Pirates Rumors: ESPN identifies early trade deadline trade chips for Pittsburgh

It's already the time of the year in Pittsburgh when we ask ourselves: Who is playing well enough for us to trade away in three months?

In the past six years of rebuilding, the Pirates have continuously signed guys to one-year deals in free agency with the intent of trading them for prospects at the deadline. This year seems to be more of the same in that regard.

Rumors are already swirling around about which teams are going to be trading which stars to contenders come July 31. In a recent article by David Schoenfield from ESPN, he listed two Pirates players who are likely to be gone by the deadline.

Experts expect these two Pirates to be gone by late July trade deadline

Andrew Heaney

Andrew Heaney was signed by the Pirates to a one-year contract in late February to pitch as a mid-to-backend rotation piece. The veteran, going into his 12th season, was coming off a below-average year in Texas, where he posted a 5-14 record with a 4.28 ERA.

Since signing with the Pirates, Heaney has been a completely different pitcher.

In five starts, Heaney has posted a 2-1 record with a 1.72 ERA and accumulated 1.3 WAR. His previous career high in WAR was 1.7, and he is 0.4 short of that mark just five starts into his 2025 campaign. Heaney's career-best ERA was in 2022 with the Dodgers, when he finished with an ERA of 3.10.

Contending teams are always going to look for quality starting pitching, and Heaney has shown through five starts that he can provide that. As of April 25, Heaney sits at eighth in the entire MLB in ERA. Despite his great start, Schoenfield doesn't believe he is going to be extremely valuable at the deadline.

"Heaney is a viable back-end starter, although not necessarily someone you want to line up in a playoff game," said the ESPN MLB analyst.

While it may be extremely early to treat Heaney as this huge deadline trade piece, if he can keep up his efforts through five starts, the Pirates will get a decent haul for him come late July.

Tommy Pham

Tommy Pham is a bit of a different story. Pham has been a notable trade deadline piece for the last four years, naturally landing him on this list for this deadline.

"Pham has been here before," said Schoenfield. "He was traded at the 2022 deadline to the Red Sox, at the 2023 deadline to the Diamondbacks and at the 2024 deadline to the Cardinals."

Unfortunately, unlike some of those years, Pham has not gotten off to a great start with the Bucs in 2025.

Pham signed with the Pirates on, you guessed it, a one-year deal in mid-February. So far, the 12-year veteran has struggled, slashing just .184/.267/.224 in 23 games. Worst of all, he is in the 10th percentile in batting run value, according to BaseballSavant.

On the defensive end, he has been a lot better for the Bucs, leading the team in DWAR at 0.4, and sitting at fourth in fielding percentage among qualified players. He sits in the 63rd percentile in fielding run value, according to his BaseballSavant page.

At the very best, I can see Pham being traded as a locker room guy with playoff experience to a young contending team. The way he is swinging the bat at this point in his MLB career isn't close to good enough to play on a contending team, so I don't expect the Pirates to get much of anything for him if he is dealt in late July.