Pittsburgh Pirates: Recapping the Last Three Trade Deadlines

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.