Pittsburgh Pirates: Recapping Where Recently Traded Players Are Now

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been in a rebuild since the 2019-2020 off-season. Since then, they’ve dealt a handful of notable players, but where are those players now?

The Pittsburgh Pirates entered a rebuild in the 2019-2020 offseason. Since then, they’ve dealt any veteran from the roster pre-Ben Cherington. That’s a lot of players. Despite it being a relatively short amount of time, the team has made massive strides toward the end goal of becoming competitive once again.

But where are the players they have traded over the past few years? Are they still with the teams the Pirates traded them to, or have they gone elsewhere? Today, I want to take a look at where former Pirates have ended up since being dealt. I’m only looking back at who Cherington has traded, so let’s get into our first player.

(One last note, I am excluding the Jacob Stallings trade since it was so recent and his status hasn’t changed since then)

Starling Marte

Starling Marte was the first player to go in the rebuild. When the Pittsburgh Pirates traded Marte, he was coming off a season where he hit .295/.342/.503 with a .353 wOBA and 118 wRC+. It was also Marte’s second straight 20/20 season, with 23 home runs and 25 stolen bases. Plus, he posted what is still his career-best K-rate at 16%. The only downside was that his defense in centerfield started to slip. Marte only had -8 DRS and an -8.3 UZR/150, but outs above average was a bit kinder to him at +2.

Marte was then traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Liover Peguero and Brennan Malone. Because of the shortened 2020 campaign, Marte’s time with the D-Backs was very short-lived. He only appeared in 33 games but did have a 122 wRC+. He was once again traded, this time to the Marlins for three players, where he struggled for the remainder of the season, posting just a 91 wRC+.

Though Marte bounced back from a freezing cold end to the 2020 campaign. He started the year off, hitting .305/.405/.451 with a .373 wOBA and 138 wRC+ with Miami. He traded for a third time to the Oakland Athletics in a one-for-one swap for struggling former pitching prospect Jesus Luzardo. He continued to perform well in Oakland, batting for a .316/.359/.466 line, .355 wOBA, and 130 wRC+.

The center fielder hit free agency after the 2021 campaign and then signed a four-year deal with the New York Mets. Although Marte’s defense isn’t what it was during his time with the Pittsburgh Pirates, he’s still been a quality hitter.