As stated in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, the key to enjoying the 2021 Pittsburgh Pirates season was, and remains, being rational. They were not going to compete for a playoff spot. Plain and simple. You should have looked yourself in the mirror on April 1 and said, “I will not have high expectations for the Pirate’s record.” However, that does not mean there was not excitement to be found elsewhere with this team.

The Pirates had three goals to begin the season. Generate enough big-league talent to have trade chips, successfully move these trade chips at the deadline, and get the most out of the amateur draft. In all of these cases, so far, the Pirates are undefeated this season.

I have already discussed the emerging trade chips and the draft. This part in the series will focus on the trade deadline.

Adam Frazier

On July 25, the Pirates traded Adam Frazier to the San Diego Padres. Although the trade occurred several days before the deadline, it was the biggest deal GM Ben Cherington (GMBC) would succeed in completing.

In the trade, the Pirates received infielder Tucupita Marcano, right-handed pitcher Michell Miliano, and outfielder Jack Suwinski. All three are minor league prospects. While I do not see much of a future for Miliano or Suwinski at the big league level, Marcano is a huge addition for the Pirates.

Tucupita Marcano immediately landed himself as the seventh best prospect in the Pirates system. He has tremendous discipline at the plate for his age. At only 21, he shows a great intelligence of the strike zone and walks at a much higher rate than he strikes out. He also has shown an increase of power as he grows into his body.

Marcano does have 50 plate appearances at the big league level, and has not made much of them. However, the Pirates are setting up for a success window starting in 2023 so he has plenty of time to grow and improve.

While many expected a haul in return for Adam Frazier, singles hitters do not attract as much attention as power hitters anymore. Additionally, Frazier was shopped this offseason and GMBC gained little interest from other teams. So to get a top 10 prospect in return for a guy who had no trade value five months ago is a win.

New start. New beginnings. Ready to get to work. pic.twitter.com/rRXA7Ehv9m

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) August 1, 2021

Clay Holmes

Shortly after the Pirates unloaded Adam Frazier, they also traded an unlikely piece. The Pirates traded Clay Holmes to the New York Yankees for infielders Diego Castillo and Hoy Jun Park.

While neither of the returning players landed in the Pirates top 30 prospects, let us not overlook the fact that the Pirates received something for Clay Holmes. Holmes has a 2021 season ERA of 4.91 and a career ERA of 5.52. Not to mention, Holmes is right-handed reliever who are a dime a dozen. I could not believe when this one came through the Twitter feed.

I don’t see Diego Castillo being much more than an occasional call-up based on his stats. He has not batted over .270 or had an OPS over .700 since 2015. However, I like Hoy Jun Park a lot. This year he is batting .327 with 10 home runs, nine doubles and eight stolen bases at the AAA level this year.

Park is clearly big league ready since he played in his Pirates debut Sunday afternoon. He played shortstop and went 1 for 4 with a run scored. I would very much like to see Park get every opportunity to prove himself. I think we know by now what Kevin Newman and Erik Gonzalez are as players.

Also, let me just reiterate. This was a return for Clay Holmes. It was a win for the Pirates.

Tyler Anderson

The third trade the Pirates made was sending starting pitcher Tyler Anderson to the Seattle Mariners. Regardless of the return, this was huge success story for the Pirates. Anderson was specifically signed for a cheap one-year offseason contract in the hopes he would pitch well enough to be valuable at the deadline. And sure enough, he was.

After a trade with the Phillies fell through, the Mariners sent two prospects to the Pirates for Anderson. The Pirates received catcher Carter Bins and right-handed pitcher Joaquin Tejada. Bins scraped his way into the Pirates top 30 prospects at number 30.

Carter Bins minor league stats are not impressive, but he only has around 350 at-bats to his credit. Also, if you remove his first 32 at-bats where he only recorded two hits, his stat line looks a lot better.

When he was 19, Bins batted over .300 with an .898 OPS at Fresno State so the ability to hit exists. Maybe Bins will be the guy that bridges the gap between Jacob Stallings and Henry Davis. However, Endy Rodriguez is a C/OF prospect expected to see the field by 2024 as well so the Pirates pipeline is no longer scarce of good catchers.

There is not much information on Tejada. He is an 18 year-old from Santiago, Panama. He has just eight recorded innings in the minor leagues, but he has recorded 10 strikeouts already. I’m not going to try and speculate what the Pirates will get out of Tejada with this little data. I’ll just consider him a wait and see.

pov: you're in the high five line pic.twitter.com/24dObCeVFM

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) July 31, 2021

Richard Rodriguez

Late Friday afternoon, almost a half an hour after the deadline, the news of a Richard Rodriguez trade was released. The Pirates sent Rich Rod to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for right-handed pitchers Ricky Devito and Bryse Wilson.

Devito is the younger of the two with only 57 professional innings recorded at the minor league level. He was having a great season before landing on the Injured List. Devito has a 3.44 ERA in his young career so far.

Bryse Wilson, on the other hand, is major league ready. He will fill a spot left behind by all of the recent transactions the Pirates have made. Wilson is expected to debut with the Pirates Monday against the Milwaukee Brewers. He has a 4.83 ERA this season going into this start.

Austin Davis

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the Pirates completed another trade that was not announced until even later after the deadline. They traded reliever Austin Davis for Boston Red Sox hitter Michael Chavis. While Chavis has steadily declined since being the Red Sox #6 prospect in 2018, he is a high-profile name.

Also, there is some familiarity with Chavis since Cherington was the GM of the Red Sox when they drafted him. Austin Davis is 29 years old with a career ERA over 5. The rebuilding Pirates getting anything for Davis is a huge win in my opinion. Perhaps Cherington can create a change of scenery situation for Chavis and he can find what GMBC saw in him in the first place.

Conclusion

So overall, the Pirates had a good trade deadline. They came into the season with very little in regards to trade chips so the return received on July 30 was way better than expected on April 1. I believe 2023 is the beginning of a very successful window for the Pirates so that is my baseline year for everything they are doing right now.

I look forward to seeing all of these new players develop and following their careers with the Pirates.

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