Pittsburgh Pirates: Recapping the Last Three Trade Deadlines

2019

The most notable player the Pittsburgh Pirates traded was probably trading away outfielder Corey Dickerson. Dickerson had a solid 2018 season with the Pirates, hitting .304/.330/.474 with 35 doubles, 13 home runs and finishing with a 119 OPS+ and 115 wRC+ through 533 plate appearances.

Despite mostly serving as a LF/DH option for the Tampa Bay Rays before being acquired by the Pirates, Dickerson was even better in the field racking up +13 DRS, a 8.6 UZR and 6.7 range runs above average in left field. He placed second in left field DRS, range runs, and was 3rd in UZR, which led to him receiving the 2019 left field Gold Glove Award.

Though that defensive value didn’t carry over to 2019, but he was quite the batter. Dickerson hit .315/.373/.551 with 4 home runs and an outstanding 140 OPS+. The thing was that Dickerson did this in just 142 plate appearances after he missed nearly the entirety of April and May.

The Pirates, with Bryan Reynolds now their primary left fielder, traded Dickerson to the Philadelphia Phillies for international bonus pool money. This upcoming international signing date will include many notable names, some of which are young catchers, which is an area of need for the Pirates. Dickerson at the time was a rental, so combined with his lack of control, and being injured for most of the first half of 2019 meant that his value wasn’t all that high. Dickerson ended up being a pretty solid batter for the Phillies down the stretch hitting .297/.303/.8579 with 8 home runs and a 121 OPS+ through 127 plate appearances, but signed with the Marlins following the conclusion of the 2019 season.

One of the more underrated moves the Pittsburgh Pirates made was shipping Jordan Lyles off to the Milwaukee Brewers. Lyles was brought in on a one year deal to replace the traded Ivan Nova. Though he got off to a hot start with the Pirates, having a 3.09 ERA, 3.34 FIP and 1.10 WHIP through his first 55.1 innings with the club, his last 27 innings saw him surrender 30 earned runs, while walking 14 and surrendering 11 long balls.

In exchange for the veteran right hander, the Pirates received back prospect Cody Ponce. Ponce had worked as a starter up until 2019 where he was exclusively used out of the pen for the Brewers’ Double-A affiliate. Before the trade, Ponce had a decent 3.29 ERA, 2.59 FIP and 1.17 WHIP across 38.1 innings of work. Though he struggled as a starter after being acquired by the Pirates at Triple-A, it seems like his future is the bullpen. Still, a pretty good return for a guy who was really struggling, and on a one year contract.

2018

This trade deadline was extremely active for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Whether or not that’s a good thing now is up for you to decide.

The Pirates were buyers at this deadline, believing that they could go for a playoff run, being 6.0 games out of first place in the division and 3.0 out of a Wild Card spot. This was because of an 11 game winning streak that ended up being pretty much false hope.

The big one we all know about is the Chris Archer deal. At the time, his 2018 numbers didn’t really look much different from his 2016-2017 numbers. Before being sent to Pittsburgh, the former Rays’ ace had a 4.31 ERA, but a 3.62 FIP, 3.63 xFIP, and 3.48 SIERA. All told, he really looked like a change-of-scenery candidate. He still had a strong strikeout rate of 24.7%, wasn’t walking a whole lot of batters with a 7.5% walk rate, and had a 1.03 HR/9.

Another change-of-scenery candidate seemed to be Tyler Glasnow. The Pittsburgh Pirates had seen Glasnow struggle as a starter in both 2016 and 2017, so he was exclusively used out of the bullpen in 2018. He had pretty similar numbers to Archer, with a 4.31 ERA, but 3.62 FIP, 3.47 xFIP, and 3.64 SIERA.

But Glasnow wasn’t the only piece going to Tampa Bay. Along with Glasnow, Austin Meadows would also be going to Florida. Meadows was a former top 10 prospect, who was batting a solid .292/.327/.468 with a 116 OPS+ with the Pittsburgh Pirates. However, this was after a slump that was caused by him receiving less playing time with the return of Corey Dickerson from the IL.

The last and final piece to the puzzle was 2017 first-round pick Shane Baz, who was a player to be named later. Baz had entered the 2018 season as a top 100 prospect per MLB Pipeline, and Baseball Prospectus. Through 45.1 innings at Rookie-Ball, Baz had a 3.97 ERA and 3.90 FIP, mainly caused by his 11.1% walk rate. Still, he struck out 26.1% of the batters he faced and allowed just 2 long balls.

Though Glasnow was really good in 2019, having a 1.78 ERA, 2.26 FIP, and 0.89 WHIP, while striking out 33% of the batters he faced, allowing just 6.1% of batters to reach via free pass, and giving up 4 long balls, the jury is still out on Glasnow. He was injured for most of 2019, pitching in only 12 games and 60.2 innings, and has so far struggled through 2020.

But Meadows looked like he could be a future MVP candidate in 2019. Through 591 plate appearance, the outfielder batted .291/.364/.558 with 33 long balls, a dozen stolen bases, and finished with a 142 wRC+/144 OPS+. Meadows split his time between the corner outfield and DH. Though he was a poor defensive right fielder, he seems to have found his home in left field as in the last two years in left field, Meadows has +4 DRS, a 15.5 UZR/150, 1.5 range runs above average, and 2 outfield arm runs above average.

