paid players.  This has usually meant an increase in the year-to-year value of the qualifying offer, as detailed in this breakdown…

  • 2012-13: $13.3MM
  • 2013-14: $14.4MM
  • 2014-15: $15.3MM
  • 2015-16: $15.8MM
  • 2016-17: $17.2MM
  • 2017-18: $17.4MM
  • 2018-19: $17.9MM
  • 2019-20: $17.8MM
  • 2020-21: $18.9MM
  • 2021-22: $18.4MM
  • 2022-23: $19.65MM
  • 2023-24: $20.325MM
  • 2024-25: $21.05MM

As a reminder, the qualifying offer is a one-year deal that teams can issue to any of their own free agents.  A player is eligible to receive a QO if he has spent the entire 2025 season on his current team’s roster, and he hasn’t received a QO in the past.  (Here is the list of active players who have already received a qualifying offer.)

Once the World Series is over, teams have a five-day window to decide whether or not to issue a QO to any of their eligible free agents.  A player who receives a qualifying offer then has 10 days to decide on accepting or rejecting the offer.  Of the 144 players who have ever been issued qualifying offers, only 13 have accepted, as the top free agents are naturally looking for a richer and longer-term commitment than a one-year pact.

If a player accepts a qualifying offer, they’ll simply return to their team on that one-year, $22MM contract for the 2026 season.  (The two sides can still negotiate a longer-term extension after a QO is accepted.)  If the player rejects the qualifying offer, he is still eligible to be re-signed by his previous team, but he can now gauge the rest of the market.

Even if a player turns down the qualifying offer, simply being issued the offer has a larger-term impact.  Should the player sign elsewhere, his former team will receive some manner of draft compensation in return.  By that same token, a club that signs a QO-rejecting player will have to surrender at least one draft pick, and potentially some money from their international bonus pool.  These factors have been known to influence the market for certain players, if teams are wary about giving up draft/bonus assets in addition to the financial cost of a signing.

Red Sox Activate Wilyer Abreu From IL, Designate Ali Sanchez

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The Red Sox announced that outfielder Wilyer Abreu has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list.  Catcher Ali Sanchez was designated for assignment in the corresponding roster move.

Abreu returns after missing a little over a month due to calf tightness.  As of two weeks ago, Sox manager Alex Cora didn’t have a set timeline for Abreu’s return, so it’s good news that Abreu has been able to make it back with a week to spare in the regular season, let alone before the playoffs begin.  Abreu is in the lineup as the designated hitter tonight, which could be a sign that his calf isn’t quite 100 percent, or the Red Sox might simply just be easing him back into action.

Assuming his calf is generally okay, Abreu should step right back into his normal strong-side platoon role as Boston’s everyday right fielder against right-handed pitching.  One of the sport’s best defensive outfielders, Abreu won the right field Gold Glove in 2024 and he is a strong candidate for a repeat, with +15 Defensive Runs Saved and +8 Outs Above Average to his ledger in 2025.  Between his superb glovework and solid bat (.253/.325/.486 with 22 homers in 395 plate appearances), Abreu has quickly become a major all-around piece of the Red Sox roster.

Sanchez’s 2025 began on a minor league contract with the Blue Jays, and he was claimed off waivers by the Red Sox in early August.  The Sox DFA’ed him 10 days after that claim, and after rejecting an outright assignment, Sanchez landed with the Mets on another minors deal.  He then found himself on the way back to Boston in a trade on September 1, as the Red Sox wanted some additional depth behind the Carlos Narvaez/Connor Wong catching combo.  Over 12 big league games in 2025, Sanchez has a .522 OPS over 23 plate appearances (all but two of them with Toronto).

Sanchez has a career slash line of .183/.220/.283 over 133 career PA in parts of four different MLB seasons, as his bat hasn’t been productive enough to hold down a regular role even if his well-regarded glove keeps getting him looks.  Sanchez is out of minor league options, which is part of the reason why he has been such a regular on the waiver wire.  Because he has been previously outrighted, Sanchez has the ability to elect free agency if he clears waivers and is assigned to Triple-A, though he is probably more likely to just accept the assignment and stay in the organization as depth.

