Pittsburgh Pirates: New York Yankees Could Be A Trade Partner

The Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Yankees could be trade partners again in the very near future as the Bucs are open to deal their veteran relievers.

The Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Yankees have been trade partners multiple times in recent years. From Francisco Cervelli, to Ivan Nova to most recently Jameson Taillon and many other examples in between, the two East Coast teams have swapped players many different times.

They could be partners in a trade once again in the very near future because the Yankees recently took a huge blow to their bullpen. They lost left-handed reliever and former All-Star Zack Britton to arthroscopic surgery that will keep him out for essentially the entire first half of the season, maybe even more.

Britton has been outstanding for the Yankees since arriving at the 2018 deadline and signing a 3-year deal with a 4th year option. Since the beginning of the 2019 season, Britton has tossed 80.1 innings, has a 1.90 ERA, 3.47 FIP and 1.11 WHIP.

Though walks have been a bit of an issue with a 12.1% walk rate in these two seasons and strikeout rate of just 21.5%, Britton has an otherworldly ground ball rate of 75.8%. He’s consistently put up a ground ball rate above 70% since the 2014 season when he became a full time reliever and no pitcher with at least 200 innings pitched in this time has come within shouting distance of Britton. This has led to him surrendering just 3 home runs in 2019 and none in 2020.

That’s going to be a big blow to the back end of the Yankees bullpen, but the Pittsburgh Pirates do have some relievers that they’re willing to sell off. The first is Richard Rodriguez. After breaking out in 2018, Rodriguez suffered from a lack of control, the long ball and a huge drop in strikeouts in 2019. However, he came back and pitched excellent in 2020.

Through his 23.1 innings of work, Rich Rod had a 2.70 ERA, 2.85 FIP and 0.86 WHIP. Rodriguez put on a display of his strikeout ability with a 36.6% K% and a whiff rate in the top 92nd percentile of all pitchers. This also came with a strong 5.4% walk rate and workable 1.16 HR/9. He also had favorable ERA estimators with a 2.40 SIERA, 2.83 xFIP, 3.13 xERA and 3.57 DRA. Despite not throwing a blazing fastball, he averaged 2543 RPM which was in the top 96th percentile of fastball spin rate.

The issue was that Rodriguez was well below average in terms of batted ball rates. Opponents managed a 91.8 MPH exit velocity and 51% hard hit rate, both of which were two of the worst marks in all of baseball last season. It also doesn’t help he had a 39.2% ground ball rate. However, with the un-juiced baseball, he may see a drop in hard hit balls and a drop in home runs. Afterall, he only allowed 5 home runs in 2018 and was around league average in terms of batted ball rates during his breakout campaign.

The Pittsburgh Pirates also have Chris Stratton on hand. Stratton was purchased by the Pirates from the Los Angeles Angels in 2019 and has been a very solid reliever since arriving in Pittsburgh. Last year, Stratton tossed 30 innings of work and pitched to the tune of a 3.90 ERA, 3.19 FIP and 1.3 WHIP. Stratton’s ERA ballooned in the last game of the season as he entered the game with a 3.18 mark.

Still, Stratton put up an outstanding 29.8% strikeout rate and HR/9 of 0.9. Free passes were a bit of an issue for the right-hander with a 9.9% walk rate, but made up for it with a whiff rate in the top 90th percentile, 3.50 SIERA and FIP, 3.66 xERA and 3.42 DRA. Like Rodriguez, Stratton has an extremely high spin rate on his fastball, sitting in the top 98th percentile at 2627 RPM. His curveball spin rate is also one of the highest spin rate pitches in baseball with 3088 RPM and also in the top 98th percentile of spin.

Stratton does suffer from similar weaknesses to Rich-Rod with a 89.7 MPH exit velo (26th percentile) and 40.5% hard hit rate (28th percentile), but did make up for his lack of soft contact with a 46.8% ground ball rate in comparison.

Both Rich Rod and Stratton are controlled through the 2023 season and both are owed less than $2 million for the 2021 season. Given their solid performances and affordable years of control remaining, Stratton and Rodriguez could potentially be valuable trade pieces.

The Yankees have a need for a relief pitcher with Britton out for an extended period of time and they also have some prospects that would intrigue the Pittsburgh Pirates. Ben Cherington has yet to make a bad trade since taking over as the Pirate general manager. He’s gotten back the market value and arguably more for Starling Marte, Josh Bell, Joe Musgrove and Jameson Taillon, so he’ll get full market value for whoever he deals Rodriguez and Stratton to. However the Yankees currently make the most since given their need for another solid bullpen arm, the depth in their farm system and the long standing history of trades between the two teams.