Pirates Q&A: Why is Cherington Handling Draft and Deadline? Possible Outfield Trade Targets?
Welcome back to another edition of our Pirates Q&A. Let’s get to your questions.
Why is Nutting allowing Cherington to handle draft and trade deadline as we know his track record is disastrous and he is going to fire him at season’s end so why not now and allow a new and different voice handle these two important times? – Thomas Harpst
The minute Derek Shelton was fired and Ben Cherington was not all but sealed the deal that he would be tasked with handling this year’s draft and trade deadline. It was hard to understand why Cherington kept his job when Shelton lost his given the results this season and roster construction. The only way someone else would be in charge of this year’s draft and deadline would have been if Cherington was dismissed at the same time as Shelton.
Well, here we are, and it will be Cherington’s job to try and add as much talent to the organization as possible to try and turn the Pirates into a competitive team in 2026 and beyond, and the draft and trade deadline are two of the biggest avenues for doing so.
His trade record is worse than his draft record. He’s brought in some talent to the organization through the draft in Paul Skenes, Bubba Chandler, Jared Jones and Nick Gonzales, and Konnor Griffin looks as promising as any prospect in baseball. It still hasn’t been nearly enough, however.
Given how the Pirates have played this season and throughout Cherington’s tenure, it’s hard to envision these not being his last as GM in Pittsburgh.
Bob Nutting’s decision to bring Cherington and Shelton back for 2025 was puzzling. It’s even more so now.
Are there any major league outfield bats or even major league ready prospects bats available out there in swap for one of our staters not named Paul Skenes? And if a starter gets traded, will we finally get to see Bubba Chandler in the bigs? – Matt Contino
Good question, Matt, and this should be a major focus for the Pirates at the trade deadline. Get a legitimate bat to help for the rest of this season and beyond.
One team that matches up extremely well with the Pirates to make a trade is the Orioles, who have fallen well short of expectations this season largely due to a dreadful starting rotation. A guy like Colton Cowser is an appealing option for the Pirates. Heston Kjerstad could be too, though he hasn’t found success in the big leagues yet.
There are other outfield options who could make sense too as teams across the league will be looking for controllable starting pitching. Wilyer Abreu (Red Sox), Jake McCarthy (Diamondbacks), Jesús Sánchez (Marlins) could be among some other potential fits. There will be some wild cards too.
I’ll tackle the Chandler portion of your question below.
Why is Tommy Pham still here? – Timothy Wolfe
I’ll give you $4 million reasons why. I kid, partially, but his salary also has something to do with it.
The Pirates have praised Pham’s work ethic and leadership all season, even when the results haven’t been there. His defense has been solid, which helps some.
They do tend to stick with struggling veterans — like Rowdy Tellez last season, for example.
But Pham said after a good game on Sunday that he’s been battling vision problems all season, but is optimistic he may have finally found a solution. If he doesn’t turn things around, I can’t imagine he’ll be here past the deadline.
I was checking on how Konnor in high A was doing and noticed Esmerlyn Valdez has 17 homers!! WHY is he still there? – James Johnston
Griffin has gotten most of the attention this season but Valdez is having a ridiculously good season too as you mentioned.
In 66 games with High-A Greensboro, Valdez is slashing .316/.397/.617 with 18 doubles, a triple, now 19 home runs and 52 RBI. The Pirates just promoted a handful of prospects to Altoona, and I’m surprised Valdez wasn’t one of them.
I have a basic rule of thumb for Pirates’ hitting prospects — take what they do with a grain of salt until they get to Double-A. But it’s hard to ignore what he’s done this season. It should only be a matter of time before he’s with the Curve.
Why isn’t Bubba up yet? – Jimmy Beach
I had a scout from an opposing team tell me during the Pirates’ last homestand that Chandler needed to polish his control before getting called up. It’s hard to argue based off his recent workload.
Chandler has struggled of late and is command has been a huge issue. The right-hander walked 15 batters in 28.1 innings in May and has already walked eight in 9.1 innings this month.
The Pirates’ decision to keep Chandler in Triple-A very likely has more to do with that than any service time manipulation. I’m still expecting the top prospect to debut at some point in 2025, maybe after the trade deadline and a starter or two is pitching elsewhere, but holding off on a promotion is the best course for now.
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