Pirates' Ben Cherington hints at potential trade-heavy offseason

Winter may be fast approaching, but after yet another monumentally disappointing season, Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Ben Cherington's seat is feeling awfully hot.

“We need to find a way to get better faster," Cherington said Sunday during the season's final episode of his weekly radio show on 93.7 The Fan. "That’s our entire focus, and it starts with me. I’ve got to do my job better this offseason to find more wins to add to the team.”

Cherington then proceeded to drop a major hint about how exactly he plans to go about shaking up the Pirates' roster this winter.

“The way we do that in Pittsburgh is going to be different,” Cherington said. “A team like the Pirates, we’re going to have to add more talent, not just through the draft and international and player development but also through trades. We’re going to rely less on free agency than most teams. And that means we’ve got to make up those wins in other ways.”

Translation: the Pirates and owner Bob Nutting are too cheap to pursue any meaningful additions in free agency, so they have no other choice but to explore the trade market. So, to any hopeful Pirates fans who thought there was a chance their team would land a big name in free agency this winter – or even attempt to – keep on dreaming.

Pirates' Ben Cherington hints at potential trade-heavy offseason

As far as Pittsburgh's potential trade chips, Cherington noted that the three deepest areas of the Pirates' roster and prospect pipeline include starting pitchers, middle infielders and catchers. This is just one fan's opinion, but shopping catcher and former first-round pick Henry Davis would be an excellent place to start.

Yes, Cherington also mentions the draft-and-develop strategy and international signings; but if five years of Cherington in Pittsburgh have taught us anything, it's that the Pirates won't get better in either of those areas. If anything, they'll continue to get worse.

If he really wants to start adding wins to the Pirates' roster this offseason, Cherington needs to put his money where his mouth is (figuratively speaking, of course; Nutting barely gives him any money to work with as it is). If anything, though, Nutting's penny-pinching intensifies the need for Cherington to be a shrewd negotiator on the trade market this winter.

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