Pirates' next move after Ke'Bryan Hayes trade return is extremely obvious

The Pittsburgh Pirates shocked the fanbase and sent Ke'Bryan Hayes to the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday. Many fans had seen enough of Ben Cherington's first extended player during his tenure in Pittsburgh and he pulled through with a deal to part ways. The return was very interesting too, as the Bucs landed the Reds' ninth-ranked prospect (per MLB Pipeline) and a left-hander being paid more money this year than Hayes himself.

Pittsburgh received Taylor Rogers in this trade, coming at a major surprise. Rogers is a rental and has a $12 million salary for 2025. The likely reasoning behind this trade was the Reds needed to unload payroll to add Hayes and other acquisitions, so Pittsburgh decided to take his contract on to get Hayes off their books. Doing so got them a very highly-ranked prospect in Sammy Stafura.

This surprising trade looks like a very productive move for Cherington, and if he wants to truly make this a success, they must make the obvious next move of trading Rogers.

Pirates must make the obvious next move of trading Taylor Rogers before the deadline

Rogers is a veteran southpaw with a 2.45 ERA this season on an expiring deal. His success this season is something that a contender would love to add to enhance their postseason chances. Pittsburgh should absolutely trade him to a contender and snag another prospect before the deadline hits.

If they hang on to him, maybe it works out to re-sign in the offseason, but his salary in 2026 would likely be just as high. If they are spending over $10 million on a reliever, make it someone who can close games. Rogers cannot do that, so such an investment for next season makes no sense.

Unless this is merely a body to replace whoever is about to get traded out of the bullpen, it would be very surprising if Rogers pitches at all in a Pirates uniform. If Cherington is able to secure another ranked prospect for the veteran southpaw, then this salary dump process will work out very well. Many fans may not want to hear this, but this could be the beginning of Cherington saving his job. His seat may be the hottest in baseball, and he even said he needed to take risks this deadline. We'd like to think he just set the table to be aggressive over the next 24 hours.