Pirates can't be forgiven for completely botching David Bednar trade with Yankees

The Pittsburgh Pirates just made arguably one of the worst possible deals they could have made, trading right-handed closer David Bednar to the New York Yankees for a package of three prospects. The Pirates, and more specifically Ben Cherington, utterly botched what could have been the Pirates’ best opportunity to improve their offense.

Bednar has rebounded from a rough 2024 season and a poor start to 2025 to have what has arguably been his best season yet. In 38 innings, Bednar has a 2.37 ERA, 1.96 FIP, and 1.11 WHIP. He is striking out batters at a career-best 33.1% rate with a career-low 6.1% walk rate. He had his best stretch of games in his career thus far in 2025, pitching 22.1 straight frames from May 24 through July 26 without allowing an earned run. Throughout that stretch, he struck out over a third of opponents with a 35.1% K%, and had a free pass percentage of 6.2%.

The headliner of this deal was…Rafael Flores? Flores was recently promoted to Triple-A after hitting well at Double-A. In his first 370 plate appearances, Flores had a .287/.346/.496 triple-slash with a .379 wOBA and 146 wRC+. He went yard 15 times with a .209 isolated slugging percentage. Sure, he has a strong bottom line, but the red flags are all over the place.

Flores struck out 25.4% of the time at Double-A. He only walked in 8.1% of his plate appearances. Both MLB Pipeline and Baseball America have his hit tool as a 40-grade item. That means below average. He has also seen time at first base, because his defense behind the dish does not grade out well, either. Since getting promoted to Triple-A, he has only appeared in ten games, but has a whiff rate approaching 42%.

Package Pirates received from Yankees in David Bednar trade only gets worse after Rafael Flores

The rest of this package should only leave Pirates fans feeling more sick to their stomachs. Edgleen Perez is another catcher, but 19 years old this time and with a 91 wRC+ at A-Ball. The other player the Pirates are receiving is outfielder Brian Sanchez. Sanchez is doing better than Perez, with a 129 wRC+, but was also at A-Ball and just 20 years old.

That doesn’t seem like a lot for a red-hot reliever who has been a top-five closer for most of his career, because it’s not. Now it may not be reasonable to expect the Pirates to find a deal comparable to the one for Mason Miller and JP Sears, who landed the Oakland Athletics one of the best prospects in all of baseball in Leo De Vries. However, Jhoan Duran only has two full years of control remaining (one more than Bednar), and got back two top-ten prospects from the Philadelphia Phillies, one of whom was Mick Abel, who has already pitched in parts of six Major League starts. Rental submarine set-up man Tyler Rogers netted the San Francisco Giants two top prospects from the New York Mets, including Drew Gilbert and Blade Tidwell, along with José Bútto, who they could immediately slot into their bullpen.

What’s even more disappointing is the Pirates’ reportedly were eyeing a top-five prospect in any deal involving Bednar. The Pirates also apparently had scouts at Erie SeaWolves games ahead of the deadline, the Detroit Tigers’ Double-A affiliate. They currently roster multiple top prospects like Kevin McGonigle, Max Clark, Thayron Liranzo, Max Anderson, and Jose Briceno, all of whom are ranked as top ten prospects in the Tigers’ system.

The Pirates are apparently committed to improving the roster for 2026, but this trade doesn’t reflect that. Flores is the only player in this swap with a chance to impact the 2026 Pirates, and he has some massive questions to answer before he makes his MLB debut. The two other players the Pirates got in this deal are more or less lottery ticket prospects. 

The Pirates didn’t even have to trade Bednar this deadline. He is under control through 2026. Bednar was also by far the best reliever left on the market at the time of the deal. With Miller, Duran, Rogers, as well as Ryan Helsey getting dealt, the only high-end late-inning arm remaining was Bednar. The Pirates had all the leverage on their side. There was zero reason Ben Cherington had to cave at this offer, and lower his standard from a top-five prospect as a headliner.

The Pirates had a very real chance of making a significant improvement to the line-up for 2026, and have completely whiffed at it. This return for Bednar was not nearly enough. Bednar is one of the best closers in baseball, no doubt about it. Given what other late-inning arms went for this week, this is a massive letdown. They completely botched this deal.