Ivan Herrera To Undergo Elbow Surgery, Return To Catching After 2025 Season

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Ivan Herrera is expected to undergo surgery to remove loose bodies from his throwing elbow after the 2025 season comes to a close, as first reported by Jim Hayes of FanDuel Sports Network. Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat adds that Herrera is expected to be “full-go” by the time Spring Training roles around in February. The surgery is aiming to help correct his struggles with throwing behind the plate, which led the Cardinals to move him off catcher into a full-time DH role in July.

That should help facilitate a return to catching in 2026, and Jones wrote for MLB.com yesterday that Herrera has spoken with manager Oli Marmol and incoming president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom to work out a plan for an offseason program designed to get him ready to return to catching next year. Jones adds that the club’s plan for Herrera’s offseason was created with the knowledge of the youngster’s impending surgery and with plans on how to incorporate his rehab into his winter assignments.

Being able to rely on Herrera has a regular part of the club’s catching corps next year would be a game changer for the Cardinals. The 25-year-old has enjoyed a major breakout with the bat this year, as he entered today slashing .279/.366/.447 across 100 games this year before clubbing his 17th home run of the season in today’s game against the Brewers to push his wRC+ up to 134 on the season. That’s a top-25 figure in baseball among players with at least 400 plate appearances, tied with star outfielders Bryce Harper and Byron Buxton. In other words, Herrera’s 2025 season has placed him in the upper echelon of hitters across the league regardless of position.

If Herrera can make the shift back to catcher without missing a beat with the bat, he would go from being a valuable middle-of-the-order hitter to a player with legitimate star potential. Only Cal Raleigh and Will Smith have hit better than Herrera while serving as primary catcher this year, and only five other catchers even have a wRC+ of 120 or higher on the year. That’s especially valuable for a club like St. Louis that simply hasn’t gotten much offensive production from the catcher position this year. Willson Contreras remains a quality bat, but was pushed into an everyday first base role over the offseason with no signs that he could return to the club’s catching mix any time soon. That’s left the lion’s share of playing time behind the plate for Pedro Pages, who has hit just .233/.276/.368 in 109 games for the Cards this season.

Herrera would constitute a massive upgrade over Pages offensively for St. Louis, and Marmol told reporters (including Jones) yesterday that the youngster is “committed” to putting in the work necessary to enter Spring Training as part of the catching mix for 2026. Assuming that offseason program goes well, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine Herrera entering Spring Training as the favorite to start the majority of games behind the plate for the Cardinals, with Pages and Yohel Pozo in the mix for either the job backing up Herrera or to step in as the club’s catching tandem in the event that Herrera isn’t able to hack it defensively at the position even after surgery.

If Herrera is able to get most of his reps behind the dish, that would create flexibility for other position players on the club to get reps at DH and create more playing time for the rest of the club’s large positional group. Players like Alec Burleson, Nolan Gorman, and Thomas Saggese have no settled position with the Cardinals and could benefit from the flexibility created by Herrera moving to catcher and opening up more DH at-bats.

Braves Claim Chuckie Robinson

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The Braves have claimed Chuckie Robinson off waivers from the Dodgers, according to a report from David O’Brien of The Athletic. Robinson was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett rather than added to the active roster, and right-hander Daysbel Herandnez was transferred to the 60-day injured list to make room for Robinson on the 40-man roster.

Robinson, 30, has just 52 games in the majors under his belt since he made his big league debut with the Reds back in 2022. It’s not hard to see why he hasn’t gotten much playing time in the majors to this point, as he’s a career .131/.161/.192 hitter in the big leagues across 138 plate appearances. That performance leaves him with a wRC+ of -4, meaning that he’s been 104% worse than a league average hitter at the plate. While the standards for offensive contributions from catchers are less rigorous than they are for other positions on the diamond, Robinsion is a non-factor at the plate even by the standards set by pitchers in the years prior to the NL adopting the DH rule.

Given his lackluster offensive abilities, it might seem like a shock that Robinson would get any sort of attention at the big league level at all. He carves out a niche for himself by being an extremely well-regarded defender behind the plate. He’s considered a strong game caller and even was heralded by Baseball America as a top defensive catcher back in 2020. That elite glove has been enough to make Robinson a fairly attractive candidate to be a fill-in depth catcher behind a given club’s regular tandem. This year, Robinson broke into the majors with the Dodgers because Will Smith and Dalton Rushing were both injured, leaving Robinson to join Ben Rortvedt in the club’s catching tandem for a time. He similarly helped to fill in for injured starting catcher Tyler Stephenson with the Reds during his debut season of 2022.

Now that Robinson is in Atlanta, it seems likely he’ll be tasked with helping to back up Drake Baldwin and Sandy Leon for the last few weeks of the season. The Braves have one of the best catching tandems in baseball when healthy, with Baldwin and Sean Murphy sharing time behind the plate, but Murphy recently underwent surgery that left the club without a third-string catcher behind Leon on the 40-man roster. Had Leon or Baldwin suffered an injury, the Braves would’ve been forced to turn to Jason Delay (who is not currently on the 40-man roster) or find an option outside the organization. It’s unclear if the Braves have interest in keeping Robinson in the fold in some capacity headed into the offseason or if he’s simply a fill-in depth piece brought in to help shore up the catcher position while Murphy is rehabbing. Even if that ends up being the case, Robinson’s strong defensive reputation should make it fairly easy to find a minor league deal with one organization or another.

Diamondbacks Designate Jake Woodford For Assignment

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The Diamondbacks announced today that they’ve designated right-hander Jake Woodford for assignment. Right-hander Austin Pope’s contract was selected from Triple-A to replace Woodford on the 40-man and active rosters.

Woodford, 29 next month, was a first-round pick by the Cardinals back in 2015 who made his MLB debut during the shortened 2020 campaign. He struggled to a 5.57 ERA as a long reliever in that rookie year, but enjoyed better results come 2021 and ’22 with a respectable 3.26 ERA and 3.93 FIP in 116 frames across those two seasons. His 15.4% strikeout rate against a 7.5% walk rate was decidedly lackluster, but he helped to make up for that by generating grounders at an impressive 45.8% clip. That peripheral-beating sleight of hand did not last, however, and in 2023 he posted an ERA north of 6.00 on the year before being non-tendered by St. Louis during the 2023-24 offseason.

Since 2024, Woodford has jumped between teams as a journeyman without logging more than a handful of innings in any one place. He pitched for the White Sox and the Pirates at the big league level last year, logging 35 innings of work with a 7.97 ERA despite a 4.94 FIP. He posted a more respectable 3.93 ERA at the Triple-A level that year, but ultimately found himself in free agency once again when he was designated for assignment by Pittsburgh over the offseason. He landed with Colorado on a minor league deal, which appeared to be a solid fit on paper given his past success as a ground ball pitcher. Unfortunately, he didn’t manage to break camp with the club and was granted his release just before Opening Day 2025.

Once the 2025 season began, Woodford after pitched at Triple-A for the Yankees and Cubs with middling results for both affiliates before catching on with Arizona on a major league deal in early July. He’s made 22 appearances with the Diamondbacks since then, though his work hasn’t been especially impressive. Across 36 1/3 innings of work, Woodford has posted a 6.44 ERA with a 4.27 FIP and a strikeout rate of just 13.5%. With the Diamondbacks still hanging on in the playoff race, it’s hardly a surprise that they’ve opted to cut a pitcher with Woodford’s limited success from the roster in favor of a fresh face.

That fresh face is Pope, who was a 15th-rounder for the Snakes back in 2019 and will celebrate his 27th birthday next month. Pope has a 4.60 ERA in 29 1/3 innings of work at the Triple-A level this year, though those results aren’t quite as weak as they might sound given the fact that Arizona’s Reno affiliate plays in the Pacific Coast League’s offense-friendly environment. Pope’s first appearances with the Snakes will be his big league debut, and he’ll be looking to show out enough over the coming days to convince the Diamondbacks to keep him on their 40-man roster throughout the coming offseason.

Tigers Designate Charlie Morton For Assignment

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The Tigers announced this morning that they’ve designated right-hander Charlie Morton for assignment. Right-hander Tanner Rainey had his contract selected to replace Morton on the 40-man and active rosters.

This surely isn’t the ending that either Morton or the Tigers were hoping for when Detroit acquired from the Orioles on the day of the trade deadline. Even then, however, Morton was in the midst of an up-and-down season. His first five starts with Baltimore saw him get torched to a 10.89 ERA as he walked 13.9% of his opponents. That led him to be demoted to the bullpen before the end of April, and he spent roughly a month in a multi-inning relief role before injuries in the rotation created an opening for the righty to start again.

