Pittsburgh Pirates News: Team Trades Edgar Santana

The Pittsburgh Pirates made a somewhat of a surprising subtraction to their roster recently.  Now, that player is officially on a new team.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are off to a very uninspiring start to the 2021 season.  The big reason is simply because the team is not really meant to compete this year.  The new regime is still going through the process of filtering out the organization.  They have acquired a ton of new players over the last few months, many being a little ways off from the actual Pittsburgh Pirates roster.

Still, with the influx of players coming in and out, decisions have to be made.  Earlier this week it was announced that the Pittsburgh Pirates took Edgar Santana off the 40-man roster, promptly putting him on waivers.  This was a bit surprising, as Santana was long considered one of the team’s top relief prospects, but the team was also replacing him with another reliever in Kyle Keller who they claimed off waivers.

The hope was that Santana would make it through the waiver process.  While he is an intriguing arm, Santana has had some bumps recently.  In 2019, Santana underwent Tommy-John surgery in what would have been a pivotal year for his career.  Then, upon his return in 2020, the Pittsburgh Pirates found out that he would be suspended for Performance Enhancing Drugs.  So with that being said, there was the possibility that teams would not want to sacrifice a roster spot on a player who has not pitched regularly since 2018.

On the flip side, teams are always looking for bullpen help.  Whether it is the offseason, the trade deadline, the beginning or end of the season, teams in the race always look to add relief pitching.  This ended up being the case for Edgar Santana.  It was announced Friday morning that the Pittsburgh Pirates would be trading the reliever to the Atlanta Braves for cash considerations.  Jake Crouse, the Pittsburgh Pirates new mlb.com beat writer tweeted:

Edgar Santana’s career numbers with the Pittsburgh Pirates:88 games, 84.1 innings pitched, 3.31 ERA, 74 strikeouts (across 2017 and most of 2018)

It is very disappointing to lose Santana after the potential he showed. At one time he looked like a potential seventh or eighth inning guy, and now the team will lose him for salary considerations (likely the money they have paid him this year).  Obviously there was something that the Front Office and Coaching Staff did not see with Santana, but hopefully this will not be a move they regret.