What's Next For Pirates After Relatively Quiet Deadline?

The trade deadline has come and gone and to the delight of Pirates fans everywhere, they only made the moves that they were expected to make. Mitch Keller and David Bednar are staying in Pittsburgh. Rich Hill and Ji Man Choi are headed west to San Diego and Austin Hedges was shipped to Texas for international bonus pool space. The latter of which probably excites fans the most.

If there was ever any doubt that Austin Hedges would be on his way out of Pittsburgh by 6 PM Tuesday evening, Ben Cherington essentially confirmed it when he stated that we would likely see Henry Davis behind the plate a lot more following the deadline. Davis, drafted as a catcher, has only seen one inning there since debuting on June 19. He's mostly been camped out in right field and while he is improving, some growing pains have definitely been noticeable.

It's understandable why the Pirates want to get him accustomed to being stationed in front of the Clemente Wall, as it's undoubtedly the second best spot on the field to utilize his 70-grade arm. With Hedges out of the equation now, hopefully we will get to see him show it off from behind the plate more on days that Endy Rodriguez needs a rest.

However, it's worth noting that the Pirates have already recalled Jason Delay from Triple-A to fill one of their empty 26-man roster spots, so that could throw a wrench into things if they plan to use him in a similar fashion they were using Hedges these last couple of weeks. Still, there are plenty of new players to talk about also....