Once Morton was returned to the rotation on May 26, the rest of his time in Baltimore saw him pitch to the mid-to-back of the rotation results the Orioles were hoping for when they acquired him with a 3.88 ERA and 4.17 FIP across 11 starts and 60 1/3 innings of work. In that time, he struck out 22.7% of his opponents and walked 8.9%. Those numbers were serviceable enough that the Tigers decided to bet on Morton’s recent performance and history of mid-rotation success, including his 3.87 ERA in four years with Atlanta.

It’s a bet that did not pay off. While Morton threw six innings of one-run ball during his first start as a Tiger and pitched to a perfectly solid 3.63 ERA with a 3.77 FIP across his first four outings (despite a clunker against the Angels in his first start at Comerica Park), the wheels came off with a five-run outing against the Athletics in West Sacramento at the end of August. Things only got worse in September, as he pitched to a 12.75 ERA across four starts with more walks (13) than strikeouts (11) while averaging just three innings per start. Morton’s struggles reached a crescendo on Friday, when he surrendered six runs on five hits and two walks while striking out two in 1 1/3 innings of work against his former teammates with the Braves.

The Tigers will now put Morton through waivers. It’s likely at this late stage in the calendar that he will go unclaimed, and if that comes to pass Morton has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment and head into free agency early. All told, the veteran will walk away from the 2025 season with a 5.89 ERA and 4.98 FIP across 140 2/3 innings of work. That includes a 7.09 ERA and 5.20 FIP in his nine starts in a Tigers uniform. That tough performance makes Detroit’s decision to cut ties with Morton somewhat unsurprising, and even after Friday’s game Morton and manager A.J. Hinch both told reporters (including Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press) they didn’t know if Morton would pitch again for Detroit.

Perhaps if the Tigers were in a more stable position in the playoff picture then it would be easier for them to give Morton another opportunity to get right. The Guardians’ recent surge toward the top of the standings has put a lot of pressure on Detroit ahead of the final week of the season, however. Cleveland currently sits just one game back of the Tigers in the AL Central after winning ten games in a row while the Tigers have lost five straight. Detroit’s playoff odds according to Fangraphs are down to just 85.1% entering play today after sitting at approximately 100% as recently as September 6. That increased pressure is forcing more aggressive moves than other teams that have already clinched a playoff spot are making at this point in the calendar.

As for Rainey, the right-hander pitched for the Pirates earlier this year but struggled to a 10.57 ERA in 11 appearances before being designated for assignment. He eventually caught on with the Tigers on a minor league deal and has posted a 2.66 ERA in 19 appearances for Triple-A Toledo. That success in the minors isn’t likely to outweigh his career 5.44 ERA in 209 big league appearances, but perhaps Rainey will look good enough in a couple of appearances in the majors that it could help him either hold onto a 40-man roster spot with Detroit this offseason or find a contract elsewhere.

Mets Designate Chris Devenski For Assignment

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The Mets announced this morning that they’ve designated right-hander Chris Devenski for assignment. Devenski’s spot on the active roster will go to left-hander Sean Manaea, who has been activated from the paternity list.

Devenski, 35 in November, signed a minor league deal with the Mets last offseason and has served in an up-and-down role for the club this year. He’s made 13 appearances for the Mets in total this season and was already DFA’d by New York once before in late July, though he signed a major league deal with the club just a few days later and has remained in the organization ever since. All together, he’s posted a 2.16 ERA with a 3.51 FIP in 16 2/3 innings of work while striking out 21.5% of his opponents against a 7.7% walk rate.

Those are perfectly solid numbers, and his 3.35 ERA and 20.8% strikeout rate across 35 appearances with Triple-A Syracuse this year is largely consistent with that. Despite the minimal playing time at the big league level, 2025 represents something of a return to form for Devenski. A 25th-rounder drafted by the White Sox all the way back in 2011, Devenski made his big league debut in Houston during the 2016 season and was a big part of the Astros bullpen in the early days of their dynasty. In 305 1/3 innings from 2016 to 2019, Devenski posted a 3.21 ERA with a 3.49 FIP and even picked up an All-Star appearance during the 2017 campaign.

Unfortunately, he’s been unable to find his footing since struggling in a small role with the Astros during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign. Since the start of 2020, Devenski has bounced between six organizations at the big league level. Prior to joining the Mets this year, he had pitched to a 6.46 ERA with a 5.30 FIP in 82 appearances over the past half decade, including a 6.75 ERA in 26 2/3 innings of work for the Rays last year. If some club views Devenski’s strong performance in a minor role with the Mets this year as evidence he’s put his years of struggles since leaving Houston behind him, then it wouldn’t be a shock to see Devenski garner some interest on the free agent market this winter.

