Pittsburgh Pirates Lose Big in Starling Marte Trade

The Pittsburgh Pirates and  general manager Ben Cherington have made their first major move of the off season. Starling Marte, past all-star, multi-gold glove winner, and his affordable contract, has been traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks for two prospects.

I have been optimistic about what the Pittsburgh Pirates have done lately. In fact, I have been borderline ecstatic. Travis Williams, Ben Cherington, Derek Shelton, and Oscar Marin have all been fantastic hires. Both owner Bob Nutting and Cherington have been saying the right things and are seemingly interested in winning games. But Cherington’s first major trade as Pirate GM has managed to kill whatever optimism I had. The positive vibes that have placated the memories of last year’s collapse, the dugout brawls, the botched firing of Clint Hurdle, and the overall team apathy have vanished completely.

Deja vu of being fleeced in the Gerrit Cole and Chris Archer deals is at the forefront of my mind.

Here is the official trade:

At the time of the trade, Brennan Malone was the Diamondbacks number 9 prospect and Liover Peguero was their number 18 prospect, per MLB Pipeline. According to Baseball Prospectus, they were numbers 6 and 9, respectively.

Malone, who is potentially the headliner in the trade, has posted 8 total innings in his professional career with a 4.50 ERA. Let’s give him a break there as the sample size is crazy small. More importantly, Malone was drafted with the 33rd overall pick in the 2019 draft. Here is a cool draft day video highlighting his pitching skills.

At 19 years old Malone is a young prospect with high upside. Peguero falls into a similar category. Logging his first full year in 2019, Peguero slashed .326/.382/.485/.866 in Low-A ball.

What stands out the most to me is the lack of top-100 prospect talent and future catching talent involved in this trade. Most people, including myself, assumed that if the Pirates were talking to the Diamondbacks, discussions started and ended with the Diamondbacks 5th best prospect Daulton Varsho. Varsho is a top-100 prospect in baseball and is a top-10 catching prospect. Marte for Varsho made sense and would have filled a massive need for the Pirates.

At the end of the day, even if Cherington didn’t land Varsho, Cherington should have landed a better package or any top-100 prospect (the Diamondbacks have five). Starling Marte is a multi-time Gold Glove winner, an All-Star, a guaranteed positive WAR player, and is under two years of affordable control. While Marte is 31, he posted 20+ home runs and 20+ stolen bases in each of his last two seasons. Could Marte regress with age? Absolutely. But I bet he still gives you the 20+ home runs, the 20+ stolen bases, and the positive WAR.

That is a lot to give up for two players that are 19 and will hopefully make the Big League club one day – but may never see PNC Park for even one game.

Even if both Malone and Peguero turn into solid players, it still does not excuse the lack of talent and the lack of a catcher that returned to the Pirates in this trade. For a small market team, a wrong (failing to get maximum talent and positional needs) and a right (successfully projecting a high-risk prospect) don’t equal success. I will always look back at this trade and think what could have been for the Pirates and about the talent that they missed out on.

Stay tuned on Rum Bunter as the team here will continue to break down this trade, what it means for the Pirates, and the upcoming 2020 season.