PITTSBURGH — It doesn’t sound like Pirates general manager Ben Cherington is expecting to make any trades before the MLB Draft.
This year’s draft, a two-day event from July 11-12, comes a little more than three weeks before the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
“Trades are inevitably gonna happen at some point, but we’re two weeks from the draft,” Cherington explained on his 93.7 The Fan radio show. “Usually, and there’s a good chance, really, that nothing picks up until after the draft.”
Despite one recent notable trade in Major League Baseball — the Cubs’ acquisition of left-handed starter David Peterson from the Mets on Thursday — the draft is in the forefront of the minds of front office executives around the league.
At 41-42 and withing striking distance in the National League wild card race entering Sunday’s series finale against the Reds at PNC Park, the Pirates are in position to buy.
In terms of needs, there is no more obvious one than bullpen upgrades. The Pirates blew their 17th save of the season in a 9-7 loss to the Reds on Saturday and currently rank 11th out of 15 teams in the National League with a 4.41 ERA.
The Pirates have been hoping internal improvement would solve some of the bullpen woes this year, and while there have been some flashes of better performance from time to time, consistency continues to lack.
“We need to be better. We all have a job to make it better,” Cherington explained. “What we want to make sure is we separate out things that are probably just rotten luck that maybe smooth out over time from things that we can actually improve from an execution standpoint. And then that’s putting aside, can we add guys to the team? At some point, I hope we can, and we’re working on that. It’s still pretty early and not a lot of trades happen this early.”
There are a multitude of reasons the Pirates are expected to buy at the trade deadline. Though they dipped a game below .500, they’re still in the early postseason hunt. The also have a playoff-caliber offense for the first time in years and have a solid starting rotation.
Cherington’s seat entering the season was already hot, and selling at the deadline would likely seal his fate as general manager of the Pirates, so he will almost surely do everything to avoid subtracting from the roster.
Any addition to the roster, particularly in the bullpen, will be a welcomed one. But based off Cherington’s comments, the Pirates will have to do their best to stay afloat before trade conversations really start to heat up.
The post Pirates GM Ben Cherington Doesn’t Expect Trade Talks to Pick up Until After Draft appeared first on Pittsburgh Baseball Now.
About the Author
