{"id":93407,"date":"2025-01-06T22:51:30","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T03:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=93407"},"modified":"2025-01-06T22:51:30","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T03:51:30","slug":"pirates-trade-rumor-wish-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/01\/06\/pirates-trade-rumor-wish-list\/","title":{"rendered":"A Wish List of Hitters the Pirates Should Pursue this Offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As other major league teams move to improve, the Pittsburgh Pirates aren\u2019t even the subject of a credible trade rumor. By this time last year, general manager Ben Cherington had acquired <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gonzama02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-06_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marco Gonzales<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/tellero01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-06_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rowdy Tellez<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/perezma02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-06_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mart\u00edn P\u00e9rez<\/a> and re-signed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mccutan01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-06_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andrew McCutchen<\/a>. This offseason hasn\u2019t been as busy. So far, Cherington has <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/12\/11\/pirates-guardians-ortiz-horwitz-trade\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">traded<\/a> for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/horwisp01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-06_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Spencer Horwitz<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/12\/23\/andrew-mcutchen-signs-pittsburgh-pirates\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">re-upped<\/a> McCutchen for another season, along with several innocuous minor-league additions. It\u2019s as though the GM is afflicted with <em>tortoise nervosa.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fNeKg4IutSI?si=7q2coRFsBtLsAv4B\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Pirates Offseason Shopping: Not Even a Trade Rumor<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s like Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve, finding all the stores picked over and the best merchandise gone. This snail-like approach is why the Pirates <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/03\/15\/michael-a-taylor-signs-pirates\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">settled for<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/taylomi02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-06_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael A. Taylor<\/a> as their primary center fielder last season. The word in baseball circles is that Cherington will add to the team via trades rather than the free-agent market. There\u2019s a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/12\/14\/pirates-need-outfielders-bullpen-help\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">gaping hole to fill in right field<\/a>, but more importantly, the Bucs need hitters. Here are a few he should pursue.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>A Favorite Shopping Destination<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Cherington served the Boston Red Sox in various capacities from 1999-2015, including executive vice president and general manager from 2011-15. The Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays, for which Cherington was vice president of baseball operations from 2016-19, have been his favorite trade partners, as he\u2019s seemed to favor players with whom he has familiarity. At last year\u2019s trade deadline, he <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/07\/29\/quinn-priester-red-sox-pirates-trade\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">acquired<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/y\/yorkeni01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-06_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nick Yorke<\/a> from Boston. He should consider engaging with the Red Sox one more time.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, his target should be 25-year-old right fielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/abreuwi02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-06_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wilyer Abreu<\/a>. Last year, Abreu, a left-handed batter, received American League Rookie of the Year consideration and won a Gold Glove Award. His career so far has spanned 160 games, almost the equivalent of a full season, during which he\u2019s hit .263\/.333\/.461, 17 HR, 72 RBI, and 117 OPS+. PNC Park\u2019s cozy right-field should help him increase that home run total. In the minors, Abreu had an outstanding .372 OBP. Meanwhile, it was Horwitz\u2019s OBP, <em>inter alia<\/em>, that attracted the Pirates. Hitting back-to-back, Abreu and Horwitz could be table setters atop the order or hit lower where they could extend innings. Abreu\u2019s OBP, defense, and years of contract control would surely be appetizing to the Bucs. The drawback to such a trade would be that the Red Sox would ask for more than Cherington might be willing to give up.<\/p>\n<h3>Taylor-Made for the Pirates?