Only One Way for Pirates to Salvage Lackluster Trade Deadline
The Pittsburgh Pirates 2025 trade deadline can be summarized fairly simply. They did what they’ve done far too often, and that’s sell pieces from their big-league roster. They added some prospects, most of which will report to the lower levels of the minor leagues. And of course, they shed some salary.
Overall, it was an underwhelming deadline for the Pirates, who said that the goal entering July was to make the team better in 2026. That didn’t happen.
The Pirates traded six big-leaguers – Adam Frazier, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Caleb Ferguson, David Bednar, Bailey Falter and Taylor Rogers (acquired in Hayes trade). When the dust settled, they received a total of one player with big-league experience. That would be Evan Sisk, a 28-year-old left-handed reliever acquired from the Kansas City Royals for Bailey Falter, who made his MLB debut earlier this season and went on to pitch 5.1 innings.
The only other players the Pirates acquired who could realistically see big-league time in 2026 are catcher/first baseman Rafael Flores (part of Bednar return from New York Yankees) and Cam Devanney (return from Royals for Frazier).
Other than those players, everyone else the Pirates got back looks destined for either the Bradenton Marauders or Greensboro Grasshoppers.
The only saving grace for the Pirates is that they did shed some payroll. That’s rich (no pun intended) for an organization notoriously known for penny-pinching every chance they get. And they built organizational depth, which should make them more willing to make trades for established pieces.
The only way the Pirates can get any better in 2026 from how this year’s deadline unfolded will be to do something that hasn’t been done since, well, ever. The Pirates will need to spend in free agency (and trades) this coming offseason, and they will need to do so wisely. General manager Ben Cherington says that’s the plan.
“I mean reallocation can come in all different forms. It can be players here. It can be players we acquire in trades. It certainly could be free agency. We’ll get to that work in the offseason. In terms of where it might go into the team, I think we have some more to learn in August and September before we get to that planning. Pretty clearly as we talked about, we need to score more runs to win more games.”
Pittsburgh saved $7 million in 2026 (and $30 million through 2029) by trading Hayes alone. Bednar will see a nice raise in his final year of arbitration, which will no longer be Bob Nutting’s concern. Falter, too, is arbitration-eligible, and the Pirates also have several rentals coming off the books.
If the Pirates are serious about building a winner in 2026, which they claim they are, they need to overhaul the lineup. It’s no big secret the Pirates’ offense has held them back all season long. The pitching has been strong, and sure, they’ll need to continue to add depth on the staff. But offense will be the priority since it wasn’t addressed at the deadline, though Cherington said they tried.
“I think we probably anticipated that would be hard because, first of all, there just weren’t that many really proven bats traded. It’s also true that if you’re a contender, you’re not very anxious to give up a proven bat.”
They cannot continue to do patchwork on a roof that needs a total replacement. The Pirates’ offense is broken. One-year rentals can only help so much. Meaningful dollars need to be spent to actually make a difference.
Since taking over as GM, Cherington has not signed a free agent to a multi-year deal. It’s no wonder the offense is what it has been. You get what you pay for, right?
There will be more ways for the Pirates to improve their offense enough to get to a point where they can field a competitive team, but free agency will be paramount.
“We’ll be open-minded about free agency,” Cherington explained. “We’ve pursued legitimate major-league position players in the past here since I’ve been here and I’m sure we’ll do it again. It’s never going to be one thing that solves that issue and helps us figure out the offense that leads to a winning team. It’s always going to be lots of things and a lot of that has to happen internally.”
It’s on Cherington to shrewdly spend whatever money he’s given, but more importantly, it’s on Nutting to give him some financial flexibility to operate aggressively.
Otherwise, this trade deadline is a disaster, and the Pirates will be no better in 2026 than they are now. Based on precedent, there isn’t much reason for optimism things will change.
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