With Wil Crowe DFA, How Are The Major Ben Cherington Trades Going?

Wil Crowe was one of two players acquired for Josh Bell, looking back now, how have Ben Cherington's major trades gone?

I mentioned on a Morning Rundown, that any given general manager isn’t going to always come out ahead in trades that they make. Baseball is hard enough to predict year-to-year, it’s even harder looking multiple seasons down the road.

As a part of trying to pad the minor league system with added prospects, Ben Cherington moved out some of the bigger names that was with the organization when he took over.

Evaluating any trade is hard, especially early, when the return are mostly prospects. You have to be patient, making sure you give them plenty of time to reach their potential, or to kind of flame out in the minors.

That being said, let’s take a look back at some of Cherington’s bigger trades he’s made with the Pirates, and see how they have gone so far.

Traded: Starling Marte

Received: Brennan Malone, Liover Peguero, $250,000 International Signing Bonus Pool

This was the first move that Cherington made as the GM of the Pirates. This really had the chance to be a great one for him as well, as Peguero became a Top 100 prospect, and is really building back his stock after a down 2022 season.

The International money was used mostly to sign Solomon Maguire, a toolsy outfielder from Austraila, who hasn’t been able to stay on the field due to a blend of injuries and ineffectiveness.

Where this really could have flown into the favor of the Pirates, is Malone. He was one of the highest rated prep arms in the 2019 draft, along with Quinn Priester. Injuries have limited him to just 27 innings pitched since being drafted.

Even with just Peguero, he still has the potential to be an above average player in the majors who is just now getting his first real opportunity in the majors at 22-years-old.

Traded: Joe Musgrove

Received: Hudson Head, David Bednar, Omar Cruz, Drake Fellows, Joey Lucchesi (Flipped To Mets For Endy Rodriguez)

This is the trade paying the biggest dividends right now for the Pirates at the major league level. The hometown hero Bednar has made two All-Stars and is one of the best closers in all of baseball.

Endy Rodriguez has worked his way from Single-A to the majors now, becoming one of the best catching prospects in baseball along the way.

That’s where things get a little less impressive. Hudson Head is one of those very toolsy outfielders that doesn’t seem destined to make it out of pro ball currently. He’s shown some power and strong defense, but just hasn’t been able to consistently and is currently on the injured list.

Omar Cruz is a crafty lefty with a big looping curveball and a plus changeup, but is limited by his control and low fastball velocity. Drake Fellows is another unfortunate tale of how risky pitchers can be, logging less innings than Malone has to this point despite coming out the same draft class.

Traded: Josh Bell

Received: Wil Crowe, Eddy Yean

This is the trade that sparked the talk about his trade history, as Crowe was recently DFA by the Pirates. He had a two year run where he was really relied on to eat some innings, both as a starter and reliever.

Between 2021 and 2022 Crowe logged just south of 200 total innings, with 26 of his 86 appearances being starts.

He found success at the beginning of the 2022 season after being shifted to the bullpen full-time, but the Pirates relied heavily on his arm and it eventually wore him down. Crowe has spent the majority of the season on the injured list, and was ineffective when healthy.

Yean was more of a lottery pick addition to the trade, a hard throwing right-hander who was just about to enter full season baseball. He struggled with his control in Bradenton, and despite being fairly young was still pushed to Greensboro last year.

He hasn’t been able to work his way through the Grasshopper bullpen, and it doesn’t appear he’ll get too far beyond that.

Traded: Adam Frazier

Received: Tucupita Marcano, Jack Suwinski, Michell Miliano

If there is a trade that could eventually challenge the Musgrove deal, it would be this one. It was no secret that Cherington had tried to acquire Marcano previously, but couldn’t.

So much so they also sent back enough money to basically cover the rest of Frazier’s contract to make sure they can get him.

Marcano has provides some great energy, and is one of the more aggressive baserunners in the system, but is a light hitting utility guy at best. He’s filled in admirably with Oneil Cruz injured, but the more he played the more he was exposed.

Miliano has put up some insane strikeout numbers in the minors, but up to this year had some of the worst control in the system. That’s improved a bit this season, but is still bullpen depth in Greensboro.

One of their biggest wins to date on the hitting development side has been Suwinski, who finished in a tie for the NL rookie lead in home runs last year, and his next one this season will pass that mark from 2022.

Suwinski is a legitimate power threat, but struggles with inconsistencies that has seen him basically bounce back and forth from looking like an All-Star to a barely replacement level player - sometimes within the same month.

If he can find any kind of consistent, and hit lefties just a tad better, this trade has the possibility to bring in as much value as the one that brought in Bednar/Endy.

Other Notable

One of the biggest hauls Cherington brought in was in exchange for Jameson Taillon. Already it feels like the trade will be reliant on how much Roansy Contreras is able to bounce back after getting to the FCL to make adjustments.

Miguel Yajure was seen as a high floor back of the rotation guy, but never got things going and isn’t in the organization anymore. Canaan Smith-Njigba has hit the ball hard in Triple-A but never really found a groove in Pittsburgh, and Maikol Escotto has shown some raw power and has been solid at shortstop, but hasn’t been able to hit enough to make it out of Greensboro.

Jacob Stallings netted Connor Scott and Kyle Nicolas. Scott is a very strong defensive outfielder, but the hitting makes him more Double-A depth right now. Nicolas remains intriguing due to his stuff, but it seems at some point a move to the bullpen will be necessary to offset his control.

Final Analysis

Trading more established players for prospects always seems like a risk and it feels rarely work out for the team getting the latter. The Pirates were able to get some great pieces back in these trades, but it hasn’t come without their misses.

For whatever you want to say about the bigger trades, grabbing Ji-Man Choi (however limited), Connor Joe and even to an extent Mark Mathias for lower end prospects have worked fairly well.

The Crowe DFA was a bit of a shocker, but there is no guarantee he gets claimed coming off an injury. If he does clear and heads to Indianapolis there is always the possibility he works his way back into an opportunity.

Unfortunately the upside now of one of their bigger profile trades is now incredibly limited to a potential journey man reliever, and a depth reliever in A-Ball. All that for a former All-Star.