<\/h3>\n<p>At the 2024 trade deadline, there was a credible <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/07\/10\/pirates-trade-angels-taylor-ward\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">rumor<\/a> connecting the Pirates to Los Angeles Angels outfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wardta01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-06_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Taylor Ward<\/a>. Ward, 31, is a right-handed hitter who plays all three outfield positions and both corner infield spots. Last season, he hit .246\/.323\/.426, 25 HR, 75 RBI, and 111 OPS+. That home run total appears to be a reasonable expectation. He hit 23 in 2022 and 14 in just 97 games in 2023. These numbers translate to a 162-game average of 26 homers for 2022-24. Ward is arbitration-eligible now and can be a free agent in 2027. The home run was sorely missing from the Pirates attack in 2024 (and 2023, and 2022 . . . you get the picture). Furthermore, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/alonspe01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-06_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pete Alonso<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/19\/pete-alonso-mlb-rumor-prediction\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">isn\u2019t coming to Pittsburgh<\/a>. Ward may be among the best power hitters available.<\/p>\n<h3>A Former Batting Champion<\/h3>\n<p>Another legitimate rumor at the 2024 trade deadline had the Pirates in on Tampa Bay Rays corner infielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/diazya01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-06_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Yandy D\u00edaz<\/a>. What\u2019s that you say? The Pirates are set at the corners with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hayeske01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ke\u2019Bryan Hayes<\/a> and Horwitz? Perhaps. However, Hayes had back issues that affected his play and eventually caused him to finish 2024 on the injured list. In any event, the need for hitters is so dire, that the Pirates need to follow what is apparently the Los Angeles Dodgers <em>modus operandi<\/em> of acquiring the hitters and figuring out who\u2019s going to play where later. (As this was being readied for submission to our crack editing team, the Dodgers \u201cfigured it out\u201d by <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/01\/06\/dodgers-trade-gavin-lux-reds\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">dealing away<\/a> the underachieving <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/luxga01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-06_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gavin Lux<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>D\u00edaz, 33, can become a free agent in 2026, and is likely available cheaply due to the Rays\u2019 penchant for trading players as they approach free agency. The Pirates can look at the veteran right-handed batter as a short-term fix or, less likely, they might work on an extension as a condition to the deal. Last season, D\u00edaz hit .281\/.381\/.414, 14 HR, 65 RBI, and 116 OPS+. His production may have been held down by an undisclosed personal issue that <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/07\/20\/rays-place-infielder-restricted-list\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">landed him on the restricted list<\/a> for a while. In the previous year, he won the AL batting title, hitting .330\/.410\/.522, 22 HR, 78 RBI, and 157 OPS+. His career .373 OBP fits the Pirates\u2019 philosophy and the fact that he has a little pop doesn\u2019t hurt either.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\u201cI got it\u201d -Yandy D\u00cdaz<\/p>\n<p>By \u201cit\u201d he means the 1st AL Batting Title in Rays history. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jjegSJQ0O5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/jjegSJQ0O5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RaysBaseball\/status\/1708605431294173510?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 1, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Another Ray of Hope<\/h3>\n<p>Similarly, the Rays could make <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/lowebr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-06_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brandon Lowe<\/a>, another <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/07\/26\/brewers-trade-rumors\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">credible rumor subject<\/a> this year and last, available to the Pirates in a trade. Lowe can also become a free agent in 2026 if the Rays don\u2019t exercise his team option, which seems likely. He\u2019s a 30-year-old left-handed hitter who would also find PNC Park\u2019s short right field inviting. Last year, Lowe hit .244\/.311\/.473, 21 HR, 58 RBI, and 121 OPS+ in 107 games. It was his second consecutive season hitting 21 home runs, achieving that feat in 109 games in 2023. In 2021, he hit a career-high 39 homers when he also reached a career-high with 149 games played. Maybe 2021 was an aberration, but Pirates fans wouldn\u2019t mind finding out how many Lowe could hit out of PNC Park in their favorite team\u2019s uniform.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As other major league teams move to improve, the Pittsburgh Pirates aren\u2019t even the subject of a credible trade rumor. By this time last year, general manager Ben Cherington had acquired Marco Gonzales, Rowdy Tellez, and Mart\u00edn P\u00e9rez and re-signed Andrew McCutchen. This offseason hasn\u2019t been as busy. So far, Cherington has traded for Spencer [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5010,"featured_media":93434,"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":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1071],"tags":[610,3215,2447,2055,2402,203,28345,4200,28456,2496],"class_list":["post-93407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pirates","category-mlb","tag-andrew-mccutchen","tag-ben-cherington","tag-brandon-lowe","tag-gavin-lux","tag-pete-alonso","tag-rowdy-tellez","tag-spencer-horwitz","tag-taylor-ward","tag-wilyer-abreu","tag-yandy-diaz"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93407","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\/5010"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93407"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93435,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93407\/revisions\/93435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}