{"id":120888,"date":"2026-04-29T15:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T19:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=120888"},"modified":"2026-04-29T15:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T19:16:11","slug":"way-early-pittsburgh-pirates-reliever-trade-targets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/04\/29\/way-early-pittsburgh-pirates-reliever-trade-targets\/","title":{"rendered":"Way Too Early Pittsburgh Pirates Reliever Trade Targets"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Pirates\u2019 bullpen has been very up-and-down to start 2026. While the likes of Dennis Santana, Gregory Soto, Mason Montgomery, and Isaac Mattson have done well for most of this season thus far, many of their other arms have struggled at times. Even their closer, Santana, has shown some cracks in the armor<\/a>. On top of that, they have very few relievers with a decent track record. However, they should be buyers during this upcoming summer, and there are some names they should already be keeping tabs on.<\/p>\n

Way Too Early Pittsburgh Pirates Reliever Trade Targets<\/h2>\n

Yennier Cano<\/h3>\n

Yennier Cano<\/a> broke onto the scene as a shutdown set-up man for the Baltimore Orioles between 2023 and 2024. His first two Major League seasons yielded a 2.58 ERA, 3.16 FIP, and 1.14 WHIP over 132.2 innings of work. The right-hander struck out batters at a solid 24.4% rate and limited walks to a 7% rate. However, he excelled at keeping the ball on the ground. He was one of just four relievers between these two seasons with a ground ball rate of at least 60%, coming in at 60.2%. Unsurprisingly, that high ground ball percentage led to a strong 0.68 HR\/9 and a 5.8% barrel rate.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Cano\u2019s third season in the Majors didn\u2019t go as well as his first two. He pitched 58 innings, working to a 5.12 ERA, 4.27 FIP, and 1.48 WHIP. His walk rate climbed to 9.6%, while his K% fell to 21.1%. While Cano still carried an outstanding 4.7% barrel rate, his groundball percentage dropped to 54.8%, and his HR\/9 rose to 1.09. A 3.90 xFIP and 3.83 SIERA suggested some bad luck played a role in his underperformance, but he posted a strong 3.04 xFIP and 3.01 SIERA in 2023 and 2024 combined.<\/p>\n

However, Cano looks like he\u2019s put things back on track. It\u2019s only been 9.2 frames, but he has only allowed two earned runs, has struck out nine batters, and has allowed just one walk. His ground ball rate is now up to 68% in a small sample. Cano\u2019s FanGraphs\u2019 Stuff+ has also taken a step in the right direction. He clocked in at 113 in 2023-2024. That fell to just 100 in 2025. Now, Cano is back up to 110. Cano is not a rental. He is owed only $1.6 million this year and does not become a free agent until after the 2028 season.<\/p>\n

Daniel Lynch IV<\/h3>\n

Kansas City Royals\u2019 Daniel Lynch IV<\/a> once ranked as a consensus top 100 prospect in all of baseball. However, the left-hander struggled throughout his first few MLB seasons as a starter. The Royals then moved Lynch to a swingman role last year, and it resulted in a 3.06 ERA over 67.2 innings pitched. However, his performance didn\u2019t come without questions. He struck out only 15.6% of batters he faced, with a 9% walk rate. His 88.6 MPH exit velocity, 8% barrel rate, and 1.06 HR\/9 were not bad, but weren\u2019t great either.<\/p>\n

However, Lynch looks a lot different in 2026. His 10.1 innings of one-run ball, 13 K\u2019s, and three free passes aren\u2019t the biggest reason why he should be a trade target. His whiff rate went from just 22.3% in 2025 to a whopping 43.1% mark. He is fooling batters far more often, as his chase rate has gone from just 25.8% to 34.7%. Lynch is allowing far less hard contact as well, with an 83.8 MPH exit velo and 4.8% barrel rate. His Stuff+ has jumped by ten percentage points from 95 to 105.<\/p>\n

Like Cano, Lynch has control for multiple seasons. He also does not become a free agent until after the 2028 campaign. Lynch is currently making even less than Cano, with his 2026 salary coming in at $1,025,000. The Pirates have only one left-handed reliever in their bullpen under control through 2027, Evan Sisk. Lynch\u2019s improvements on the mound will make him an interesting trade target come this summer.<\/p>\n

Ryan Walker<\/h3>\n

San Francisco Giants right-hander Ryan Walker<\/a> looked on his way to becoming one of baseball\u2019s best relievers in 2024. He tallied 80 innings while working to a 1.91 ERA, 2.52 FIP, and 0.85 WHIP. Walker nearly struck out a third of opponents with a 32.1% K%, and only handed out a free pass 5.8% of the time. Walker excelled at limiting hard contact, holding opponents to just an 85.4 MPH exit velocity and a 6% barrel rate. His season was so good that he became the Giants\u2019 closer by the end of the season.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, his encore wasn\u2019t nearly as good. He only put up a 4.11 ERA, 3.30 FIP, and 1.27 WHIP in 61.1 innings of work. While he kept up a quality 6.8% walk rate, his strikeout percentage fell to 22.6%. Walker still carried a strong 87 MPH exit velocity and 5% barrel rate. While ERA estimators still viewed him as a solid pitcher, with a 3.63 xFIP and 3.40 SIERA, he posted sub-3.00 marks in both numbers in 2024.<\/p>\n

Walker has looked better so far in 2026. He has only allowed four earned runs through a dozen innings pitched. He has also struck out a dozen opponents along the way. However, he has also handed out six free passes. Walker is still excelling at keeping opponents at bay in terms of hard contact, with an 83.1 MPH exit velocity and 4.3%-barrel rate. Plus, Walker\u2019s Stuff+ rebounded from 108 last year to 110 this year. Walker has more control remaining, as he won\u2019t become a free agent until after the 2029 campaign.\\<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credits: Robert Edwards-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Pirates\u2019 bullpen has been very up-and-down to start 2026. While the likes of Dennis Santana, Gregory Soto, Mason Montgomery, and Isaac Mattson have done well for most of this season thus far, many of their other arms have struggled at times. Even their closer, Santana, has shown some cracks in the armor. On […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5765,"featured_media":120895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"833","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1071],"tags":[6369,6485,5864],"class_list":["post-120888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pirates","category-mlb","tag-daniel-lynch","tag-ryan-walker","tag-yennier-cano"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5765"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120888"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120896,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120888\/revisions\/120896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}