Perrotto: Why Bryan De La Cruz, Aroldis Chapman Are Ex-Pirates

Bryan De La Cruz was a bust for the Pittsburgh Pirates – and that is putting it nicely.

The Pirates saw enough of the right fielder over the final two months of last season that they decided not to tender him a contract last month. That made De La Cruz a free agent not long after the Pirates though he could be part of their future.

The Pirates gave up two prospects to acquire De La Cruz from the Miami Marlins at the July 30 trade deadline. He then hit .200/.220/.294 with three home runs in 44 games and played a hand in the Pirates plummeting out of the pennant race in August.

Yet, as the old saying goes, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. On Sunday, the Atlanta Braves signed De La Cruz to a one-year, non-guaranteed contract.

The Braves have been to the postseason seven consecutive years and see something in De La Cruz, who hit 21 home runs combined last season in 149 games with the Marlins and Pirates. It makes one wonder if perhaps the Pirates missed something with the 28-year-old.

However, Cherington said he had no regrets about cutting De La Cruz, who was projected for a $4-million salary next season in arbitration.

“With every deal, you’re looking at, ‘OK, is this price warranted?’” Cherington said during MLB’s Winter Meetings in Dallas. “For that particular one, we felt at the time it was, and we knew there was some risk going forward. We were going to get into the arbitration years and you’re always getting into risks for that. We factored that into the decision back in July. We’ll always look back and assess those and what we learned from them.”

However, not all of Cherington’s deadline trades were whiffs.

Isiah Kiner-Falefa is expected to be the starting shortstop next season after being acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays and first baseman/outfielder Billy Cook and infielder/outfielder Nick Yorke showed promise in their first taste of the big leagues. The Pirates got Cook from the Baltimore Orioles and Yorke from the Boston Red Sox.

“In aggregate, if we look back at the total combination of deals in July, we feel good about that total outcome and we feel like we’re in a stronger position this offseason than we would have been if we would have not done anything in July.”

That’s debatable.

What isn’t debatable is that the Pirates’ bullpen suffered a blow when left-hander Aroldis Chapman signed a one-year, $10.75-million contract with the Red Sox last week. Chapman was 5-5 with 14 saves and a 3.68 ERA in 68 games during his lone season with the Pirates and the 36-year-old ranks 16th on MLB’s all-time saves list with 335.

Chapman signed for just $250,000 more than he made with the Pirates. Yet Cherington left the impression that he did not aggressively pursue a reunion even though his team was 27th in MLB in relievers’ ERA this year.

“We really enjoyed and appreciated the time we had with Aroldis,” Cherington said. “He did a good job and ended up being an important part of the bullpen and we would have had interest. It was mostly a timing thing. At this point in the offseason we chose to just keep our flexibility and options open a little bit because there are other areas of the team that we’re still trying to address and add to. So, we’ll see what comes to us, whether it’s in the bullpen or other parts of the team.”

It will be interesting to see exactly how Cherington repurposes the money. Whatever players he spends it on will have to produce more than De La Cruz if the Pirates hope to avoid missing the postseason for a 10th straight year.