Examining the Pittsburgh Pirates Best Potential Trade Partners

Now that the draft is over, the next big event for the Pittsburgh Pirates to look forward to is the trade deadline, but who are some teams we could see the Pirates interact with?

The Pittsburgh Pirates will be active at this year’s trade deadline. They have a handful of different pieces to sell-off. They’ll mostly be selling off players who are rentals and players on expiring contracts as their window of competition could start to see some life as early as sometime next season.

There will definitely be some teams calling the Pittsburgh Pirates about some of their players, but who could some of these teams be? Well first, we should take a look at the Pirates’ most likely trade candidates.

All-Star second baseman Adam Frazier has been the most rumored to be traded. The second baseman hasn’t been all that great as a defender this year but is having a career year with the bat. Even if he does regress, as all of his underlying numbers suggest he should to some degree, he is still seen as a well-above-average hitter. If he can rebound with the glove at second while showing he can still handle the outfield spots, he could be a hot commodity. His contract is running out, which is the main reason he’s on the block.

Closing pitcher Richard Rodriguez has been a dominating reliever all year. He has seen his spin rate suspiciously decrease ever since the enforcement of foreign substances on the mound, yet he’s still been highly effective, with or without it. Rich-Rod hasn’t gotten as many strikeouts this year as in years prior. However, home runs have been a non-issue and he’s kept walks to a minimum.

Rental lefty starting pitcher Tyler Anderson has been a very solid back of the rotation arm for the Bucs. He was brought in on a one-year, low-cost deal, but has provided the team at least 5 innings in all of his outings and has given up 3 or fewer runs in nearly all of them as well. Reliever Chris Stratton could also garner some interest. He’s been an effective multi-inning relief pitcher but has started to see more time in high leverage situations this season.

Although much less likely to be dealt, we could at least see a few Jacob Stallings trade rumors pop up nearing the deadline. Given that Stallings is a starting-caliber catcher who’s one of the best defenders in the game, and has control past the projected window of opportunity for the Pirates, they’ll likely be a bit more hesitant to deal Stallings. But at the same time, those traits also will get a few calls from teams.