Pirates refuse to promote logical Isiah Kiner-Falefa replacement staring them in the face

The Pirates recently placed Isiah Kiner-Falefa on waivers and the Toronto Blue Jays brought him back for their postseason run. This move finally allows Pittsburgh to give more playing time to their younger players, but instead of calling up a top prospect that has a future with this team, they decided to call up Ryan Kreidler in the initial wake of Kiner-Falefa's departure.

Kreidler was recently claimed off waivers from the Tigers, and across 211 plate appearances, he has generated a .132 batting average with -0.9 fWAR. Basically, he's a 27-year-old that has not had success at the big league level, and someone who will be DFA'd during the offseason. Giving him playing time is kind of pointless right now, especially when the clear cut guy in Triple-A has earned a spot in the big leagues and has the upside to get a role in 2026: Nick Yorke.

The Pirates are wasting the chance at quality reps for Nick Yorke following Ryan Kreidler replacing Isiah Kiner-Falefa.

Yorke, who has absolutely crushed August, is a guy who will definitely be in competition for the third base and shortstop jobs this spring training. The only problemis he will lack big league reps, something he's earned by posting an .828 OPS with eight doubles this month.

Given all of Yorke's great metrics in his short stint in 2024, he definitely deserves time in the big leagues to work through things this September. In his small sample size in the big leagues, he generated a 50% hard hit rate and his xSLG reached .509. He was crushing it, but he has not gotten a chance since.

What is the point of giving Kreidler playing time over Yorke? There really are no positives to this move. The team should have their full focus towards making the 2026 team the best they can be, and giving guys like Yorke playing time would boost their chances.

In fact, Yorke should be up here over Liover Peguero and Alexander Canario. Both are also DFA candidates this offseason, and their playing time right now is not helping their case to be on the team in 2026. Peguero was in the same boat as Yorke, but has not been good since his three-homer game. Canario was given his chance of daily reps in the early part of the season and blew it.

The refusal to bring Yorke to Pittsburgh makes zero sense at this point. He needs to be here.