Pirates did more than fans expected at trade deadline, but it still wasn't enough

The 2024 MLB trade deadline has come and gone, and the Pittsburgh Pirates are still very much alive in the playoff race with a 55-52 record that puts them just two games back of the third and final National League wild card spot.

This year marked the first time since Ben Cherington took over as general manager of the Pirates that the club has been in a position to add pieces at the MLB trade deadline. Cherington delivered – by his standards, that is – and made a whopping seven trades before Tuesday's deadline.

The Pirates didn't make any major splashes on the trade market this year, which isn't the least bit surprising. Still, adding two moderately productive big-league bats and refusing to give up any core pieces at the major- or minor-league levels is about as close to a "World Series-or-bust" mentality as this team is going to get.

Giving credit where it's due, Cherington did exceed expectations and make the Pirates' major-league roster better at the trade deadline. That being said, however, he still may not have done enough.

Cherington, Pirates did just enough at the trade deadline for it to be considered a "success"

Up until the final hour leading up to the deadline, the Pirates had yet to make any substantive changes to their lineup. Monday saw them ship right-hander Quinn Priester to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for infield prospect Nick Yorke and send left-handed pitching prospect Luis Peralta to the Colorado Rockies for lefty reliever Jalen Beeks. The Pirates made yet another small move early Tuesday, trading minor-league pitcher Nicolas Carreno to the New York Mets for left-handed reliever Josh Walker.

The Pirates' big moves – relatively speaking – occurred at the proverbial buzzer, when they acquired outfielder Bryan De La Cruz and utility man Isiah Kiner-Falefa while offloading lefty starter Martin Pérez. These upgrades are fairly marginal, though. De La Cruz is a power hitter and better option than Pittsburgh's other outfielders aside from Bryan Reynolds (which isn't saying much), but he also has a hefty 26% strikeout rate. Meanwhile, Kiner-Falefa is having a career year at the plate but is still recovering from an injury. He'll be able to help fill the void at second base with Nick Gonzales set to miss an extensive amount of time before likely moving to center field (or any other position where the Pirates need him).

Losing Charles McAdoo, a rising outfield prospect, in the Kiner-Falefa trade could come back to haunt a Pirates organization that lacks offensive depth in its farm system. And let's not kid ourselves – the main reason the Pirates shipped Pérez to the San Diego Padres in exchange for an 18-year-old DSL pitching prospect was so they could get Pérez's contract off the books and scrape together enough nickels and dimes to pay De La Cruz and Kiner-Falefa their (very reasonable) wages. (Cherington knows MLB doesn't have a salary cap, right?)

Still, if the Pirates' goal was to upgrade their big-league roster without giving up much, then mission accomplished. Losing Pérez and Priester at the major league level will have little to no impact. Both De La Cruz and Kiner-Falefa are under team control beyond this season. The primary mission is to contend while the the three-headed pitching monster of Paul Skenes, Mitch Keller and Jared Jones are all healthy and under club control, and the Pirates did barely enough at the last minute to keep that mission alive – for now.

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