Baz now ranks as the 117th best prospect in baseball, and the Rays’ 7th best prospect, which is pretty good considering they are a consensus top-3 farm system. Archer, meanwhile, has pitched a total of 172 innings with the Pittsburgh Pirates, putting up a 4.92 ERA, 4.71 FIP and 1.39 WHIP. While he did carry over a strong strikeout rate of 27%, he’s seen his walk rate jump to 9.7% and his HR/9 skyrocket to 1.7. Archer’s tenure with the Pirates is now likely over as he had to undergo thoracic outlet surgery and will miss the entirety of the 2020 season.

While this was the biggest trade they made, one that really slipped under the radar at the time was when they acquired Keone Kela from the Texas Rangers. Kela had served as the Rangers’ closer before the trade, and was pretty effective. Through 36.2 innings of work, Kela had a 3.44 ERA, but a much cleaner 2.97 FIP and 1.14 WHIP. Kela was great at limiting the long ball, allowing just 3 home runs, pretty good considering how hitter friendly the Rangers’ home ball park was. Though Kela had a 9.2% walk rate, he struck out batters at a 28.9% rate.

The Pirates sent left hander Taylor Hearn to the Rangers. Hearn was putting up some pretty solid numbers at double-A before the trade. In the 104 innings he pitched, Hearn had a 3.12 ERA, 3.20 FIP and 1.08 WHIP. Hearn had a 25.2% strikeout rate, and strong .5 HR/9 rate. Hearn made his major league debut in 2019, and is part of the Rangers’ bullpen in 2020, but he’s only pitched 8 innings at the Major League level.

However, there was a player to be named later included in this deal that turned out to be Sherten Apostel. Apostel is a corner infield prospect. He was doing really well at Rookie-Ball at the time of the trade, having a .259/.406/.460 line through 175 plate appearances, but has since risen to be the Rangers 9th best prospect per FanGraphs.

Kela has been really solid for the Pittsburgh Pirates since his arrival. He currently has a 2.49 ERA, 3.53 FIP and 1.04 WHIP with the Bucs, including a 30.7% strikeout rate, and 8.9% walk rate. But the issue has been staying healthy. He’s only pitched a total of 47 innings with the Pirates since the trade, as he missed most of September in 2018, nearly all of the first half of 2019, and nearly the first month of 2020. All told, this is probably a trade deadline the Pirates would probably like to forget.

2017

The Pittsburgh Pirates didn’t really do much this deadline. But one of the two notable trades they made might have a long lasting impact on the team, and one of the best trades Huntington ever made. One of the moves they made was acquiring veteran relief pitcher, and former Tiger closer Joaquin Benoit from the Phillies.

Though he was 40 at the time, Benoit was having a solid, albeit unimpressive season up until that point, pitching 42 innings, having a 4.02 ERA, but putting up a 3.80 FIP, 1.14 WHIP, and 25.2% strikeout rate.

The Pirates sent pitcher Seth McGarry to the Phillies. Though McGarry was having a pretty decent year in his second season being used exclusively as a relief pitcher, with a 1.34 ERA/3.16 FIP, he wasn’t really considered a long term piece for the Pirates. McGarry is still in the Phillies system, but isn’t really seen as anything more than organizational pitching depth.

However, Benoit pitched very poorly for the Pirates. He only tossed 8.1 innings, allowing 7 earned runs on 11 hits, 6 walks, and two home runs. He was eventually placed on the injured list, and didn’t appear in a game for the Pirates all September.

The other trade was when the Pirates sent left handed relief pitcher Tony Watson to the LA Dodgers for Oneil Cruz. Watson only had two months of guaranteed control left on his contract, and with the Pirates essentially being out of the playoff race, they didn’t really need Watson then.

After years of being one of the best, and consistent set-up men in the game, Watson started to see regression in 2016 as he saw his home run rate skyrocket to 1.3 per 9 in ’16. The left hander started out 2017 as the team’s closer, but really struggled. Though he was a bit better off when the Pirates moved him back into a set-up role, he was still getting hit hard. Watson still had pretty bad numbers for his standard with a 3.66 ERA, 4.70 FIP and 1.51 WHIP. He had a career low strikeout rate of 16.7%, and career high home run rate of 1.4 per 9. Though he still had a solid 6.7% walk rate, it was still a tick higher than you would have liked considering he had a 5% walk rate between 2013-2015.

Cruz at the time was a very raw, and projectable infielder. Signed as an international amateur free agent in 2015 by the Dodgers, Cruz really wasn’t doing anything impressive at A-Ball. Through 375 plate appearances, Cruz had a line of .240/.293/.342 with a 79 wRC+ and .291 wOBA. But since the trade, Cruz has improved at every level he’s been through so far. Cruz started to tap into his power potential in 2018 when he hit 14 long balls, and put up a .488 slugging percentage and .201 isolated slugging at A-Ball for the Pirates. Then to start off 2019, he had a .515 slugging and .213 ISO. Though he didn’t show that much power at Double-A, he was coming off a wrist injury, and increased his walk rate to 11%, a career high mark through at least 140 plate appearances.

Cruz currently ranks 32nd best prospect in baseball, and the Pirates’ organizational 2nd best prospect. Though he currently is a shortstop, the Pirates have Liover Peguero, Cole Tucker, Ji-Hwan Bae, and Kevin Newman all as options at short. With Peguero, and Tucker both superior fielders to Cruz, many project him to move to right field, as he is fast enough to cover ground in the outfield, and has a cannon of an arm, an 80 grade arm to be exact, the highest grade you could possibly get. Not a bad return for a struggling left handed relief pitcher that only had two months of control left on their contract.