Should the Pittsburgh Pirates consider going after Alek Manoah?

Why the Pirates should consider going after Manoah

The most obvious reason is Manoah is still not that far removed from being an All-Star caliber pitcher. He's also only 26, and one bad year doesn't define a career. The Pirates could also use the depth on the 40-man roster. The Pirates will probably call Paul Skenes up sooner rather than later, but even then, he's just one person. If there are injuries, the Pirates are going to have to turn to Domingo German or Eric Lauer until Mike Burrows is back, assuming he's fully ready to go sometime during the second half of the season.

The Pirates also traded Jackson Wolf after designating him for assignment, removing another potential starter the Pirates could have called upon if need be. JT Brubaker's trade to the New York Yankees also eliminated another second-half rotation option if they needed it.

The second reason is that he's a sinkerball pitcher, and the Pirates love sinkerballers. He throws his sinker over a quarter of the time. His four-seamer is still his most used offering, but you could consider his sinker a primary pitch in his arsenal. His velocity is also back up as he sat 94 MPH with his sinker and fastball in his A-Ball debut. The only thing that's missing is that he's a left-hander.

Lastly, Ben Cherington also loves his former Blue Jays reclamation projects. Manoah was drafted while Cherington was the vice president of baseball operations for the Blue Jays. In Cherington's defense, his Blue Jays reclamation projects haven't been bad pick-ups. Ryan Borucki has been a great pick-up, and Rowdy Tellez is off to a good start to 2024. Even though he wasn't the best former Blue Jay ever, Anthony Alford still provided the Pirates a 96 OPS+ when healthy.