Pittsburgh Pirates: Your Guide to the 2020 Trade Deadline

The 2020 MLB trade deadline is just days away now. So let’s give a rundown on the trade pieces the Pittsburgh Pirates have available and which teams might be interested.

The MLB trade deadline is less than a week away. This is going to be one of the most different trade deadline’s in MLB history. But regardless of how strange it may be, many of the Pittsburgh Pirates players are gaining interest from teams around the league. This shouldn’t be news as rumors have floated around for a while now, and the Pittsburgh Pirates were sellers entering this year. With the Pirates in full rebuild mode now, the team’s farm system will probably end up even stronger than it was before, and make it’s way back into the top five farm systems per FanGraphs.

There are a lot of rumors floating around about who’s getting traded, who’s not, who’s staying put, etc. It can get a bit confusing. So let’s break down the Pirates’ as a team heading into the trade deadline.

All But Gone

Any piece that is on a one year deal or expiring contract will almost certainly be dealt. We’ll start with Derek Holland. The southpaw was signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates to a minor league deal in an attempt to see if he could bounce back to how he performed in 2018. So far, he’s been a nice diamond in the rough find. On the surface, his 6.17 ERA, 6.48 FIP and 1.41 WHIP aren’t all that pretty, but most of the runs he gave up came from one inning. Subtract that lone inning in a game vs the Tigers where he surrendered 5 runs on 4 home runs, and his numbers look like this: 4.43 ERA, 3.61 FIP, 1.16 WHIP.

Keone Kela, depending on the severity of his injury, also has an extremely high chance of being dealt. Kela was a deadline acquisition of his own back in 2018 when the Pirates sent Taylor Hearn in exchange for the late inning arm. So far, he’s been quite effective with the Pirates, but he’s consistently had injury issues. Last year, Kela had an outstanding second half of the season after returning from injury. In his final 18 innings of the season, Kela faced 69 batters, allowed just one earned run, struck out 22, and allowed 8 hits.

Jarrod Dyson has really struggled this year, both offensively and, surprisingly, defensively. But he’s been an excellent base runner with 1.2 base running runs above average, and his sub-par defensive numbers this year doesn’t mean he wasn’t a top three outfield defender during the 2010 decade. With starting a runner on second in extra innings, and teams valuing pinch runners during the post season, if the Pittsburgh Pirates can get back anything for Dyson, even if that’s just cash, then they need to pull the trigger on it.

Adam Frazier might not be a rental with two years of control left, but he’s definitely on the trading block. The Pirates have so many talented, young middle infielders, that Frazier will be the odd man out. Kevin Newman’s glove plays much better at second base, and Cole Tucker needs regular reps at shortstop. No more of this trying him in the outfield. Plus, you already know what you’re getting with Frazier. While he is off to a slow start in 2020, that’s nothing new for the second baseman as he has a career .269/.335/.385 hitter in the first half. 2019 really falls in line with his career averages when he hit .278/.336/.417 with 10 long balls, 33 doubles, a 99 OPS+ and 97 wRC+. Defensively, he had -1 DRS, but a 2.9 UZR and 1.6 range runs above average.