Pittsburgh Pirates Rumors: Ben Cherington to Blow the Roster Up?

The Pittsburgh Pirates are heading into next week’s Trade Deadline as one of the few sellers on the market.  Apparently, they could be really aggressive in making deals.

Everyone is expecting the Pittsburgh Pirates to make some trades over the next few days.  The MLB Trade Deadline is this upcoming Monday, and as that day gets closer, more and more rumors will come out.  For instance, earlier this week it was reported that the Blue Jays have interest in Trevor Williams and/or Chad Kuhl.

The other rumor that has come out is from Ken Rosenthal, who said the Bucs are “presumably” listening on Bryan Reynolds.  At first this came as a surprise, being Reynolds is just in his second year and will not be a free agent until after 2024.  Although like any good General Manager, no player should be off limits, and if Cherington is blown away he may be willing to move Reynolds.

This actually was kinda of confirmed since that report came out.  Mark Feinsand of MLB.com put out some of the rumors he has been hearing over the last few days.  Feinsand actually has a whole section about the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Apparently a NL Executive told Feinsand that Cherington is ready to blow this team up:

"Bucs blowoutOne of the few teams that appear to be in full-on sell mode is the Pirates, whose -31 run differential is the worst in the NL.According to an NL executive, Pirates GM Ben Cherington is “trying to sell everything” in his first year at the helm as he attempts to remake Pittsburgh’s roster.“It’ll be interesting to see what kind of return they can get on their guys in this market,” the exec said."

This is something that some fans wanted them to do this past offseason.  However, Cherington likely wanted to take this year and really evaluate what he was left with.  Obviously he was not left with much, but it is likely much easier for him to make a plan now.

Will Cherington actually blow it up?  It is hard to say, like Feinsand says, it will depend on the market.  However, there have been plenty of reports already that the trade market is very active and with more teams buying there could be plenty of moves made.  The Bucs look like they will definitely have an opportunity to make some moves.

The question is how far will Cherington go.  Based on this NL Executive’s comments, Reynolds very well could be available.  Still, it would be shocking to see him, Jacob Stallings, or Kevin Newman traded.  They are core players who have multiple years of control left so there is really no rush to deal them.

It likely will not be a complete “Bucs Blowout” but there still could be a lot of movement.  Feinsand lists Joe Musgrove, Adam Frazier, and Gregory Polanco as trade candidates.  While these are some names to watch, Frazier is the most likely of the three.  Trading the other two would be selling low, although with Polanco it could be about just getting rid of his contract.  Other names to watch are Trevor Williams, Chad Kuhl (doubtful), Richard Rodriguez, Keone Kela, and Josh Bell.