Bleacher Report's 'unpopular offseason trade' for Pirates will set them back even further

Anyone who followed the Pittsburgh Pirates for any amount of time in 2024 knows that the club's biggest strength – at times, its only strength – was its unquestioned starting pitching. Pittsburgh's starting rotation, anchored by the three-headed monster of Paul Skenes, Mitch Keller and Jared Jones, was the one thing that gave Pirates fans even the faintest glimmer of hope amid yet another lost season.

Why, then, would the Pirates consider trading one of the key cogs in their starting rotation this offseason? Sounds like a good question for Bleacher Report's Zachary D. Rymer, who proposed that they do just that.

In fairness, Rymer's proposal is part of a column about unpopular trade ideas for each MLB team, but he acknowledges that it "not only should, but could come to fruition" this offseason. Upon closer examination, however, such a trade would not only be unpopular with Pirates fans; it would also set the team back significantly in their path toward contention.

Bleacher Report's 'unpopular offseason trade' for Pirates will set them back even further

The Pirates have no shortage of quality pitching at practically every level of the organization. What they lack, of course, is offense. Rymer points out that Pittsburgh has finished 13th or lower among National League teams in runs five years in a row (not so coincidentally, manager Derek Shelton and general manager Ben Cherington have been at the helm for each of those five years; but that's another story for another time).

Pittsburgh doesn't have any offensive weapons in its farm system who are close to cracking the Major League roster, and we should all know by now that the Pirates aren't going to do any big spending to acquire a bat in free agency.

That leaves the trade market as the only viable option for Pittsburgh to see imminent improvement in their batting order. While it could make sense for the Pirates to deal from their pitching depth in order to return an impact bat or two, Rymer is suggesting they deal from the top of the rotation and rely on the aforementioned depth pieces to presumably pitch them to the playoffs.

Sorry, but the Pirates aren't exactly in a position to trade one of the few proven commodities they actually have. And, quite frankly, the return likely wouldn't justify the loss of one of the organization's best young arms.

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