Pirates Trade Analysis: No Need to Overreact to the Nicolas-Callihan Swap
The Pittsburgh Pirates’ busy offseason trickled into spring training when they announced they dealt relief pitcher Kyle Nicolas to the division-rival Cincinnati Reds for infielder/outfielder Tyler Callihan.
General manager Ben Cherington went on record saying he’d like to add another bat to the roster before the start of the season. The problem is it’s difficult to make substantial upgrades this time of year, especially where the Pirates were looking to add.
The free agent market — especially for potential third basemen — is bare and teams don’t go to spring training set out to trade key pieces of their roster.
In steps Callihan. While his primary position has been second base, he’s also capable of playing third base, first and some corner outfield. Callihan, now 25 years old, made his MLB debut with the Reds last season but played only four games before a collision with the outfield walk resulted in a season-ending broken arm.
Prior to making his debut, Callihan was off to a hot start with Triple-A Louisville and hit .303 with a .938 OPS, four doubles, two triples, four home runs, 12 RBI and six steals in 24 games. For his minor-league career, the 2019 third-round pick owns a .262/.332/.417 batting line in 396 games.
While his track record in the minor leagues is nothing to write home about, his performance in the upper levels of the league is somewhat encouraging. Callihan hit .281 with a .784 OPS in 91 career games in Double-A and has a .311 average with a .985 OPS in a small 28-game sample in Triple-A.
Callihan joins the Pirates likely competing for a spot on the team’s Opening Day roster. So far this spring, he has two hits — one double and one home run — in nine at-bats.
As a left-handed batter, Callihan complements a right-handed bunch of similar-type profiles in Nick Gonzales and Nick Yorke and could form a platoon with either player or Jared Triolo if third base is in his future. At the very least, he’s probably an upgrade and has a higher ceiling than Enmanuel Valdez, who like Callihan, bats left-handed.
Yorke and Gonzales have both looked really good this spring. If that trend continues, Callihan would probably start the year with Indianapolis and would be called upon whenever a replacement is needed. A decision on Konnor Griffin will of course be a factor, too. But adding depth is never a bad thing.
In order to get that depth, the Pirates sacrificed from a spot on the roster where they had an abundance of options in Nicolas, a right-handed reliever.
In one sense, giving up on Nicolas with the stuff he has — a 100-mph fastball and a sharp slider — is a risk. But at the same time, he was just never able to put it all together with the Pirates and was plagued by command issues in a not-so-small sample size.
Across 86 appearances totaling 98 innings, Nicolas went 3-4 with a 4.68 ERA, 53 walks and 96 strikeouts during his tenure with the Pirates.
Maybe the Reds will be able to remedy his command woes and turn Nicolas into a much more consistent contributor. Surely new Reds bullpen coach Oscar Marin, who had been the Pirates pitching coach since 2020, had a say in landing Nicolas from the Pirates.
At the end of the day, this trade doesn’t look like a needle-mover for either club and it doesn’t have to be. For the Reds, there’s no such thing as too much pitching depth. For the Pirates, they finally got what they wanted by adding another position player to the mix for someone fighting for a spot in the Opening Day bullpen. Simple as that.
Given the Pirates’ pitching depth, give me a guy who could play every day over someone who at best appears in one-third of games during the season one inning at a time.
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