PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It was words that made it sound like the Pirates had a chance to move some high-level prospects or a key piece potentially of this year’s team for some immediate bullpen help. Pirates GM Ben Cherington’s thoughts during the Pirates Insider Show with Jason Mackey on Sunday.
This is what Cherington said on 93.7 The Fan before the final game of the Pirates-Guardians series.
“There are things we could have done already, that over time, people would have not wanted us to do,” Cherington told Jason Mackey.
The immediate recollection for most Pirates fans would be the Chris Archer trade where the Pirates sent RHP Tyler Glasnow (who went from a 5.79 ERA with the Pirates to 3.20 with TB and 3.27 with LA), OF Austin Meadows (had a huge season in his first full year with TB, 33 HR, .922 OPS and 27 HR in 2021 before dealing with injuries and retiring after 2023) and RHP Shane Baz (dealt with injuries, currently 4-9, 4.19 ERA with Baltimore) to Tampa Bay in 2018 to try to get the team over the hump. Glasnow would become an all-star, while Archer would go 6-12 with a 4.92 ERA and 1.39 WHIP in his brief Pirates career.
Cherington said they are focused on finding outside help, but seems like he doesn’t want to be the one that sets a market with slightly over a handful of teams currently as potential sellers. Those 5-8 teams hold the cards with so many teams in a playoff chase and the trade deadline still 15 days away as he spoke.
“Because of that, those teams know they are the only ones at the dance, so they can keep the bar pretty high on prices and wait it out because there are not that many teams selling,” Cherington said on 93.7 The Fan.
The phrase the Pirates general manager kept using is finding ‘as many good solutions as possible’ not committing to right-or-left handed relief pitching, although it seems pretty obvious there is a great need on the right side.
He also believes, while not stating names, some of that improvement has to be from pitchers currently on the roster.
“We know what we got to do to put ourselves in position to win more close games,” Cherington said on the Pirates Insider Show with Jason Mackey on 93.7 The Fan. “We got to execute more in those higher-leverage bullpen situations and continue to believe that’s going to require some combination of internal solution and hopefully opportunities to add to the team too.”
‘Things we could have done already that people, over time, would have not wanted us to do’
‘Things we could have done already that people, over time, would have not wanted us to do’
