{"id":123713,"date":"2026-06-11T20:32:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T00:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=123713"},"modified":"2026-06-11T20:32:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T00:32:18","slug":"hunter-goodman-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/06\/11\/hunter-goodman-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunter Goodman Should Be a Pirates Trade Target"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If the Pirates want an upgrade behind the plate, the best player they could go after is Colorado Rockies\u2019 backstop <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/goodmhu01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hunter Goodman<\/a>. He is in the midst of his second strong season, and with the Rockies\u2019 current situation, he could become a valuable trade piece for them. If that becomes the case, he should be one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/06\/08\/pirates-schmitt-trade-target\/\" target=\"_self\">Pirates&#8217; top trade targets<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBu3vZQzkW\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 3072px; aspect-ratio: 3072\/2048;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p>The catching position is a serious question mark on the Pittsburgh Pirates\u2019 roster this year. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/05\/23\/endy-rodriguez-is-making-the-pirates-catching-depth-chart-interesting\/\" target=\"_self\">Endy Rodriguez has emerged as an on-base threat,<\/a> but his defense is lackluster, at least compared to previous seasons. Plus, his status is now questionable after getting <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Pirates\/status\/2064875453605687627\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">removed from his most recent game with hip discomfort<\/a>. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/davishe01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Henry Davis\u2019<\/a> defense has taken a massive step forward over the last two years, but he has had a wRC+ under 50 in that time. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bartjo01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joey Bart<\/a> has not replicated anything similar to his 2024 breakout campaign, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/05\/07\/joey-bart-becoming-problem-pirates-pitchers\/\" target=\"_self\">and his game-calling is questionable for many of the Pirates\u2019 pitchers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Hunter Goodman Should Be a Prime Trade Candidate for the Pirates<\/h2>\n<h3>High-End Power From Behind the Plate<\/h3>\n<p>Goodman has proved to be one of the best-hitting catchers in the sport over the last two seasons. Since the start of the 2025 campaign, he has slashed .269\/.324\/.523 with a .361 wOBA and 118 wRC+. Only one catcher surpasses his 49 homers: American League MVP finalist and Seattle Mariners superstar catcher <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/raleica01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cal Raleigh<\/a>. His isolated slugging percentage also sits at a healthy .254 mark. Goodman has only walked at a 6.7% pace while striking out 28.3% of the time.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\"><p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Hunter Goodman has 5 homers in 7 June games \ud83d\udcaa <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/vnd8gUXyAL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/vnd8gUXyAL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MLB (@MLB) <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MLB\/status\/2064512290406216138?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 10, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Coors Effect Has No Effect on Goodman<\/h2>\n<p>For those worried about how Goodman would fare on the road, don\u2019t. He is an excellent hitter as a guest. Over the last two years, the slugger has been batting .256\/.304\/.536 with a .357 wOBA and 129 wRC+. He has hit 29 home runs in just 417 plate appearances and has a .279 ISO on the road. That is the sixth-highest road ISO of any batter with at least 350 plate appearances since the start of the 2025 season. That also surpasses the likes of <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/schwaky01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyle Schwarber<\/a>, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kurtzni01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nick Kurtz<\/a>, and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/o\/olsonma02.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matt Olson<\/a>. The only downside is his 5.5% walk rate and 31.7% K rate.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_123730\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-123730\" style=\"width: 4034px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/06\/USATSI_29147612.webp\" alt=\"Colorado Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman hits a home run in the ninth inning vs the Milwaukee Brewers at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado on June 7, 2026.\" width=\"4034\" height=\"2689\" class=\"size-full wp-image-123730\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/06\/USATSI_29147612.webp 4034w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/06\/USATSI_29147612-768x512.webp 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/06\/USATSI_29147612-600x400.webp 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/06\/USATSI_29147612-1200x800.webp 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 4034px) 100vw, 4034px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-123730\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jun 7, 2026; Denver, Colorado, USA; Colorado Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman (15) hits a home run in the ninth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There is arguably even more in the tank for Goodman. He has upped his xwOBA on contact from an impressive .416 mark last year to an even better .459 this year. There is also no question that his power will play anywhere. His average exit velocity this year is 91.2 MPH, and he is in the 83rd percentile of batters. Meanwhile, he is in the 93rd percentile of barrel rate at 15.6%. Both are also improvements from 2025, when he had a 90.8 MPH exit velo and 12.9% barrel rate.<\/p>\n<h2>Not Just a Slugger<\/h2>\n<p>Defensively, Goodman is a solid, albeit unspectacular glove. He has +1 defensive run saved with +1.4 framing runs over 1233 innings behind the plate. His blocking also grades out as around average, at +3 blocking runs. His poptime sits around average, and he only has -2 caught steals above average. Baseball Savant puts his fielding run value at +1. Goodman is also familiar with both outfield corners and first base, but has only taken the field as a catcher the last two seasons.<\/p>\n<h3>A Potential Multi-Year Fixture for the Pirates<\/h3>\n<p>Goodman has control through the 2029 season via arbitration. He is only making $810K this season, which is just $30K more than the league minimum salary. Arbitration will mean his salary will go up; however, even if it doubles from his current salary, he\u2019ll still make less than $2 million in 2027.<\/p>\n<p>Goodman will likely cost the Pirates something worthwhile. After all, he is a solid defensive catcher who brings a ton of power and is under control for three more full seasons. However, catching is a serious problem for the Pirates. Their combined +0.4 fWAR is the 22nd best in baseball, and there is no solution on the horizon, at least not for another year or two (unless something miraculous happens and they draft Vahn Lackey). Goodman provides some thump and defense behind the plate, two things the Pirates could greatly benefit from.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If the Pirates want an upgrade behind the plate, the best player they could go after is Colorado Rockies\u2019 backstop Hunter Goodman. He is in the midst of his second strong season, and with the Rockies\u2019 current situation, he could become a valuable trade piece for them. If that becomes the case, he should be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5765,"featured_media":123729,"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":"669","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071,35,26],"tags":[2060,6225,4875,5014,5766,516,5990,6502],"class_list":["post-123713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-news","category-pirates","tag-cal-raleigh","tag-endy-rodriguez","tag-henry-davis","tag-hunter-goodman","tag-joey-bart","tag-kyle-schwarber","tag-matt-olson","tag-nick-kurtz"],"modified_by":"Augustus Oswald, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123713","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=123713"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123731,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123713\/revisions\/123731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}