Pittsburgh Pirates: Players Who Were Traded At The Right Time

The Pittsburgh Pirates traded these former Bucs right before they took a major dip in their production on the field

The Pittsburgh Pirates have traded a handful of players throughout their rebuild. While it might be frustrating to see some go, there have been a handful of times that the Pirates traded the player at the right time. The Bucs got the best years from those players, and they haven’t been nearly as good since.

The return for the player is not a factor here. I am only looking at how the player did after the Pirates traded them. So regardless of how good or bad the players were the Pirates received, the only factor here is the player’s performance post-trade.

Ji-Man Choi

Ji-Man Choi was acquired last off-season from the Tampa Bay Rays for minor league reliever Jack Hartman. Choi’s tenure with the Pirates was pretty short-lived, as he only played for the Pirates in 2023 and missed a good portion of the season.

Choi missed most of April and all of May and June. He came back in July and was fairly productive leading up to the trade. He only came to the plate 44 times but had 11 hits, including four homers and three doubles. The Pirates packaged Choi with another veteran we’ll discuss later today to the San Diego Padres.

But Choi missed just over a whole month after the trade, landing on the IL after August 11th and playing his next game on September 16th. While Choi drew the same amount of walks as strikeouts, with eight each, he only had two hits. Both came in one game. This was in a total of 41 plate appearances. Choi played 16 games for the Padres and went hitless in 15 of them. He started out his Padres tenure with an 0-24 streak.

Choi was a fan favorite, but he was a rental, and it’s clear the Pirates will probably end up getting the better end of this deal. While he may not have played much in Pittsburgh, the Pirates at least were able to get something before Choi went on to have just two more hits over two months and missing a good chunk of August and September.

Rich Hill

The other player that was included alongside Choi was Rich Hill. Hill entered the 2023 season as one of the oldest players in baseball. Brought in as a back-of-the-rotation veteran to help stabilize an overall young group, Hill did just that for the Pirates, providing some solid outings and a decent amount of innings.

Hill pitched 119 frames for the Bucs, working to a 4.76 ERA, 4.43 FIP, and 1.48 WHIP. Hill only had a 19.6% strikeout rate and 8.9% walk rate, but his 1.13 HR/9 was slightly better than the league average. Overall, these numbers aren’t all that impressive. Funnily enough, there was only really one major blemish during his time with the Pirates, and that was Opening Day, where he allowed seven earned runs on three home runs in just four innings of work. Hill owned a much cleaner 4.38 ERA and 4.06 FIP outside this game.

The Padres acquired Hill to try and reinforce the back of their starting rotation, and things didn’t go as planned. Hill allowed 23 earned runs in his first 19.1 innings as a member of the Friars. He gave up as many home runs as walks, with eight each, while only sitting down 16 on strikes. Hill would get moved to the bullpen full-time in mid-September, but the damage had already been done.

Sure, Hill was never considered an ace when either the Pirates or Padres acquired him, but his struggles in August and September last season were completely unexpected. The Padres even designated Hill for assignment near the end of August in an attempt to shed his remaining salary. But no team claimed him and he concluded the one year contract the Pirates signed with him with the Padres.

Richard Rodriguez

Richard Rodriguez was an underrated find by the Pirates in 2018. After establishing himself as one of their go-to relievers in both 2019 and 2020, Rodriguez had entered the year as the team’s closing pitcher in 2021. Up until the trade deadline, Rodriguez had solidified himself as a very good 9th-inning man.

In 38.1 innings, Rodriguez had saved 14 games while pitching to a 2.82 ERA, 2.60 FIP, and 0.84 WHIP. The right-hander had a walk rate of just 3.4% and a home run rate of 0.47-per-9 innings. However, his 22.8% strikeout rate was a pretty decent dip from his 2018-2020 strikeout rate of 28.2%. Still, these numbers attracted the attention of multiple teams at the trade deadline.

The team the Pirates ended up trading Rich-Rod to was the Atlanta Braves. He tossed 26 innings, working to a 3.12 ERA, but don’t be fooled by the ERA. Rodriguez’s strikeout rate took another significant downturn to just 8.5%. His home run rate skyrocketed to 2.08-per-9 innings. He still maintained a quality 4.7% walk rate, but that is about where the positives end for Rodriguez’s tenure in Atlanta.

Rodriguez was left off the team’s playoff rosters during their World Series run and was non-tendered during that off-season. He has yet to re-appear in the majors and even served an 80-game PED suspension in 2022. There was significant concern about Rodriguez after MLB started to check for foreign substances on the mound, as he had a major dip in fastball spin rate in 2021.

Jacob Stallings

Jacob Stallings had a career year in 2021. In 427 plate appearances, he batted .246/.335/.369 with a .312 wOBA, and 92 wRC+. Stallings did have an above-average 11.5% walk rate and 19.2% strikeout rate. Those numbers are below average overall but decent for a backstop. However, most of Stallings’ value came from his glove, for which he won a Gold Glove. He racked up +21 defensive runs saved, the most by any defender. In terms of framing, he saved +8.8 runs.

Many people, including me, weren’t happy that they had just traded such an integral part of the team to the Miami Marlins for three players, including Zach Thompson, Kyle Nicolas, and Connor Scott, especially considering so many young pitchers were up and coming. But it turns out the Pirates traded Stallings right in the nick of time.

Stallings spent 2022 and 2023 with Miami, batting a meager .210/.287/.290. Stallings has seen his walk rate fall to 8.5% while his strikeout rate has risen to 22.7%. While Stallings was never a power hitter, he has hit just seven home runs over his last 660 plate appearances with an isolated slugging percentage of .080. In 2021, he hit eight home runs with a .123 ISO. Stallings has just a .262 wOBA, and 63 wRC+ the last two seasons. There is only one catcher with a lower OPS, wOBA, and wRC+ the last two seasons with 500+ plate appearances. That is Austin Hedges.

But what about his defense? That was his calling card, after all. Along with his offense, his glove has plummeted. He has -9 DRS and -5.3 framing runs over 2022-2023. With his horrible offense and declining defense, Stallings had just -1.5 fWAR for the Marlins, making him the least valuable catcher and the 4th least valuable position player since the trade.