3 trade targets who could help fix the Pittsburgh Pirates' bullpen

Hunter Harvey

Hunter Harvey was one of the best pitching prospects in the mid-late 2010s. He was a first-round pick by the Baltimore Orioles, but he never seemed to be able to stay healthy long and barely pitched from 2015 through 2018. After bouncing around on waivers, he finally landed with the Washington Nationals in 2022, and since then, he’s quietly become one of the better relievers in the game.

In 2024, Harvey has a 2.63 ERA, 2.22 FIP, and 1.04 WHIP through 24 innings. His 29.5% strikeout rate is currently a career-best, but he’s elite at limiting walks. Harvey has just a 6.5% walk rate.

In addition to keeping free passes of the base paths, Harvey is having a career year at limiting home runs. His HR/9 is 0.53. The right-hander’s ground ball rate is above 50% at 53.3%, which has helped him post a 1.7% barrel rate. Harvey has always been susceptible to hard-hit baseballs and has allowed an 89.8 MPH exit velo this year, but inducing that many ground balls limits just how impactful many of those hard-hit batted balls are.

Harvey can fool batters easily. He has a 34.7% chase rate. He also induces a decent amount of swings and misses, with a 28.4% whiff rate. Harvey throws hard, averaging 97.8 MPH with his four-seam fastball. Both his splitter and curveball have a swing-and-miss rate of over 30%. He also mixes in a slider, and even that has a decent 27.3% whiff rate. Harvey is simply a good strikeout pitcher.

Harvey is under control through 2025. The Nationals could use some young pitching that’s closer to being MLB-ready. According to MLB Pipeline, they only have one top pitching prospect who isn’t 20 or younger. A trade between the Pirates, where they get Harvey, and the Nats, where they get one or two of the Pirates’ top pitching prospects, could definitely work.