PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Hours until the MLB Draft deadline, Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said on the Pirates Insider Show with Jason Mackey on 93.7 The Fan Sunday afternoon they are actively exploring trades.
“We are working it,” Cherington told Mackey on the Fan. “All kinds of things are being tossed around right now as you would expect.”
What he means by that is they have discussions with teams about trading current major league players for other major league players or, what you might expect to happen more, trading prospects to struggling teams for MLB players.
Cherington said the key with the trade Saturday for Yankees right-handed reliever Camilo Doval is they were able to make a trade without impacting what they could do before the deadline at 6p on Monday.
The Pirates general manager said on the Pirates Insider Show they are looking for run prevention. He said pitching is the key part of that, but also considering players who could help them defensively and didn’t rule out adding to the offense, particularly because of a few key players are out (Ryan O’Hearn, Oneil Cruz and Konnor Griffin) and at least two will be out until September.
Cruz could start playing in rehab games this week, but that’s still unknown, Cherington said ‘they are getting really close’.
Cherington told Mackey the activity leading up to the deadline is exactly as they anticipated.
“Same as it always is, you talk about 100 things and one of them might actually happen,” Cherington said on 93.7 The Fan. “We just got to do the best we can to manage that (Sunday) and (Monday), stay focused on the priorities, keep the phone open and keep hunting for stuff that we believe improves our chances in 2026, that’s still a priority and helps us build the best Pirates team as fast as we can.”
MLB deadline is Monday at 6p, what the Pirates GM said
MLB deadline is Monday at 6p, what the Pirates GM said
