David Bednar trade fallout gets uglier as catching prospect struggles at Pirates camp

The Pittsburgh Pirates didn't make the splashiest moves at last year's trade deadline. For the most part, they shipped out veteran odds and ends that had no real future with the team for lottery tickets and other minor league fodder. Deciding to hold onto their best chip in Mitch Keller, the only truly impactful player they shipped out was David Bednar, dealing the closer to the New York Yankees.

In return, the Pirates received a trio of prospects in catchers Rafael Flores Jr. and Edgleen Perez, as well as outfielder Bryan Sanchez. Flores Jr. was the star of the show. A former top-10 prospect with the Yankees, the 25-year-old is Pittsburgh's No. 10 overall prospect... for now.

One of the appeals to Flores Jr. was supposed to be his proximity to the majors. Joey Bart has been fine for the most part, but he isn't a game-changer behind the plate. The hope was that Flores Jr. could be that kind of impact player as a six-foot-three catcher with big-time power and surprising defensive skills for his size.

Instead, he's been a complete zero at the plate this spring, hitting just .083/.241/.125 over 13 games. Forget about challenging Bart for the starting spot. Instead, he's fallen behind Henry Davis and Endy Rodriguez on the depth chart, too.

The Pirates might be having buyer's remorse on the David Bednar trade as Rafael Flores Jr. struggles

To be fair, the red flags were there from the start. Flores was struggling after the Yankees promoted him to Triple-A, hitting just .211/.388/.289 in an albeit limited sample of just 10 games. He scuffled during his big league cup of coffee with the Pirates last September, as well, striking out 41.7% of the time.

The strikeouts have always been a big issue for Flores Jr., and that hasn't changed this spring. He's striking out at a 31% clip, and it isn't being mitigated by power production with just a .042 ISO.

Given the pivot the Pirates made towards contending this offseason, one could make a valid argument that Pittsburgh would have been better off keeping Bednar.

We all know how nerve-wracking the experience of having Bednar on the mound can be, but he's a two-time All-Star and still pitching well overall. Having him at the back-end with Dennis Santana could have made for a really formidable late-inning group with breakout candidates Justin Lawrence and Isaac Mattson sliding down a run and solidifying the unit as a whole.

Maybe Perez and/or Sanchez salvage the deal for the Buccos, but right now Perez still hasn't turned 20 and struggled in A-ball last year, while the 21-year-old Sanchez falls outside of Pittsburgh's top-30 list and is also still toiling down in the lower minors.

As for Flores Jr., you can't completely write him off yet, but he's certainly looking like a bust, making it seem as if the Yankees took the Pirates for a ride, stealing Bednar away for nothing.