Pittsburgh Pirates: A Look Back at the Francisco Liriano Trade

The Pittsburgh Pirates made a controversial trades a few years ago that they were highly criticized for making.  Let’s take a look back at it.

Back at the trade deadline during the 2016 season, the Pittsburgh Pirates made a deal that changed the perspective of the team.  The Pirates dealt Francisco Liriano to the Toronto Blue Jays as a way to get rid of what was still owed on his contract.  At the time, Liriano still had about $17.5 million left on his contract over the remainder of the 2016 season and the entire 2017 season.

So at the time of the deal, no one was surprised, as the Pittsburgh Pirates are always looking to get out of expensive contracts.  Liriano was having one of the worst seasons in the National League that year with an ERA of 5.43 in 21 starts.  So not only was he expensive, but he was also not performing anywhere close to the level the team needed him to be.

However, the team had to put more into the trade to make it happened, and this is what made people criticize the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Going along with Liriano were two prospects in Reese McGuire and Harold Ramirez.  Both prospects were inside the Pittsburgh Pirates top 15 on their top 30 prospect lists.  McGuire, of course, was a first-round pick of the Bucs in 2013.  Meanwhile, Harold Ramirez signed with the organization out of Columbia in 2011. He quickly climbed the prospect latter and established himself as a potential future outfielder.

So with McGuire being a former first round pick and a former top 100 prospect and Harold Ramirez hitting close to .300 and being one of the team’s top outfield prospects, it upset many fans to see them dealt away.  Coming back in the trade was a former top pitching prospect in Drew Hutchison, who was a bust.  The fact that the team traded away prospects with a bad contract just showed how “cheap” the Pittsburgh Pirates can be.

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What fans failed to realize at the time was that the team was giving up on prospects they were not high on.  Reese McGuire never developed the way they had hoped.  His defense was always solid, but his offense never seemed to click.  While he had a brief debut at the MLB level last year, McGuire only hit .233 with  a .313 on-base percentage through 96 games at Triple-A last year.  When the trade happened, prospect experts put a defensive-minded backup catcher as McGuire’s ceiling.

Meanwhile, Ramirez was in Double-A at the time of his trade and still has not reached the Major League level.  The Blue Jays recently released Ramirez off of their 40 man and he signed with the Miami Marlins.  On a rebuilding Toronto team, he was released showing that they were not overly high on him either. So looking back at the salary dump trade, it was really a wash for all sides.  Hutchison never worked out in Black and Gold, while the prospects have not worked out for Toronto and they traded Liriano the very next year.

Why is this relevant right now?  Because of the trade that is being discussed between the Mariners and the Mets. For people who criticized the Pittsburgh Pirates for dumping salary by using prospects, this trade is even worse.  Imagine if the team traded away a player who had a historical season the year before.

The Mariners are trying to trade away Robinson Cano.  While Cano is still a somewhat productive player, he is quickly aging and is not close to what he was years ago.  Cano is still owed $24 million a year for the next five years.  To get the Mets to trade from such a large contract, the Mariners are sending 2018 all-star close Edwin Diaz.

Diaz posted a ridiculous season last year gaining 57 saves, a sub-2.00 ERA, and compiling a rate of 15 strikeouts per nine innings pitched. On top of his impressive season last year, he pitched to a sub-3.00 ERA in 2017.  Furthermore, he has four more years of team control, making his market value even higher.

Diaz should easily be able to grab four top 10 prospects from a team, including multiple top 100 prospects.  Instead, he is part of one of the biggest salary dump deals in recent history.  Instead of the Mariners maximizing his value, the team is using him to entice the Mets to take a bad contract.  Going back is a lot of money in Jay Bruce and Anthony Swarzak, who are owed a combined $21 million next year with Bruce being owed another $13 million in 2020.  So in total, the Mariners are dumping Cano’s remaining $86 million dollars and taking on $34 (although some cash may be exchanging hands also).

The Mets are also sending prospects back in the trade obviously, but the only real notable one is Jarred Kelenic, a first-round pick last season and currently ranked as a top 100 prospect. The only other prospect of note in the deal is pitcher Justin Dunn who falls into the Mets top 10 prospect list.  So really the whole trade is just a big salary dump for the Mariners who are getting what is believed to be three prospects with only one being a top prospect and two bad contracts, to get rid of one big contract and the best closer in baseball.