MLB Trade Deadline recap: Pirates make several trades to boost major league roster, depth

Pirates add lefties, multiple bats while dealing prospects.

The 2024 MLB Trade Deadline has come and gone, which after a slow start the Pirates really turned up the heat by the end of the day.

Here’s a look back at the moves they made, and some thoughts on each of them.

Trade with Boston Red Sox

Pirates Trade: RHP Quinn Priester

Pirates Receive: 2B Nick Yorke

To kick things off, the Pirates dealt a starting pitcher and got back a former top 100 prospect, Nick Yorke.

Finding a spot for Priester was hard, he has struggled as a starter, and they decided to move him instead of fully moving him into the bullpen. He had made a couple of appearances in relief, but they hadn’t fared to much better.

Yorke is a solid hitter, who has some hit metrics very similar to Nick Gonzales, but with less chase and better exit velocity.

I’ll be digging into Yorke more into the coming days, but this felt like a strong grab for a starting pitcher that has been struggling to establish himself in the majors.

Trade with Colorado Rockies

Pirates Trade: LHP Luis Peralta

Pirates Receive: LHP Jalen Beeks

The Pirates made an interesting move by acquiring left-handed Jalen Beeks from the Colorado Rockies in exchange for minor-league pitcher Luis Peralta.

With it looking like Ryan Borucki will be out for a while, the Pirates wanted to add another left-handed pitcher to the bullpen mix. Beeks, 31, has over 300 innings of major league experience, posting a 4.43 ERA.

This season, he has primarily used a four-seam (56.7%), change-up (25.6%), and cutter (16.3%). While he can dial the fastball up to the mid-90s, he puts up below-average whiff rates with it and in general.

The off-speed pitch gets the highest whiff rate but is something he uses primarily against righties. Over 90% of his cutters are thrown to lefties, and it gets a whiff rate of 24.1% while hitters bat just .200 against it.

While Beeks does have a track record, the process in which the Pirates got to him seemed odd. Borucki not being able to return changed things, obviously, but they also designated Josh Fleming for assignment recently, with him eventually electing free agency.

Statistically, Beeks is the better of the two, but it isn’t by much when looking at their numbers this season.

Losing Peralta is interesting, as he was really shinning this year out the bullpen, with a lot of people taking notice. The hold up for me is giving up Peralta for a couple months of Beeks when you had Fleming already on the roster.

This deal could have come up as more of a pressing need with Carmen Mlodzinski also heading to the IL, but still an interesting move.

Trade with New York Mets

Pirates Trade: LHP Nicolas Carreno

Pirates Receive: LHP Josh Walker

This was more of a depth move, as Walker has options left, so he will head to the Indianapolis bullpen until called upon. He’s a fastball/curveball guy that has elite extension numbers (which we know the Pirates love) and his four-seamer graded out with a 104 on FanGraphs Stuff+ model.

He has a 4.53 xFIP in 12.1 innings pitched this season in the majors, but has spent the majority of the year in Triple-A (28.2 IP, 31 K%).

Carreno is an 18 year old lefty with 36 strikeouts in 21.2 innings pitched this year in the DSL, but has also walked 17.

You can never have enough pitching depth, which is all this is. It helps out more now that we know Borucki will be out for a while.

Trade with Miami Marlins

Pirates Trade: C/CIF Garret Forrester, RHP Jun-Seok Shim

Pirates Receive: OF Bryan De La Cruz

This was the ‘big’ move of the day for the Pirates, as they added some power in their lineup with De La Cruz, as his 18 home runs ties him with Bryan Reynolds for the team lead.

There’s a lot to unpack with this move, lets start with the good;

He’s controllable, as he is still in the pre-arbitration stage and isn’t a free agent until 2028. So he’s potential a multi-year solution for the Pirates in the outfield, which is something that they needed.

He’ll bring some much needed power to the lineup, hitting 37 home runs the last two years combined.

There’s a glaring hole in the lineup right now, a power bat, and he fills that. He also has a very strong arm, sitting in the 84th percentile when it comes to arm strength.

There are some things to monitor, however.

He doesn’t walk much, and he strikes out quite a bit. There’s a lot of chase and whiff in his game as he chases power. He’s not great against breaking balls, but he does slug really well against fastball, and even off-speed.

