PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) \u2013 Multiple times on Sunday Pirates general manager Ben Cherington was asked if he had the resources (another word for money) to make deals before the August 3 trade deadline. He repeated he\u2019s not worried about financial flexibility. What he also said about weighing long-term and short-term needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the resources to win games and be playing baseball in October,\u201d Cherington said. \u201cThere will be flexibility to do what we believe makes sense for the Pirates to improve the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a question that is debated not only in Pittsburgh but many small markets about the ability or desire to take on contracts. The Pirates obviously have needs if they want to stay in the playoff race, which currently they are a game behind the Diamondbacks, who come to town on Monday, for the final spot. Washington has the same record as the Pirates. The Cardinals are a game-and-a-half back of Arizona, the Padres are two back, Miami is three, even the Reds are only five games out of the playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel urgency every day,\u201d Cherington said. \u201cEverybody has a job to do to get better. That starts with me. That urgency is felt. I think we just have to stay at it. We\u2019ve already done some things that we felt made sense at the time and felt were improvements to the roster.\u201d <\/p>\n
Then he sounded like he was trying to motivate his group.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should be using every minute we have to our disposal,\u201d Cherington said. \u201cWe still have a lot of minutes left in the next few days to use. Keep working it.\u201d <\/p>\n
It hasn\u2019t been often where the Pirates have been the buyers at the deadline. It\u2019s been what the team can get for an expiring contract or aging player to make the Pirates better in the future. Before Cherington, Bryan Reynolds was one of those returns. Not much else in deadline deals.<\/p>\n
Most of the prospects the Pirates got in return under Cherington have yet to make a substantial, or really any impact. During Cherington\u2019s tenure, he\u2019s traded the following players on the Major League roster to contending teams–closer David Bednar, starting pitchers Tyler Anderson, Clay Holmes, Bailey Falter, Quinn Priester and Martin Perez, relievers Austin Davis & Richard Rodriguez, 3B Ke\u2019Bryan Hayes, 2B Adam Frazier, 1B Carlos Santana<\/p>\n
Of those 11 players traded for prospects, only two prospects\u2014catcher Rafael Flores and reliever Evan Sisk, both on injured reserve, are on the current Pirates roster.<\/p>\n
Many of those coming back in return looked good on paper, but never changed the course of the Pirates or came back to bite the team that traded them.<\/p>\n
Is Cherington now ready to part with prospects in a prospective deal to acquire MLB players.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we need to stay really open-minded,\u201d Cherington said. \u201cAll of that is baked into the decisions. We would consider trading for rentals. We would consider trading for controllable players. We would consider trading for prospects.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we need to stay open-minded about who we\u2019re using to trade, too. We try not to be in the untouchable world for the most part.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said they weigh not only the immediate impact, but long-term and try to balance it as best as they can.<\/p>\n
This comment though might speak to them being ready to trade a bigger prospect for an immediate need. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have a chance \u2014 I believe Major League seasons, each one is precious \u2014 if you\u2019re in the middle of one and have a chance, you should do everything you can to give that team a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also worth noting what else Cherington said. That they will turn down deals because of the fear of the downside being too big long-term. He believes you can always balance both. You can improve 2026, while building for the future.<\/p>\n
That is a very difficult needle to thread, especially when you don\u2019t have the money to make up for your mistakes like the big market teams do.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re open to whatever,\u201d Cherington said. \u201cThere will be some stuff that we just don\u2019t believe in. I think we should stay open-minded.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been seven years, it\u2019s a critical time not only for the Pirates but their general manager.<\/p>\n
The team is in contention and needs help. What will they do?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) \u2013 Multiple times on Sunday Pirates general manager Ben Cherington was asked if he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4662,34765,1423,73,75,74,10997,6540],"class_list":["post-253234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-baseball","tag-ben-cherington","tag-mlb","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-trade-deadline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}