Pittsburgh Pirates: Your Guide to the 2020 Trade Deadline

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OAKLAND, CA – MAY 11: General Manager Ben Cherington of the Boston Red Sox checks messages on his phone prior to the game against the Oakland Athletics at O.co Coliseum on May 11, 2015 in Oakland, California. The Red Sox defeated the Athletics 5-4. (Photo by Michael Zagaris/Oakland Athletics/Getty Images) /

Who’s Interested?

As we’ve brought up before, the Blue Jays showed interest in both Williams and Kuhl. Aside from off season signee Hyun-Jin Ryu, the Blue Jays have no other starter that has started at least three games, and an ERA and FIP below 4. Chase Anderson is the next closest with a 2.79 ERA, but 5.62 FIP.

The Arizona Diamondbacks are currently in the market for relief pitching. Could Keone Kela, or Derek Holland be on their radar? Entering Tuesday, the D-Backs’ relief pitchers have combined for a 5.01 ERA, 5.02 FIP, 1.48 HR/9, 12.3% walk rate, 4.96 xFIP, and 4.53 SIERA. Getting an upgrade for the pen is definitely on their to-do list.

The New York Yankees are definitely going to be in the market for some upgrades.

Currently, they have 10 players on the injured list who were expected to play prominent roles on their team this year. That includes such players like Luis Severino, who had to undergo Tommy John surgery, James Paxton, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, DJ LeMahieu, and Gleyber Torres. The Pirates have both a middle infielder who has experience in the outfield in Frazier, a relief pitcher with postseason experience in Kela, and a durable left hander who has experience playing in World Series games in Holland. There shouldn’t be a shortage of Yankees/Pittsburgh Pirates trade rumors come the end of August.

The San Diego Padres will also be in the market for either a first baseman or second baseman, and a relief pitcher. Hosmer has since fallen back to Earth after a hot start to the season, Jurickson Profar has really struggled, and with Jake Cronenworth still crushing the ball, the Padres could use a consistently solid/league average bat like Frazier’s, or a big impact bat like Bell’s. Plus they lost their shutdown closer Kirby Yates for the rest of the year, and off season signee who hadn’t allowed a run through his first 9 innings, Drew Pomeranz is on the IL as well. Emilio Pagan, Javy Guerra, Craig Stammen, and Pierce Johnson are all off to ice cold starts too, so they might show interest in Rich-Rod, Kela, and Holland.

The Oakland A’s should also be on the lookout for second base help. So far this year, their cornerstone defenders have hit just .210/.308/.295 with a 77 wRC+ and .276 wOBA. For a team trying to win the AL West, they need more production out of their second basemen.

There are a flurry of teams in need of mostly starting pitching help. The Astros and Braves both lost their two aces for most, if not for the rest of the season. The Rays currently have Charlie Morton, Brendan McKay on the IL, and have lost Yonny Chrinios to TJ surgery.

Bucs No Hit for First Time Since 2015. dark. Next

The big positive here is that most of them have a really good farm systems, or many young players to their disposal to trade from. The D-Backs currently rank just behind the Pirates in terms of FanGraphs’ farm system rankings. The Rays rank #1. The Padres rank #2. The Braves have many young pitchers who graduated prospect status, the last two years. The Blue Jays entered 2019 with the 5th best farm system, and only rank 14 now because guys like Vlad Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, Cavan Biggio, and Danny Jansen have graduated prospect status. Only the Astros and A’s have weaker farm systems, but still have a few notable young players to deal from.

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