Pirates General Manager Reveals Biggest Trade Deadline Priority

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been playing phenomenal baseball lately, winning six in a row and eight of their last 10 games. They’re coming off one of their greatest homestands in franchise history and have a winning record over their last 50 games.

However, the Pirates are still 12 games below .500 and last in the National League Central. Even with their recent surge, they still have only a 0.4% chance of making the playoffs, according to FanGraphs.

With remote postseason odds and the July 31 Trade Deadline rapidly approaching, Pittsburgh is positioned to sell this month, barring a historic hot streak over the next four weeks.

That puts the Pirates in an interesting position as one of the few sellers at the deadline. Many teams will be looking to shore up their bullpen or bolster their rotation, and Pittsburgh has plenty of arms to spare.

The Pirates have an opportunity to acquire young talent at the deadline and keep building around Paul Skenes. In particular, general manager Ben Cherington says he’s focused on adding offense.

The Pirates are still expected to sell at the deadline. Plenty of teams need what the Pirates have: starting pitching and relief help.

With that, I took a look at five potential trade partners and what the Pirates could possibly get in return: https://t.co/JBDj1VcS3r

— Colin Beazley (@colin_beazley) July 3, 2025

“For at least two years now, it’s been very clear that to win, to deliver more to our fans, we’ve got to create offense,” Cherington told The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “[We’ve put] an incredible amount of work and focus going into solving that. And all that hasn’t bubbled up at the major league level obviously. So we have to, first of all, be accountable for that and just stay at it.”

Recent winning streak aside, scoring runs has been a major issue for Pittsburgh this season. The Pirates rank 27th in runs per game at 3.52, tied with the lowly Colorado Rockies. They’re also 29th in home runs (61), 24th in batting average (.234), 29th in slugging percentage (.347) and 29th in OPS (.654).

Pittsburgh’s lackluster lineup is a major reason why Skenes has only four wins in 18 starts this season despite leading the National League with a 2.03 ERA. Similarly, Mitch Keller is 3-10 despite his strong 3.64 ERA (116 ERA+).

If the Pirates want to start winning more games, they need to start giving their pitchers better run support. Oneil Cruz and Andrew McCutchen are the only regulars with an OPS over .700, so Pittsburgh’s lineup could desperately use more quality bats.

Cherington has plenty of time, assets and potential trade partners to work with, so now it’s up to him to see what’s out there and start making some moves.

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