Pirates absolutely blew it by not trading these 3 players at the 2025 deadline

The Pittsburgh Pirates just put together a very disappointing MLB trade deadline by trading away multiple players with team control for players who will likely not be on the Opening Day roster in 2026. While they unloaded those players, they also kept three rentals for some outrageous reason. These were three players that could have very well landed at least some sort of return, yet Pittsburgh decided to keep them.

While the trade returns for the players they did deal weren't very strong, keeping these three absolutely made things so much worse, creating arguably the worst deadline during Ben Cherington's tenure. On top of that, it came during the specific July where he was most plainly on the hot seat and needed a near-flawless deadline to keep his job.

Nonetheless, let's review the three rentals Cherington mistakenly kept.

Pirates blew the trade deadline by not trading these three rentals.

Andrew Heaney

Andrew Heaney absolutely tanked his stock with a rough stretch of starts, but still possessed a 4.79 ERA with a 5.18 FIP. No, he was not landing a ranked prospect (like Bailey Falter somehow did), yet he still should have ended up somewhere. Heaney keeping a roster spot for the remainder of the season will just block a chance off for Bubba Chandler or other prospects to receive time in the big leagues.

Tommy Pham

Tommy Pham is another player that easily could have been dealt. In July, he turned into one of the hottest hitters in baseball and now has a 101 wRC+ with a .721 OPS. Last season when he was dealt from Chicago, his numbers were slightly worse and he still went to a contender. The Pirates may not have a prospect that could seamlessly replace him, but keeping him is still just a massive mistake.

Isiah Kiner-Falefa

Keeping Isiah Kiner-Falefa was the biggest blunder of them all. His bat may not be very good, generating a 77 wRC+ with a .265 batting average, but he still had various teams calling about him. His glove and versatility on defense should have been enough to get a deal done. Maybe Cherington kept him because he was a deadline acquisition he didn't want to cut bait on. Or maybe it was because Kiner-Falefa had recently stated he'd be open to coming back after a trade.

Kiner-Falefa better not be Ke'Bryan Hayes' long-term replacement after that quote and, if that is the case, trading Hayes will come back to bite them.