The Pittsburgh Pirates will be OK if they do nothing at the deadline

MLB’s trade deadline always offers fans a lot of excitement in the middle of the season. Could the Pittsburgh Pirates stand pat and still find success this season?

 

The non-waiver trade deadline for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Major League Baseball is fast approaching, and in the next few weeks more teams will decide if they are buyers and sellers. With the Boston Red Sox acquiring Drew Pomeranz from the San Diego Padres, those two teams have announced their intentions for the rest of 2016. The Pittsburgh Pirates, sitting at a record of 49-46 after their win on Thursday, are still well within reach of a Wild Card berth.

I believe that the Pirates will be OK the rest of the season as they push for a playoff spot even if they do nothing at the deadline. The Pirates have never unloaded a bunch of top prospects in a deadline deal, so it seems unlikely that Neal Huntington would start now. One reason that it doesn’t seem like Huntington will pull the trigger on a deal to bring a top of the line starter or reliever to Pittsburgh is because of the precedent that has been set so far. In one of the bigger trades this season, Boston sent Anderson Espinoza, one of the top 20 prospects in baseball, in exchange for Pomeranz.

If Pomeranz commanded a prospect of that caliber, just think what a team like the Tampa Bay Rays will ask for in exchange for Chris Archer, who they are apparently shopping. Not only is it hard to believe that Huntington will part with multiple top prospects for Archer, it doesn’t make sense since the team does have some options internally. The Pirates are without a doubt one of the teams in the league that can afford a top of the line starter like Archer, but Huntington typically does not mortgage the future for one big name player.

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Fans like to see big splashy moves at the deadline because on the surface, it shows that the team is making a serious push for the playoffs. But the Pirates are in a position that many other teams should be envious of; they have the depth in the upper minors to bolster the starting rotation from within, one area that needs to be improved. Steps have already been taken by removing Jon Niese from the rotation, and it is only a matter of time before Jeff Locke faces the same fate.

The rotation for the second half of the season will most likely feature Francisco Liriano, Gerrit Cole, Jameson Taillon, and some combination of Tyler Glasnow, Chad Kuhl, and Steven Brault. Inning limit considerations will be imposed on some of the younger pitchers, but Clint Hurdle should be able to divide up the starts so that they are all available down the stretch.

Now this isn’t to say that the team will stand pat at the deadline. Obviously none of us know what any of the teams will do between now and August 1st. Perhaps this will be the year that management moves some high level prospects to bring in a veteran to stabilize the rotation or bullpen. It just seems that when the problem areas of the team are scrutinized, there are internal options that can keep the team in contention this season while also not moving prospects that could help next year and beyond.

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