Pirates History: Pittsburgh turns emerging starter into hometown hero in three-team trade

On Jan. 18, four years ago, Ben Cherington continued to rebuild the Pirates roster and enter a youth movement by sending Pittsburgh's 2020 Opening Day starter, Joe Musgrove, to the Padres in an interesting three-team trade.

This was one of three big trades made that offseason, but it was actually the best one out of the three. Let's reappraise this trade four years later.

It has been four years since the Pirates traded away Joe Musgrove, and it was the best trade of the 2021 offseason.

The bar is not very high for the 2021 offseason, as the main player in the Josh Bell trade is overseas, and three of the four players in the Jameson Taillon trade are not even with the Pirates anymore. Nonetheless, two players from this trade are expected to make big impacts to Pittsburgh in 2025, while two others are in the Pirates' minor-league system and another is back with San Diego.

The original headline of this package was Hudson Head, who has spent the last three seasons in Greensboro. He also was the sixth-ranked prospect in the organization in 2021, but is now unranked. In 2024, Head put up his worst professional season, producing an OPS of .688 with 13 home runs and a wRC+ of 97. Those numbers are simply not good enough, especially for a third year in High-A.

Next was David Bednar, who was a player that San Diego sold low on in this package, which worked out well for Pittsburgh. Although he is coming off of his worst season with the Pirates, he has still made it to two All-Star games with the Pirates, which overshadows his poor showing in 2024. In his time in Pittsburgh, Bednar has posted an earned run average of 3.11 with a WHIP of 1.15 and 84 saves.

Another piece was Drake Fellows, who is an unranked prospect and just made it to Triple-A, but has struggled a lot in his minor-league career. Last season across three levels, Fellows posted an earned run average of 5.67 with a WHIP of 1.51 and a FIP of 4.38. He is 26 years old, but there is still time for Fellows to improve and make an impact with the Pirates. As it sits now, he is not ready.

The last piece from the Padres was Omar Cruz, who had an up and down career with the Pirates before finding his way back to San Diego's organization. He is looking like a left-hander who could make an impact for the Padres after having a solid season in Triple-A, posting an earned run average of 3.96 with a WHIP of 1.22 and a FIP of 2.96. He would be nice for the Pirates, given their lack of depth with left-handers, but at the time, they were not wrong to get rid of him.

Lastly is Endy Rodriguez, who the Pirates got from the Mets to make this a three-team trade. He missed 2024 after getting surgery to his elbow, but is looking like the team's backup catcher. In his first major league action in 2023, Rodriguez put together an OPS of .612 with three home runs and a wRC+ of 65. Not great, but he has a lot of upside at the plate, which is something to watch out for in 2025.

Overall, this trade was obviously not amazing, but we did get an All-Star closer and a backup catcher that could turn into a productive player out of it. Musgrove has been an outstanding pitcher when healthy, but he has battled a lot of injuries over the last few seasons.