Pirates Camilo Doval DFA makes trade deadline mistake painfully obvious

The Pittsburgh Pirates didn’t even make it two months before admitting their Camilo Doval gamble had gone wrong.

Pittsburgh announced Tuesday that veteran reliever Kirby Yates had been reinstated from the injured list, with Doval designated for assignment to make room on the roster. On its own, cutting an ineffective reliever in the final week of a lost season wouldn’t be particularly noteworthy. Except the Pirates had just traded for Doval at the deadline.

Pittsburgh sent prospects Omar Alfonzo and Luis Cruz to the New York Yankees for Doval, believing the former All-Star closer could strengthen a bullpen that desperately needed help for a postseason push. Less than two months later, the Pirates are out of contention and Doval is off the roster entirely.

That makes the price Pittsburgh paid impossible to ignore. This wasn’t a rental who was always going to leave at the end of the season. Doval remained under club control through 2027, which was presumably part of what made him appealing in the first place. Even if the Pirates had already decided they didn’t want to tender him a contract this winter, there was little urgency to dump him now.

They could have optioned another pitcher for the final handful of games, carried Doval through the season and explored the trade market before November’s non-tender deadline. Maybe another team would have offered something; maybe not. Either way, Pittsburgh would have at least preserved the possibility of salvaging some value.

Instead, the Pirates are essentially waving the white flag on an acquisition they made only weeks ago.

Camilo Doval DFA is proof Pirates badly misread his value at trade deadline

Doval is earning $6.1 million this season, with less than $200,000 remaining on his salary. If another club claims him on waivers, Pittsburgh would shed that remaining obligation. But that hardly makes the transaction look better.

A claiming team couldn’t even use Doval in the postseason because the Sept. 1 eligibility deadline has already passed. And if he clears waivers, Doval has enough major-league service time to reject an outright assignment while retaining the salary Pittsburgh still owes him. So the Pirates probably won't save anything at all.

More importantly, the decision raises another uncomfortable question about Pittsburgh’s deadline strategy. The Pirates aggressively reshaped their bullpen while they were still hanging around the playoff race, adding Doval, Yates and Luke Weaver. Improving the relief corps made sense, and spending prospect capital on players who could help beyond 2026 made even more sense — but only if the organization correctly evaluated the players it was acquiring.

Doval being DFA’d before the season even ends suggests the Pirates didn’t.

Deadline trades don’t all work out. Relievers are particularly volatile, and Pittsburgh certainly isn’t the first team to acquire a pitcher who immediately underperformed. But there is a difference between a trade failing and abandoning the player less than two months later despite another year of team control.

The Pirates gave up two prospects for Doval in July. By September, they apparently decided he wasn’t worth keeping around for another week. That is about as clear an admission of a trade deadline mistake as an organization can make.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow