Pittsburgh Pirates: Three Prospects Who Could Become Trade Bait

The Pittsburgh Pirates could see these three minor league players eventually become trade bait to bolster the major league team.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are getting closer to being a competitive ball club this year. With the addition of multiple veterans, this off-season to help supplement the up-and-coming young talent, both on the major league roster and at Triple-A, 2023 should be an interesting year. It should prove to be a transition year, with the Pirates improving greatly, but maybe not to the point where they are contenders.

But the Pirates certainly could make some trades to help their future. At this point in the rebuild, the Pirates should at least be analyzing what prospects could eventually become trade bait. Today, that’s the kind of prospects we are looking at. These guys may become trade pieces for the Pirates to acquire proven talent. While none of them will bring back the next Juan Soto, they could still get something back that improves the big league team in the long haul, as things stand right now.

Liover Peguero

Liover Peguero is one of the first prospects the Pirates acquired in the rebuild. He was a key part of the Starling Marte trade, and after significantly building his prospect stock in 2021, Peguero followed that up with an underwhelming and somewhat disappointing 2022 season.

In 521 plate appearances, the top shortstop prospect only batted .259/.305/.386 with a .306 wOBA and 88 wRC+. After showing off some decent game power in 2021, Peguero ended 2022 with a .124 isolated slugging percentage. Peguero may have cut his strikeout rate down from 25.2% to 21.3%, but his walk rate plummeted from 7.9% to just 5.6%.

But it’s not as if Peguero wasn’t ever a good hitter. From July 28th 2021 through June 16th 2022, Peguero was batting .297/.334/.488. Sure, he had a mediocre 5.1% walk rate and 24.1% strikeout rate, but he was hitting for decent pop. Peguero hit 13 home runs and 26 doubles in this 403-plate appearance stretch, ending up with a .191 isolated slugging percentage. Between his solid batting average and plus pop, Peguero had a .355 wOBA and 119 wRC+. He did so well in the first half of 2022 that the Pirates called him up for a game.

Peguero has shown he’s able to handle shortstop but has had trouble with making throws from the position. The Pirates gave him a few games at second base at the end of the season and may see more time there moving forward. Even though Peguero struggled last year, there’s still a potential .280 batter who delivers 15 home runs and 20 stolen bases a season. That's the kind of potential he showed in the second half of 2021 and first half of 2022. Keep in mind that Peguero was only 21 years old at Double-A. The average age of batters in the Eastern League was 23.9 years of age, while the average age of pitchers was even older at 24.5. 

But Peguero is far from the Pirates’ only middle infielder, and given his relatively high ceiling, he still has plenty of value. Aside from Peguero, you also have Nick Gonzales, Termarr Johnson, Yordany De Los Santos, Jared Triolo, and Tsung-Che Cheng. Oneil Cruz, Rodolfo Castro, Ji-Hwan Bae, and Tucupita Marcano are all projected to see playing time at the major league level.

It depends on how Peguero and the other Pirates’ young infielders develop. There’s no such thing as having too much talent. But all it takes is for two of the multitude of young players to grab hold of a regular major league job, and Peguero’s chances of breaking through at the big league level for the Pirates become harder. That could eventually lead to a trade.

Dariel Lopez

Dariel Lopez will miss the 2023 season due to a dislocated knee. But he is coming off a pretty solid season. In 420 plate appearances at Greensboro, Lopez batted .286/.329/.476 with a .359 wOBA and 116 wRC+. Lopez has some concerning plate discipline numbers. He only walked 5% of the time with a 25.5% strikeout rate. But he did hit for decent power with 19 dingers and a .189 ISO.

Like many Pirates prospects, Lopez was much better in the second half of the season. From June through September, Lopez was a .316/.351/.508 batter with a .382 wOBA, and 131 wRC+. He hit for plus power with a .193 isolated slugging percentage. Granted, there were still some red flags. He struck out a little less with a 23.9% strikeout rate but walked at a 3.9% rate. His .376 batting average on balls in play is also a tad worrying (granted, it was only in 282 plate appearances).

The infielder has shown off a ton of raw power, with FanGraphs considering his strength to be at a 60-grade. However, his plate discipline makes that a little questionable. He also had a 51.4% ground ball and a 24.6% flyball rate. Sure, he hit 19 home runs and had a .186 ISO, but he also played in Greensboro, which is a known launching pad. Even Lolo Sanchez, who has bottom-of-the-barrel raw power, hit 19 home runs with a .190 ISO in 2021.

Lopez is somewhat of a positionless defender. Although Lopez has an okay arm, he’s a below-average runner who hasn’t shown the greatest defensive prowess at shortstop. He has also played a handful of games at third base and second base, as well as first base back in 2019. With his poor range, he’ll likely end up at an infield corner.

Lopez will not push Ke’Bryan Hayes off of third base. Aside from Lopez, Triolo, Castro, De Los Santos, and Cheng can also play the hot corner, but with more grace. That leaves first base, which could end up being where Lopez ends up. But he will have competition with Malcom Nunez, who seemingly figured out his power stroke last season. Nunez is also trending upward in terms of defensive prowess, while Lopez has stayed relatively stagnant in that category. Plus some of the Pirates' catching prospects may also see time at first base.

Still, the raw talent is there for Lopez. His power/hit tools could give him a bright future. But when he returns next season, he may find himself without a good opportunity to break through in the big leagues for the Pirates. Lopez will also be Rule 5 eligible next off-season, which could also factor into the Pirates’ motivation to trade him. Even with the injury, Lopez still has clear upside, but given that he plays positions that the Pirates have multiple other top prospects at, there could be a situation where the Pirates trade Lopez (or include him in a bigger package).