Pirates may already have perfect trade pivot after Eugenio Suárez whiff

The Pittsburgh Pirates entered the offseason with the goal of improving what was the league's worst offense in 2025. The team has certainly done that, but without addressing perhaps the most obvious hole on the roster.

The Pirates clearly still need a third baseman. This has been evident since the team traded Ke'Bryan Hayes (and all of the money remaining on his long-term deal) to the Reds at last year's trade deadline.

Eugenio Suárez seemed like the perfect fit. A right-handed hitter and respected veteran presence who slugged 49 home runs last season, Suarez could have served as a complement to the left-handed bats the Bucs have added this winter. And the longer he lingered on the free agent market, Pirates fans got more and more optimistic that the team would be able to make a splash and land him.

But alas, Suárez represented another lofty free agent pursuit that bore no fruit, as he will now team up with Hayes for division-rival Cincinnati. Suarez was the final impact bat remaining on the free agent market who could have filled the Pirates' void at the hot corner. That doesn't mean there aren't any more options, though.

The Pirates could still acquire a third baseman via trade. There are still a handful of options who would represent an upgrade to the lineup while keeping the team's budget in tact to pursue further upgrades. One such option, though far less established than Suárez, profiles as a very similar player.

Enter the New York Mets' Mark Vientos.

The Pirates should pivot to a trade for Mark Vientos after missing out on Eugenio Suárez

The 2025 season was a bit of a down year for Vientos after breaking out in 2024. He slashed .233/.289/.413 in a career-high 121 games last season and homered 17 times. That was good for a wRC+ of 97, meaning he was just below league average at the plate. He was a three-win player in 2024, posting an OPS of .837 and homering 27 times in just 454 plate appearances.

His resume is obviously much shorter than that of Suárez (Vientos just turned 26, while Suárez will turn 35 in July), but looking under the hood, there are plenty of similarities between the two sluggers.

Those are all stats from last season, where Suarez hit 49 home runs and Vientos regressed after a strong 2024. Yet, Vientos still had comparable (if not better) batted ball metrics and struck out at a lower rate.

Suarez was seen as a good fit for the Pirates because of his plus power (which isn't restricted to his pull side) despite subpar defense and a ton of strikeouts. With Vientos, you get the exact same thing. The primary difference is acquisition cost—Suarez cost $15 million in free agency (and the Pirates likely would have had to add more dollars on top of another guaranteed year), while Vientos would probably cost upper-level pitching prospects in a trade.

Vientos is not yet eligible for salary arbitration, meaning he'd be making near the MLB minimum salary in 2026 with three years of cheap team control after that. Getting a player like that is probably better business for the Pirates than shelling out unprecedented amounts of money for an aging (and probably declining) free agent.

Trading for a pre-arb third baseman also means that the Pirates would still have money to spend on other areas, whether that be another bat (like Marcell Ozuna) or adding to an already stout pitching staff (they apparently "aggressively pursued" Framber Valdez before he signed with Detroit).

It is somewhat disconcerting that the third base conundrum remains unresolved (or that the Pirates' offseason as a whole has been dominated by rumors and not action since the team's Brandon Lowe and Ryan O'Hearn splashes over a month ago). But until the team takes the field with Jared Triolo at third base, the book isn't closed on an upgrade. Hopefully the Pirates find a solution, maybe even one that keeps other doors open as well.