The Pittsburgh Pirates may have never had a chance at Jazz Chisholm

The Pittsburgh Pirates were reportedly looking into now-former Miami Marlins outfielder Jazz Chisholm before he was recently dealt to the New York Yankees. Pirate fans are obviously upset, given that the outfield has been a huge hole for the team this year. But based on the return and other rumors, the Pirates may have never had a good chance to begin with in these conversations.

The Marlins ended up deciding on the package of Agustin Ramirez, Jared Serna, and Abrahan Ramirez from the New York Yankees though, according to Jim Bowden, the Pirates and Kansas City Royals were runners-up for Chisholm's services. Both teams offered up catchers as headliners, similar to the deal the Yankees ended up making, as Ramirez is a catching prospect.

However, based on the package that the Marlins ended up getting for Jazz, along with the strengths of their current system, Miami likely had no interest in dealing Chisholm for pitching. All three of Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, and FanGraphs ranked the same three pitching prospects as the Marlins' best three prospects: Noble Meyer, Max Meyer, and Thomas White. They are also far from the only pitching prospects in the Marlins' system. 12 of the 30 prospects on Baseball America's list are pitchers. MLB Pipeline has 11 pitchers in the Marlins' top 30 prospects. FanGraphs also has the Marlins' system as a pitcher-heavy system, with 13 in their top 30.

The rest of the package also contained position players. The second part of the puzzle was Serna. He is a middle infielder who Baseball America ranked as the Yankees' 11th-best prospect. The third player was another infielder in Abrahan Ramirez, who was an unranked teenage prospect below A-Ball, but another position player nonetheless.

Pirates would've had trouble matching Yankees' trade package for Jazz Chisholm

Meanwhile, the Pirates could only have offered Henry Davis or Endy Rodriguez. Davis has struggled to make the step forward from Triple-A to the major leagues so far, and Rodriguez has been out the entire season due to Tommy John surgery. There are only a few other catching prospects the Pirates possibly could have included. One is Axiel Plaz, who is an 18-year-old at A-Ball; the second is Garret Forrester, who is transitioning from a 1B/3B in college to a catcher as a pro; and, finally, Omar Alfonzo, who none of Baseball America, FanGraphs, or MLB Pipeline have ranked in the top 20 of the Pirates' system.

The Marlins seemed to put out there that any deal involving Chisholm had to include a catcher as the headliner. Three out of three offers each included backstops as the biggest piece of a package deal heading to Miami for the outfielder. If the Pirates put Davis and/or Rodriguez on the table, and if the Marlins didn't want either, then there's nothing more the Pirates could have possibly done, as it was clear the Marlins had little interest in pitching prospects.

Right now, as the Pirates' system stands, any deal they make will have a pitcher as a headliner. They have one of the most pitching-rich systems in baseball. Of the team's top 30 prospects on MLB Pipeline, 11 are pitchers, 10 of whom are in their top 20. Over half of Baseball America's top Pirates prospect list is made up of pitchers with 17. FanGraphs also puts 17 pitchers in the Pirates' top 30.

But it was clear the Marlins wanted catchers and position players with no interest in pitching. The package they ended up getting included three position players, and the headliner of each of the three deals (two rumored) were catchers. If the Marlins valued Davis and/or Rodriguez less than Ramirez, the Pirates simply could not do anything else to change what ended up happening.