Pittsburgh Pirates Rumors: Trade on the Way? Maybe!

This Pittsburgh Pirates and Martin Perez reportedly struck a deal with the two sides agreeing to a 1-year deal worth 8 million dollars. This was reported by FanSided's Robert Murray and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette beat writer Jason Mackey. This was reported on December 18th.

Since then, the Pittsburgh Pirates have not announced the deal officially. This is something I have posted about numerous times. There are a lot of different reasons as to why. Between physicals, travel, and frankly the busiest time of the year, it made sense that things may have been delayed. Yet it is now January 4th and still nothing has been announced. Meanwhile, the 40-man roster remains full, meaning a move would need to be made before adding Perez to the roster.

Jason Mackey has not had anything really to add about Perez. However, he did mention at the time that a 40-man roster move would likely come later. That he was under the impression that the team was close to a trade, for potentially a starting pitcher. This was said when the team signed Andrew McCutchen as Mackey mentioned the move could potentially overshadow the return of the beloved former first-round pick.

So what is the hold-up, Pirates Fest? At first, when I thought of this it was a bit of a joke in my head, but now it seems to be a reality. The team will hold the event this upcoming weekend, and Mackey tweeted something else very interesting pertaining to this weekend:

When would be a better time than this weekend for the Pittsburgh Pirates to announce a major trade?

Seriously though, this would not be surprising to see. Teams often like to amplify events if they can, holding special press conferences for certain players. So could the announcement of the trade steal the Pirates Fest weekend and quickly turn the event's tone from a potentially pessimistic to a more optimistic tone? It seems the Martin Perez deal and this rumored trade could finally be happening and it makes sense given the timing.