Depite the power numbers, he’s been under league average when it comes to wRC+ each of the last two seasons.

De La Cruz is basically a replacement level player, barely (0.1 fWAR this year, 1.5 in over 400 games) and has a career 97 wRC+.

He improves the roster by default in right field, as Connor Joe has been exposed more recently, while Jack Suwinski (-1.0 fWAR, 64 wRC+) and Edward Olivares (-0.8 fWAR, 75 wRC+) have added far more negative value.

The biggest positive in this is that it didn’t cost too much, as Shim hasn’t been able to stay healthy and Forrester has had his share of issues in Bradenton, but was promoted to Greensboro recently.

He’s an upgrade by default, but still mostly a replacement level player that has some pop, but mainly against fastballs (24 of his 37 home runs the last two years have been against them).

Trade with Toronto Blue Jays

Pirates Trade: 3B Charles McAdoo

Pirates Receive: UT Isiah Kiner-Falefa

This one came out of left-field a bit, but the Pirates picked up a valuable super-utility bat who is one of the more versatile defenders in the league.

He also comes with one added year of control, as he is signed through 2025 as well.

The move was a bit shocking, but looking at IKF, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that Ben Cherington would target him.

He’s a high-contact, low-power hitter who is versatile on defense. Maybe the only difference is that he provides positive value with the glove as opposed to some of the other players Cherington has opted for.

IKF is on the injured list right now, so we will have to see how long until he returns. He’s also having statistically the best offensive season of his career, posting a 116 wRC+ (career average of 85) and is posting his first .700 OPS season currently.

Even if he regresses, it’s the super utility that the Pirates were hoping for from Jared Triolo. He’s played 2B/3B/SS this year, and has posted a positive DRS at all three. He also has playing time in the outfield.

It’ll be a question of how much the hitting stands up, and if it regresses (it probably will), just how much it falls back down to earth.

To make the move, the Pirates swapped Charles McAdoo, one of the biggest bright spots in the system this season. Drafted in the 13th round, McAdoo has been the best hitter in the minors, going from relative unknown, to one of the top prospects in the system.

Losing McAdoo hurts the system, but shows some progress in how the Pirates have developed hitters. He was playing well in Altoona after getting promoted, but there was a small increase in his chase rate, as well as drop in zone contact.

Trade with San Diego Padres

Pirates Trade: LHP Martin Perez

Pirates Receive: LHP Ronaldys Jimenez

It was expected that the Pirates would move a major league starter, with the odds on favorite going to Martin Perez. He was moved to the Padres in exchange for another lefty, Ronaldys Jimenez.

He’s an 18 year old pitcher that has eight strikeouts in six innings this season with the Padres DSL team.

Trade with Baltimore Orioles

Pirates Trade: RHP Patrick Reilly

Pirates Receive: 1B/OF/UT Billy Cook

This one came in last minute, and the Pirates and Orioles make that much hoped prospect for prospect swap, each dealing from positions of strength.

The Pirates with plenty of pitching depth move Reilly, who was having a really solid season in Greensboro. There are still questions about whether or not he can stick as a starter, and the Pirates could be selling high on his value right now if they believe he is still just a reliever.

In exchange they get 25 year old Billy Cook, who has been playing in Triple-A this season for the crowded, and blocked, Norfolk Tides. It’s easy to get lost in the shuffle given who is on the Norfolk, but it looks like he’s having a solid season there.

Cook has hit .279/.372/.485 with 11 home runs and 12 stolen bases in 70 games (120 wRC+) this year. He had a 20/20 season last year for Double-A Bowie, hitting 24 home runs and swiping 30 bags.

Digging a little deeper into his overall numbers will be an interesting task, as he’s posted a solid zone contact rate (81.5%) but has put up slightly below exit velocity numbers.

Pipeline mentions some raw power, and he does elevate the ball well, especially against fastballs, so it will be interesting if the power translates at the next level.

What can really help swing this trade in the Pirates’ favor, what position will he play primarily? He could move around, he’s mainly played first base with Norfolk but is given a plus speed grade by Pipeline and has seen time at every position except catcher and shortstop.

He hasn’t played much in center field, but with his speed and arm, that would be an interesting experiment to try.

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