{"id":326392,"date":"2025-12-05T05:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T05:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/326392\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T05:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T05:30:08","slug":"pirates-remain-open-to-dealing-from-rotation-for-offense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/326392\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates Remain Open To Dealing From Rotation For Offense"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pirates traded back-end starter\u00a0Johan Oviedo<\/a> to the Red Sox tonight, getting rookie outfielder\u00a0Jhostynxon Garcia<\/a> back as part of a five-player deal<\/a>. \u00a0Garcia immediately becomes the favorite to start the season in left field, but the Bucs undoubtedly have more lineup acquisitions on the way.<\/p>\n

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic<\/a> reports that the Pirates remain open to offers on their starters \u2014 obviously excepting Paul Skenes<\/a>, whom general manager Ben Cherington has already declared<\/a> will not be moved. That wouldn\u2019t be for prospects, as the goal would be to swap pitching for offense. Cherington and his front office have made a few trades of that type over the past year and a half. In addition to the Oviedo\/Garcia deal, they swapped\u00a0Quinn Priester<\/a> for Nick Yorke<\/a> at the 2024 deadline and flipped\u00a0Luis Ortiz<\/a> and a pair of pitching prospects for\u00a0Spencer Horwitz<\/a> last winter. The Horwitz deal looks the far better of the previous two trades.<\/p>\n

It seems safe to assume the Pirates aren\u2019t trading\u00a0Jared Jones<\/a>, a potential top-of-the-rotation arm who is midway through rehabbing elbow surgery. Bubba Chandler<\/a> is arguably the best pitching prospect in baseball right now. It\u2019d be almost as surprising to see him moved. Even with Oviedo headed to Boston, the Bucs have a few intriguing possibilities.<\/p>\n

Mitch Keller<\/a> is the most straightforward trade candidate. He has been in trade rumors for years, though that was generally about Pittsburgh being in a rebuild. It\u2019s a different situation now that the goal is to build a playoff-caliber lineup for next season. Keller is a solid mid-rotation starter whose production has tailed off in the second half of three consecutive years. He has been a durable source of innings with a low-4.00s ERA overall. He attacks the strike zone and has solid velocity but doesn\u2019t miss many bats. At age 30, it\u2019s unlikely he\u2019ll jump from a #3\/4 starter to become an ace.<\/p>\n

Keller is signed for three seasons. He\u2019ll make $16.5MM next season, following by respective $18MM and $20MM salaries. He\u2019s the highest-paid player on the team, but that doesn\u2019t appear to be as big an issue this offseason as it might normally be. The Pirates are reportedly open to being more aggressive in adding mid-tier free agent hitters. They\u2019d obviously have more payroll space if they move Keller, but the contract isn\u2019t forcing him out the door.<\/p>\n

There should be some surplus value. Keller would probably top three years and $54.5MM if he were a free agent. It\u2019s not a huge bargain, though, as his open market value might be in the $65-75MM range. The Pirates would be more likely to get an established hitter with multiple years of control if they were willing to trade one of their younger arms.\u00a0Braxton Ashcraft<\/a> and\u00a0Mike Burrows<\/a> would be particularly valuable.<\/p>\n

Ashcraft thrived in a multi-inning relief role as a rookie. The 26-year-old righty struck out 24.3% of batters faced while pitching to a 2.71 ERA across 69 2\/3 innings. He sat around 97 MPH with his fastballs while throwing a pair of power breaking pitches. He\u2019s likely to get a rotation spot next season and has six years of club control.<\/p>\n

Burrows, also 26, has yet to reach one full year of service either. He sits around 95 MPH with his fastball and has a four-pitch mix. Burrows punched out 24.1% of opponents while working to a 3.94 earned run average through 96 frames. He held a rotation spot from late May through the end of the season.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh would get no shortage of interest in Burrows and Ashcraft. The Diamondbacks (Jordan Lawlar<\/a>), Angels (Christian Moore<\/a>), Giants (Bryce Eldridge<\/a>) and Orioles (Dylan Beavers<\/a>,\u00a0Coby Mayo<\/a>) are all in the market for starting pitching and have highly-touted hitting prospects who have yet to establish themselves in MLB.<\/p>\n

The pitching pipeline extends even further. Hunter Barco<\/a>, Antwone Kelly<\/a>,\u00a0Wilber Dotel<\/a> and Thomas Harrington<\/a> are all on the 40-man roster. The first three all rank among the organization\u2019s top 10 prospects at Baseball America<\/a>. Harrington might be more of a depth arm, but all four pitchers should have fans in other clubs\u2019 scouting departments. The Pirates added another high-octane arm to the system last summer, drafting high school righty\u00a0Seth Hernandez<\/a> sixth overall. He\u2019s years away and comes with the standard risks for any teenage pitcher but offers another potential impact starter in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pirates traded back-end starter\u00a0Johan Oviedo to the Red Sox tonight, getting rookie outfielder\u00a0Jhostynxon Garcia back as part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[53259,49,48,144336,13945,462,82,144337],"class_list":["post-326392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-braxton-ashcraft","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mike-burrows","tag-mitch-keller","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-thomas-harrington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}