Pittsburgh Pirates: Recapping Where Recently Traded Players Are Now

Josh Bell

The Pittsburgh Pirates traded Josh Bell when he was coming off the worst season of his career, technically. It was the shortened 2020 campaign where he batted for a .228/.305/.364 line, .286 wOBA, and 77 wRC+, though this was only through 223 plate appearances. Bell had been an All-Star the previous year, but it wasn’t without his struggles. His wRC+ fell from 154 in the first half to 101 in the second half. Every two months was essentially a new batter for Bell. Throughout all of this, he had unplayable defense at first base. First base is usually a position where you can get away with a poor defender, but Bell was noticeably bad.

On Christmas Eve the Pirates jettisoned Josh to the Washington Nationals in exchange for Eddy Yean and Wil Crowe. Bell rebounded from a dismal 2020 camping to hit .261/.347/.476 with a .352 wOBA and 118 wRC+. He was actually playable at first base with just -1 DRS, -3.2 UZR.150, and +3 outs above average. Despite the solid overall production, Bell still fell shy of 2.0 fWAR at 1.4.

Bell went into the 2022 campaign with the Nationals as their first baseman. After signing Nelson Cruz this offseason, the Nats can’t hide his first base defense behind the designated hitter. Although his 2019 is looking more like an outlier given the super-juiced ball of that year, as well as his 2020 because of the small sample size, Bell still looks like a solid 110-115 wRC+ batter. Bell will be one of the handful of starting-caliber first basemen on the free agent market when the season comes to a close.

Joe Musgrove

Joe Musgrove was coming off a quality 2020 campaign when the Pittsburgh Pirates dealt him. He only pitched in an injury-limited 39.2 innings but put up a 3.86 ERA, 3.42 FIP, and 1.24 WHIP. Musgrove had struck out nearly a third of batters faced with a 33.1% strikeout rate, though this came at his control’s expense. He posted a career-worst walk rate of 9.6%. Home runs were still a bit of an issue with a 1.13 HR/9. Though he had also been solid in the years leading up to the trade as well.

Musgrove was shipped to the San Diego Padres for a five player package. The right-hander did well in his first season as a Friar, posting a 3.18 ERA, 3.70 FIP, and 1.08 WHIP. Although his strikeout rate took a step back from 2020, he still had a healthy 27.1% mark. Plus, his walk rate decreased to 7.2%, while his home run rate stayed relatively constant at 1.09.

Musgrove has kicked off the season year as one of the most significant cogs in the Padres’ rotation. He, alongside Blake Snell, Yu Darvish, Sean Manaea, and Mike Clevinger, make up a formidable starting five. However, he will hit the open market at the season’s end.

Jameson Taillon

Jameson Taillon has had a rough go of things during his professional career. Tommy John surgery in 2014 pushed his debut back to 2016. After coming off what looked to be a breakout campaign in 2018, he would have to undergo a second Tommy John surgery in 2019. He only pitched 37.1 innings before getting hurt in 2019 and didn’t pitch a single game in 2020.

Despite that, Taillon fetched the Pittsburgh Pirates a four-prospect package, which now includes one of the organization’s best prospects in Roansy Contreras, as well as another potential rotation building block in Miguel Yajure and highly touted infielder Maikol Escotto. Taillon faced injuries once again in 2021, tossing only 144.1 innings. All told, he had a 4.30 ERA, 4.43 FIP, and 1.21 WHIP. He had a near-exact league average 23.2% strikeout rate but a quality 7.3% walk rate. However, he surrendered home runs at a 1.5-per-9 pace.

Taillon was league average in nearly every single measurement. He had a 100 ERA+ and ERA-, a 102 FIP-, 109 xFIP-, and had two fWAR on the dot. But the constant string of injuries didn’t end after 2021. Taillon had to undergo ankle surgery, though he looks healthy now and pitched 5.2 innings in Spring Training. He’ll open the season with Gerrit Cole, Luis Severino, Nestor Cortes, and Jordan Montgomery in the Yankee rotation.

Adam Frazier

When the Pittsburgh Pirates traded Adam Frazier, he was coming off a tremendous first half of the season. He earned the starting nod at second base for the National League All-Star team. In the first half of the season, Frazier batted .330/.397/.463 with a .373 wOBA and 134 wRC+. After being a roughly league-average hitter in previous seasons, that was a massive step forward. He also brought some defensive value as a good second baseman and a usable corner outfielder.

Frazier was sent to the San Diego Padres for three players at the trade deadline: utility man Tucupita Marcano, outfielder Jack Suwinski, and relief pitcher Michell Milano. However, despite his blazing hot start to the season, Frazier faltered in the second half. He posted an extremely poor .266/.323/.332 line, .290 wOBA, and 83 wRC+ in the second half.

Frazier’s time with the Padres was very short. With an overabundance of middle infielders, the Padres sent Frazier to the Seattle Mariners, essentially to try and shed his salary. The two players the Friars received for Frazier, pitcher Ray Kerr and outfielder Corey Rosier, were unranked prospects in the M’s system, per FanGraphs. Kerr does come in at no. 28 on San Diego’s top 30 board on MLB Pipeline. Frazier has opened the season in somewhat of a time-share with Abraham Toro. Frazier will become a free agent at the end of this season, marking the end of his rookie contract.

Richard Rodríguez

Richard Rodríguez was the team’s closer for the first half of the season. Before being traded, Rich-Rod had a 2.82 ERA, 2.60 FIP, and 0.83 WHIP. Although Rodriguez was only striking out 22.8% of batters faced, he only walked 3.4% of opposing hitters while giving up just two home runs in 38.2 innings of work.

Rodríguez was shipped to the Braves for right-handers Ricky DeVito and Bryse Wilson at the trade deadline. However, Rodríguez would struggle in his new environment. He pitched 26 innings with the Braves, but his 3.12 ERA and 4.7% walk rate aren’t reflective of how he performed. He gave up six more home runs and saw his strikeout rate plummet to just 8.5%. Because of his struggles, the Braves excluded Rodríguez from their postseason rosters throughout their World Series run.

At the end of the season, the Braves non-tendered the right-handed reliever. He hit the open market and went unsigned for all of the winter. However, in a recent development, Rodríguez tested positive for a banned substance, leading to an 80-game suspension.

Tyler Anderson

The Pirates signed Tyler Anderson to eat some innings out of the rotation. He provided the Pirates with a 4.35 ERA, 4.27 FIP, and 1.20 WHIP in 103.1 innings of work. He wasn’t overly dominant, but he gave the Pirates exactly what they wanted. He went at least five innings in all of his starts as a Pirate and gave up three or fewer earned runs in all but two outings. He was the quintessential solid, durable, back-of-the-rotation arm.

That garnered a fair bit of trade interest around the deadline. After a deal with the Philadelphia Phillies fell through, the Pirates ended up sending the southpaw to the Seattle Mariners for right-hander Joaquin Tejeda and catcher Carter Bins. He ended up posting a 4.81 ERA, 4.52 FIP, and 1.32 WHIP. Although those weren’t as good of numbers as when he was with the Pirates, he did have one blow-up start where he gave up nine earned runs in just two innings. That seriously inflated his numbers, given that outside of that start, he had a 3.66 ERA as a Mariner.

Anderson hit free agency this offseason and landed a one-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers were one of the teams to kick the tires on Anderson back during the trade deadline.

Though it looks like he’ll piggyback games, at least to start the season. In his first game, Anderson came out of the pen after Tony Gonsolin started the game and pitched three innings. Anderson would go on to fire four more innings, giving up just one earned run, racking up four K’s, and allowing no free passes.