The Pirates added an outfielder with less than an hour before the trade deadline.
27-year-old Bryan De La Cruz of the Miami Marlins is heading to Pittsburgh in exchange for right-handed pitcher Jun-Seok Shim and infielder Garret Forrester.
“Younger, still relatively young corner outfielder with power who’s produced in not an easy place to hit in Miami, bigger ballpark," said Pirates GM Ben Cherington Tuesday night. "He has real physical ability, big power, solid defender in the corners."
"He’s someone that even going back to when he was acquired by the Marlins from Houston, we had had our eyes on. We’ve got some personal relationships, people that know him. He was a target. He was someone that we felt like it was a good time to get a new start from Miami in Pittsburgh."
We are excited to get him in our lineup, see what he can do and get to know him better.”
De La Cruz has an average of .245 with an OPS of .706 with 18 home runs, 51 RBI and 19 doubles this season.
De La Cruz brings an on-base about as good as Andrew McCutchen and is tied for the team lead in home runs with Bryan Reynolds.
He also comes with three more years of team control.
Shim is the organization’s 17th best prospect and Forrester is 18th, according to MLB Pipeline.
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