Examining Pirates/Yankees Trade Rumors in the Aftermath
The Major League Baseball Winter Meetings is normally the time of year when the "Hot Stove" kicks into high gear. General Managers and team personnel from all 30 Major League teams usually meet at one location, bringing on a flurry of rumors and buzz. While the meetings were held virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the country, there was still no shortage of rumors and buzz. One of those rumors involved a blockbuster deal between the New York Yankees and the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was unclear how serious talks between the two teams were, but the rumor involved two stars from the rebuilding Pittsburgh Pirates organization.
According to reports, the Pirates and Yankees apparently discussed a deal that would involve Jameson Taillon and Josh Bell heading to New York. There were no reports on what the Pirates would get back in the deal, but for two-star players like Bell and Taillon, it would have had to be a big package of prospects. The Pirates are coming off a season where they finished last in Major League Baseball going 19-41, and General Manager Ben Cherrington is looking to try and rebuild a winner from the ground-up. He has the foundation of good young players like Bryan Reynolds and Ke'Bryan Hayes, but that will also mean having to say goodbye to veterans and fan favorites. While nothing transpired from those rumors, we look at what we learned from being involved in one of the hottest rumors of the Winter Meetings and what it means moving forward.
Anyone Can Be On the Table
Even when you are in a rebuild, there are several players who the team would probably consider untouchable. With Taillon and Bell both on the table in this rumor, that doesn't seem to be the case in Pittsburgh. Anyone who can bring the Pirates back young, Minor League talent seems to be fair game. Granted for both Taillon and Bell their trade values are down because of injury and ineffectiveness. Taillon has only had one season where he has made 30+ starts and in Bell's case, he hit just .226 with eight home runs and 22 RBI. Both players are looking to rebound in 2021, but if the Pirates can get some value out of them now, it seems as though the Pirates will at least listen.
Both players have been great clubhouse guys for the Pirates and will enter this season as the "leaders" for the Bucs. Taillon is looking to get back to his 2018 numbers where he went 14-10 with a 3.20 ERA over 32 starts. He has battled injuries throughout his career including elbow inflammation, Tommy John surgery, and a fight with Testicular Cancer. He has shown that he can put together a full season and is hoping to get back to that in 2021. As for Bell, he is looking to recapture the magic that made him an all-star in 2019. That year, he hit .277 with 37 home runs and 116 RBI, the first Pirate to have 100 RBI since Pedro Alvarez drove in exactly 100 RBI during the 2013 season.
Both of these players are impact type guys and would help any competing team that they land on. With these two on the table, you have to think that the Pirates are at least listening on some of the other veterans on the team. Cherrington has said that he wants to build a winner in Pittsburgh in less than five years, and moving some of his veteran pieces is one way he looks to do that. These veterans need to be moved to make way for the young guys awaiting promotion in the Minor Leagues so the team can see what they have. While the moves may not be popular among Pirates fans, they are unfortunately a necessary evil to build a winning team.
Cherrington Isn't Making Moves to Make Moves
Taking an MLB General Manager position is almost a lose-lose situation no matter what team you are with. If you don't make moves in the off-season, fans become angry because you stayed stagnant. However, when you do wheel and deal, fans get angry when players don't work out or when they go to another team and become a star. Through the first year on the job, one thing Ben Cherrington has shown is that he is not a guy who will make moves just to make moves. He carefully plans his trades and makes sure he can get the best value for his players. If he doesn't get the deal he wants, he will walk away from the deal and hold onto his players until that deal becomes available.
We don't know just how serious the talks between the Yankees and the Pirates got last week or if any players besides Bell and Taillon were discussed. However, of prospects were discussed, it wasn't the package that Cherrington was looking for so nothing transpired. The Pirates have been burned by bad deals in the past with the most recent being the Chirs Archer deal that turned out to be a bust, with Austin Meadows and Tyler Glasnow becoming stars for the Tampa Bay Rays World Series team. For Cherrington, he seems to go into deals knowing what he wants and isn't afraid to walk away.
The biggest example of this was at the 2020 trade deadline when the Pirates were talking with the Toronto Blue Jays about starting pitcher Joe Musgrove. The two sides were apparently very close on a deal, but the prospect haul wasn't enough for Cherrington to pull the trigger. This is important when rebuilding because you don't want your top players to slip away for nothing. Moves are almost more important when you're a losing team because a bad move can have repercussions for seasons to come, while good moves may only present a small impact. That is the challenge that Cherrington faces, and one that so far he has been taking in stride.
Projecting the Rest of the Off-season
As the off-season rolls along, the Pirates are one of the teams still expected to move a lot of their veterans. Adam Frazier and Joe Musgrove are the top names that have been circling the market, but no major deals have transpired yet. One MLB official said that January is going to be the new December, signaling the start of the "Hot Stove" season. With several young stars for the Pirates nearly Big League ready, veterans will have to be moved for guys like Travis Swaggerty, Jared Oliva, and Matt Eckelman to get full-time Big League opportunities. The players may not be household names as of yet, but the Pirates need to see what they have to see where they need to improve. Cherrington has a lot of work to do, and hopefully, the fruits of his labor turn into a winner in Pittsburgh.
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