PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Since coming to the Pirates in November of 2019, Pirates GM Ben Cherington has traded away some of not only the fan’s favorites, but their most productive players.
Two of the three were All-Stars in Starling Marte and Josh Bell. Joe Musgrove was the Opening Day starter in 2020.
Don’t think the Bucs are done.
“We are going to continue to keep the phone on for calls coming in from teams who might be interested in our players,” Cherington said. “If we see opportunities that fit building a talent base that we need to build to win here in Pittsburgh. We are going to be open to that.”
Whatever word you want to use to describe it because ‘rebuilding’ is apparently one of the seven deadly words for the Pirates organization. It’s part of the reclamation or restructuring or maybe just improving of the players up-and-down the system.
“To win in Pittsburgh we have to keep building a base of talent, be committed to that, be aggressive about it,” Cherington said. “When you do it through the draft or international signings. It’s all celebration. You are bringing someone into the organization. When you do that through trades, obviously someone is leaving. It’s a slightly different kind of exercise emotionally.”
“Never the less we have to be just as willing to do that as part of our job to build the talent base that is going to help us win here.”
It’s about as honest as you will hear a baseball general manager, the For Sale sign is up and it’s not coming down for a while.
The individuals currently on the roster weren’t mentioned but you have to believe Adam Frazier, among others, are thinking about finding a real estate agent as those are players that could bring value in a trade.
Cherington even allows for the possibility of filling roster spots on the MLB roster this season with veterans who then could be traded in July.
“Players are really smart,” Cherington said. “Certainly major league free agents are really smart. They know what is going on. They know if they sign to go somewhere and for whatever reason the team is not in contention at the deadline. And they are performing well. It probably means their name is coming up in trades.”
“I think most guys are prepared for that. We’re honest about it. There is no reason in hiding that.”
However they can get talent, whether it’s a 16-year-old from the Dominican or a 26-year-old from Mars HS, the Pirates are willing to do it.
“Four in the top 100 is not enough,” Cherington said of the number of Pirates in baseball’s top prospect list. “We need more than that. We need to keep going. Look at the systems that have been the deepest or are the deepest right now.”
“Number one the work to get to that spot has happened over a period of time. That’s not one year’s worth of work. What that does, it puts those teams in such a strong position to do what they need to do at the major league level to win both in terms of graduating players and using sign and trades.”
“We are committed to adding young talent. Talent that we think has the ability to improve and help us win in the big leagues any way we can. We will get to a time where our focus shifts, but we have to be committed to building that talent base first.”