{"id":122018,"date":"2026-05-16T17:02:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T21:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=122018"},"modified":"2026-05-16T17:02:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T21:02:31","slug":"pirates-bullpen-no-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/05\/16\/pirates-bullpen-no-help\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sad Reality the Pittsburgh Pirates\u2019 Bullpen Is Facing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Pirates\u2019 bullpen caused yet another devastating loss. After entering the ninth inning up by three runs against the Philadelphia Phillies in the series opener, Gregory Soto<\/a> proceeded to let the Phils tie the game up. Dennis Santana<\/a> then came in and let the Phillies score three more runs. That\u2019s all the Phillies would need to make a miraculous comeback against the Bucs.<\/p>\n

The Bucs\u2019 bullpen has been the main source of frustration for fans this year. Dennis Santana has not been reliable<\/a>, Isaac Mattson<\/a> has not pitched as well as last year, and the Pirates\u2019 top relief pitcher free agent signing, Soto, was responsible for the most recent loss. While fans understandably want general manager Ben Cherington to get aggressive, the sad reality is that no immediate help is on the way.<\/p>\n

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There Is No Immediate Help the Pirates Can Find for Their Bullpen<\/h2>\n

There Is No Reliever Trade Market Right Now<\/h3>\n

As of right now, the reliever trade market is mostly dead. Any worthwhile relief pitcher is not getting moved until July, at the earliest. Even if the Pirates try to acquire Aroldis Chapman<\/a> from the Boston Red Sox, the Red Sox have no incentive to take the Pirates\u2019 offer, even if it\u2019s a good one, as the Pirates would currently be the only team putting in a serious offer for the flame-throwing lefty.<\/p>\n

The Pirates could only pry away a quality reliever with a significant overpay and something a team would be absolutely foolish to turn down. A package headlined by Hunter Barco<\/a>, Esmerlyn Valdez<\/a>, or any other non-top 100 prospect from the Pirates\u2019 system right now is not netting them a quality reliever.<\/p>\n

Early-Season Reliever Trades Rarely Happen and Mostly End Poorly for One or Both Teams<\/h3>\n

There have been just three closers (20+ save seasons) in the last 20 years who were traded before July, each with relatively disastrous results. The most recent was Taylor Rogers<\/a> in 2022, when the Minnesota Twins traded the lefty to the San Diego Padres in the first week of April.<\/p>\n

Although Rogers ran into bad luck, he still put up just a 4.34 ERA and 87 ERA+ in a Padres uniform. The Twins received Emilio Pag\u00e1n<\/a> and Chris Paddack<\/a>. While the Padres were able to salvage Rogers\u2019 value by including him with multiple prospects to net Josh Hader<\/a>, the results of the Padres\/Twins trade were relatively poor for both sides.<\/p>\n

Fernando Rodney<\/a> is the second most recent closer to get traded before July. The veteran closer started off the 2016 season scorching hot, with a 0.31 ERA throughout his first 28.2 innings with the Padres. He was then traded to the Miami Marlins, ironically enough, for Paddack. While Rodney pitched to an ERA approaching 6.00 with the Padres, Paddack became one of the best pitching prospects in baseball and turned in a quality 2019 rookie season.<\/p>\n

The third-most-recent early-season closer trade belongs to former Pirates pitcher Ernesto Frieri<\/a>. The Padres were involved once again, sending Frieri to the Los Angeles Angels in 2012. While Frieri pitched well for the Halos, the Padres did not get much from the return. Donn Roach<\/a> pitched just 30.1 innings in the Major Leagues for the Friars in 2014 with a 72 ERA+. Alexi Amarista<\/a> appeared in parts of four seasons with the Padres, with just a 1.1 bWAR and 71 OPS+.<\/p>\n

The Pirates Caused This Problem in the First Place<\/h3>\n

The Pirates\u2019 bullpen has been backed into a corner by themselves. They traded All-Star closer David Bednar<\/a> to the New York Yankees at the trade deadline for three prospects, with the headliner being catcher\/first baseman Rafael Flores Jr<\/a>. While Bednar has continued to pitch well in New York, Flores has struggled badly at Triple-A. The Pirates also let go of multiple quality depth relievers<\/a>, like Dauri Moreta<\/a> and Chase Shugart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Where Do the Pirates Go From Here?<\/h3>\n

The unfortunate situation is that the Pirates don\u2019t have very many exciting avenues to turn to. Any good reliever isn\u2019t getting traded until later this summer. However, there are some things they can do to be proactive. The first thing is calling up Wilber Dotel<\/a> and\/or Antwone Kelly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both are on the 40-man roster, with the former having three MLB games earlier this year. Jared Jones\u2019 incoming return<\/a> will also help the pitching staff, as Carmen Mlodzinski<\/a> will soon return to the bullpen. Evan Sisk<\/a> and Mason Montgomery<\/a> breaking out means they should start seeing more high leverage innings. Aside from that, the only other thing the Pirates can do is look for low-cost relievers who are deep on other teams\u2019 depth charts. Unfortunately, the Pirates are mostly stuck where they are until other teams decide to open up trade talks for their better relievers.<\/p>\n

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Main Photo Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Pirates\u2019 bullpen caused yet another devastating loss. After entering the ninth inning up by three runs against the Philadelphia Phillies in the series opener, Gregory Soto proceeded to let the Phils tie the game up. Dennis Santana then came in and let the Phillies score three more runs. That\u2019s all the Phillies would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5765,"featured_media":122053,"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":"776","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071,35,26],"tags":[3632,6380,4790,29265,29352,2760,29156,29129,3718,29322],"class_list":["post-122018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-news","category-pirates","tag-carmen-mlodzinski","tag-dauri-moreta","tag-dennis-santana","tag-esmerlyn-valdez","tag-evan-sisk","tag-gregory-soto","tag-hunter-barco","tag-isaac-mattson","tag-jared-jones","tag-mason-montgomery"],"modified_by":"Augustus Oswald, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122018","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=122018"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122055,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122018\/revisions\/122055"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}