Pittsburgh Pirates: Examining the Early Returns on Offseason Trades

The Pittsburgh Pirates made three notable trades this past offseason and the early returns have looked promising.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been in a rebuild for a little over a year now. Since being hired as general manager of the Pirates Ben Cherington has done a fantastic job at setting this team up for future success. He’s completely revamped the farm system, adding a whole bunch of new talent and really putting this farm system among the best in baseball.

Many of his most impactful trades came this winter when he traded the likes of Josh Bell, Joe Musgrove and Jameson Taillon. Today, let’s take an updated look at the rebuild so far. We’ll mostly be focusing on the trades he made over the offseason and how the prospects they received have done so far.

Let’s first start with the Taillon trade and what could be the biggest steal of Cherington’s career as a baseball front office personnel, and one of the franchise’s best trades in years. The Bucs traded Taillon to the New York Yankees for four prospects. Those include Miguel Yajure, Canaan Smith-Njigba, Roansy Conteras and Maikol Escotto. It’s still early on, but the trade has looked like robbery for the Bucs.

Yajure showed some promise in his first with the Pittsburgh Pirates but didn’t get the results he wanted. After one great start at Triple-A, he was recalled to face a hot San Francisco Giants lineup and held them to just two base runners across 5 innings of work. Impressively, he kept his pitch count to just 57, showing some strong efficiency. He currently ranks as the 115th best prospect by FanGraphs. In the unlikely chance he doesn’t graduate prospect status this year, he could easily be a top 100 prospect by the end of 2021.

You could probably make the case for the rest of the players the Pirates’ got back in this trade to be on top 100 watch. Canaan Smith-Njigba has 10 hits, 9 walks, and only 8 strikeouts through 45 plate appearances. six of his hits have gone for extras. Roansy Contreras has pitched 17.1 innings, including 6 straight no-hit innings, has struck out 29 batters, and has only allowed 11 total to reach base (7 hits, 3 walks). Plus he’s seen an increase in velocity and his overall arsenal has looked much improved. Maikol Escotto is crushing Low-A pitching, having 12 hits, 7 walk  and 10 strikeouts in 45 trips to the plate. Escotto is also showing some good patience at the plate with a 15.6% walk rate.

Meanwhile, Taillon has gotten a ton of strikeouts and hasn’t allowed too many walks in New York, but not the results he’s wanted. He has a 5.73 ERA. Much of his issues stem from a home run issue. His 2.15 HR/9 rate is one of the highest marks in all of baseball. This has been because of a huge drop in ground ball rate, huge rise in flyball rate, and below-average hard hit and exit velocity marks. He has good ERA estimators, so if he can get the long ball under control, he’s closer to a 3.5-3.6 ERA pitcher. Still, having the task of pitching a full season after barely pitching for 2 years and overcoming a second career Tommy John surgery is two big hurdles for the former top prospect.

Next, let’s take a look at the Bell trade.

Wil Crowe has already made his debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Crowe has had his moments with the Pirates, he has also struggled at times. In 5 starts this season he owns a 4.91 ERA, 5.04 FIP, an 11.5% walk rate and he’s allowed home runs at a rate of 1.40 HR/9

Overall, he’s looked like a solid back of the rotation arm with the potential to be a very effective swingman type arm in the future, if the Pittsburgh Pirates decide to explore that route with the right-hander.

However, right-hander Eddy Yean was the real prize of the Bell trade for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Yean blew up in his first start, allowing 5 earned runs and recording just a single out. However, in his last 2 outings, he’s pitched a total of 5 innings, allowing just 3 hits, 2 walks, and 2 strikeouts. You can’t expect every prospect to come out of the gates like Contreras and he’s looked a lot more confident in his previous two outings compared to his first.

Bell has continued to display that raw power potential, ranking in the top 94th percentile of exit velocity and 92nd percentile of hard-hit rate. However, he’s yet to translate that into consistent production. So far, he has a .173/.243/.337 line, 4 home runs, a .200 isolated slugging percentage, .256 wOBA, leading to an awful 59 wRC+. Surprisingly, he hasn’t been all that bad of a defender at first base, but he’s playing a position that demands offense. His 59 wRC+ makes him tied with Jonathan Schoop for the 10th lowest mark in all of baseball. Much of his lack of production comes from his 56.8% ground ball rate, and well below average line drive and flyball rates.

Finally, there was the Musgrove trade.

So far, the headliner of the deal hasn’t been the most productive player. Hudson Head has struggled, having 8 hits in 52 plate appearances. But the biggest issue has been his 19 strikeouts. However, Endy Rodriguez has made up for his production. The Pirates’ top catching prospect currently has 13 hits, including three doubles and 2 home runs, 5 walks, and 13 strikeouts in 54 trips to the plate. Like Yean, Omar Cruz started his Pirate career off with an awful start, but then tossed 4 hitless innings, striking out 10 and allowing 3 to reach base (2 walks, 1 HBP). Right-handed reliever David Bednar has shown plenty of promise in the Major Leagues. In 17.1 innings pitched this season he owns a 3.12 ERA, 3.54 FIP and has struck out 22 batters while issuing just 4 walks.

Musgrove has been excellent for San Diego. He has a 2.86 ERA, 3.30 FIP and a 0.95 WHIP through 44 innings. He’s also thrown a no-hitter for the Padres, the first one in their franchise’s history. It’s been a feel-good story for him as he’s the Padres’ hometown kid. Overall, he’s had similar peripherals to when he was on the Pirates in 2020, having a similar strikeout rate and HR/9, albeit with fewer walks. Though having that impressive defense behind him surely has helped him.

Obviously, it’s very, very early to look at these trades, and figure out their impact on the rebuild. However, to say the early results have looked promising so far would be an understatement. Many of the notable prospects the Pirates got back are doing well in the minors. This gives the Pittsburgh Pirates a ton of hope for a bright future that seems to be just around the corner.