MILWAUKEE — Selling wasn’t an option.
Although the Pirates didn’t exactly arrive at Monday’s MLB Trade Deadline on a heater, there’s enough belief in this group throughout the organization that their direction was simple.
The expectation remains reaching the postseason.
And this team — with the right reinforcements added — should be good enough to do that.
“Ultimately we believe we should give this group a chance to be as good as it can be for the next two months,” Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said. “The group loves playing together. You can see that. You can see the fight and the bounce-back when we do have a tough day.
“We’re just going to give it everything we have for the next two months and see where the outcomes take us.”
There are still plenty of unknowns, which we’ll try to decipher, but Cherington touched on what the day as a whole should’ve told us: The belief here is real.
Cherington said he entertained trades for position players with injuries to Oneil Cruz, Konnor Griffin and Ryan O’Hearn. However, the GM didn’t feel there were any that truly made sense when weighing acquisition cost and property distributing playing time.
I tend to agree.
The Pirates have work to do against left-handed pitching, sure. Their offense has also been in a lull recently. But this is still a top-five group throughout Major League Baseball.
It hasn’t been that way for the pitching staff, and what Cherington did should have an important ripple-effect. Here’s what I mean:
• Luke Weaver and Mason Montgomery are your top two guys, a righty and a lefty.
• That bumps Gregory Soto, Camilo Doval and Kirby Yates into setup territory, roles they’re plenty equipped handle. I like the matchup options here, too.
• Yohan Ramirez and Lake Bachar, acquired Monday from the Marlins, comprise the Swiss Army Knife division of the operation, the two righties capable of doing multiple things.
• The Pirates really like Evan Sisk as the first lefty out of the ‘pen, it that makes sense. Sisk has the best ERA (2.23) of anyone on the staff, and it would be extremely surprising if he didn’t have a spot when he officially returns.
That leaves decisions with Wilber Dotel and Carmen Mlodzinski, and it shouldn’t be hard.
Dotel has been a starter and should return to Triple-A to build back volume in case of emergency. The Pirates should also add Mlodzinski back to the rotation in Mitch Keller’s spot after he was lost for the year with a teres muscle injury in his right shoulder.
Mlodzinski went 4-3 with a 3.76 ERA in 11 games prior to Jared Jones returning. He lost his job because of how the Pirates wanted to construct their pitching staff, not a lack of performance. They used him the way they did in case something like this happened.
Neither Cherington nor manager Don Kelly was willing to commit to a concrete plan forward Monday night in Milwaukee, but Cherington did say adding Weaver, Yates and Bachar would allow the Pirates to address needs other places.
“We feel with the number of pitchers we added, that maybe in indirect ways we've also added some depth back, whether it's traditional starting depth or at least bulk depth,” Cherington said. “Whether it's literally guys added to the team or how we might be able to deploy other pitchers who are already here, we’ll see.”
Now, let’s connect a few more dots.
Cherington said the Keller injury news was “a layer” in how the Pirates approached adding Yates and Bachar. In discussing the latter, Cherington emphasized the importance of that high-leverage bulk role and Bachar’s comfortability in it.
In 38 appearances while pitching to a 3.84 ERA, Bachar has completed two innings 17 times. He’s also held righties to a .170 batting average against and a .554 OPS, striking out more than a batter per inning.
“We think about the value in Carmen’s role,” Cherington said. “We just think this is a really good fit, someone who has already performed in that role at the major league level with success and has a lot of control ahead of him.”
That’s one way the puzzle pieces all fit. Another was having a true veteran in Yates.
He’s experienced pretty much everything at this level, pitching for seven teams over 12 seasons, producing lousy results and also some pretty darn incredible ones.
Around 10 years ago, Yates was nearly forced out of baseball. But after learning a splitter and making a few other changes, he had an MLB-high 41 saves in 2019 and amassed 33 in 2024 (7th).
Using Yates against righties (.155 batting average and .432 OPS against) because you want to, not because you have to, and because he’s surrounded by actual depth, makes sense.
Yates and Camilo Doval also offer important perspective that others in the group simply don’t have.
“He's kind of seen everything, and there's not much he'll be fazed by,” Cherington said of Yates. “So, we just felt on top of the guys that have more control, adding that personality into the group for the next two months was a little bit of a cherry on top.”
We saw what having more depth can do for a lineup. Everyone slots into their proper roles. Nobody is asked to do too much. Now, it’s time the Pirates replicate that process on the pitching side.
It’s why it never made sense to sell ... but rather try to fix the most glaring weakness in a smart, aggressive way.
Jason Mackey: Jason.Mackey@Pirates.com and @JMackey_PGH on X.