PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Will we see the same type of aggressive trading with the Pirates this offseason as we have the last couple? Are the Pirates finally through dumping players for prospects?
"I wouldn't use the word 'through'," said Pirates General Manager Ben Cherington. "We can't get into that mindset that we are ever through. You can look around the playoffs right now and look at teams that are winning a lot in markets that aren't that different than ours. They never stop. They never say they are through. There are always things they are exploring."
Whether they are through or not, the Pirates roster has changed. Gone are desirable, young veterans like Joe Musgrove, Jameson Taillon, Josh Bell and Adam Frazier. The desirable, young veterans who remain are under team control for several more seasons.
Cherington said they remain open to possibilities and 'can't close themselves off to opportunities'. Even though the Pirates GM says most of their improvement will come internally.
It may surprise you to see the following from Cherington.
"We should be and plan to be incredibly busy in exploring trade opportunities," Cherington said of this off-season. "Exploring free agent opportunities. We need to do that with the strategy that fits with the strategy that makes sense here to build a winning team."
"Because we know so much of our success will need to be driven from improvement from young players. The last thing we want to do is make a decision that would unintentionally get in the way of a young players' opportunity."
"That comes back to us making the right decisions on which young players to continue to give more opportunity to. What that means in terms of what opportunities there might be out there in free agency or trade to supplement the roster. I think generally speaking we want to continue to build a deeper pool of players at the upper level."
Basically, the core of young players will likely stay the same with fringe players or players who need to be protected being available. It's a huge list of players eligible for the Rule 5 Draft. Pitchers Tahnaj Thomas, Omar Cruz and Cody Bolton. Infielders Liover Peguero, Mason Martin, outfielders Travis Swaggerty, Cal Mitchell, Canaan Smith-Njigba and Jack Suwinski.
Pirates must place all of those players on the 40-man roster or they become available to other teams with no compensation through the Rule 5 Draft. Those players may be available to other teams before that draft in a trade or Cherington may trade other players currently on the 40-man roster to make room.
The Pirates grabbed pitcher Luis Oviedo as a Rule 5 selection this year.
It won't have the name recognition as a few of the recent deals but the roster turnover will continue for the Pirates heading into 2022.