As for Manaea, the Mets recently moved him to the bullpen for the remainder of the season amid his struggles to find success in the rotation this year. That move has paid off so far, as the lefty threw five innings of one-run ball in long relief against the Padres last week. Now that Manaea is back from the paternity list, he’ll likely have another opportunity or two to pitch this week as the Mets fight to hold onto their spot in the playoffs amid strong pushes from Cincinnati and Arizona to get back into the conversation.

Pirates GM Ben Cherington Discusses Future, Offseason Plans

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It’s been another tough season for the Pirates, and things went poorly enough early in the year that manager Derek Shelton was fired just six weeks into the regular season. While the club showed at least some signs of life in the aftermath of Shelton’s firing, with a 52-51 record under interim manager Don Kelly through September 4, they’ve gone on to lose 12 of their last 14 games and now look sure to end the season on a sour note. With a 66-89 record entering play today, Pittsburgh is more than 20 games underwater for the year and has already locked up a worse record than the club posted in back-to-back 86-loss seasons during the 2023 and ’24 campaigns.

A step backwards in Paul Skenes’s first full season in the major leagues could not possibly have been something Pittsburgh was expecting, and none of the team’s woes can be attributed to their ace given his 2.02 ERA and status as the heavy favorite for the NL Cy Young award. The problem lies elsewhere in the organization, and yesterday GM Ben Cherington was asked by reporters about his job status and plans for the future. Cherington (as relayed by Kevin Gorman of TribLive) told reporters that he “hasn’t heard anything to the contrary” from ownership when asked if he expects to return for 2026.

“I don’t know if any of us in this room ever have full assurance of anything, but I want to help the Pirates win more games,” Cherington told reporters. “That’s it. I don’t do the job because of the job. I do the job because I want to be a part of making this thing work. Winning more games and being able to leave PNC Park at night feeling better and everybody feeling better. That’s why I do it. I still want to do it. I badly want to do it.”

Cherington went on to discuss the status of Kelly headed into the offseason, and made clear that he’s holding off on evaluating the interim manager’s performance until the season comes to a close. He went on to say that he expected Kelly would do “a really good job” in the role from the moment he took over back in May, and that his performance “is one that’s not surprising” to him. While Cherington’s review of Kelly’s work was largely positive, he also noted that not having a manager locked in for 2026 at this point creates “an opportunity to really have a culture that feels different” next season. If Pittsburgh brass think a significant change in culture is necessary to get the team back on track, it could be argued that Kelly isn’t the right person to change that culture after spending six seasons in the organization between his time as bench coach and interim manager.

Despite uncertainty in the dugout and the team’s poor performance this year, Cherington added that he expects the team to contend next season. At the same time, he acknowledged that “you can’t just hope it’s going to happen” and that “some really important work” needs to be done to improve the club around Skenes. The most obvious place improvement will be needed is on offense, as Spencer Horwitz and his 107 wRC+ represent the only above-average offensive contribution the club got from any of its hitters this year. Perhaps the team can expect better performances from Oneil Cruz and Bryan Reynolds next year given their track records, but the rest of the lineup has posted uninspiring numbers with little reason for optimism going forward.

The microscopic budget handed down by ownership is a perennial challenge in Pittsburgh, but Cherington and the Pirates’ front office do have an exciting farm system and a deep pitching staff from which they could try to swing trades that would upgrade the offense. Top prospect Konnor Griffin isn’t going anywhere, of course, but with Skenes, Jared Jones, Mitch Keller, Johan Oviedo, Mike Burrows, Bubba Chandler, Hunter Barco, Thomas Harrington, Braxton Ashcraft, and Carmen Mlodzinski all likely to be in the mix for starts next year there should be plenty of room to move an arm or three for help on offense. Indeed, that’s how they were able to acquire Horwitz, as they traded Luis Ortiz to the Guardians to acquire their first baseman last offseason shortly after he joined Cleveland in the Andres Gimenez trade. If they can follow a similar road map more aggressively this winter, they should be able to leverage their bevy of young pitching talent in order to augment the offense without breaking the bank.

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