The Pittsburgh Pirates are on the outside looking into the playoffs as they end the second straight season with a 76-86 record.
Pittsburgh had a chance to make the playoffs until a ten-game losing streak at the beginning of August, which hurt their playoff hopes. The Pirate’s pitching staff excelled this season, led by rookie superstar Paul Skenes. Unfortunately, their offense struggled throughout the season, placing in the bottom third of the league in almost all offensive statistics.
One potential solution to Pittsburgh’s offensive issues for next season could be for them to trade some of their surplus of young pitching prospects to bring some bats into the lineup according to Griffin Floyd of Pittsburgh Baseball Now.
“The Pirates also have promising starting pitching prospects like Bubba Chandler, Braxton Ashcraft and Thomas Harrington likely to make their big league debuts before the end of next season,” Floyd wrote. “Mike Burrows, another highly-touted option, made his MLB debut at Yankee Stadium on Saturday.”
“For some of the Pirates’ pitching prospects, their trade value is the highest it will ever be. Bullpen woes aside—which are notoriously fickle from year to year—Pittsburgh has the makings of an excellent pitching staff. With more arms than they know what to do with (and well-documented financial restrictions), they’ll need to turn to the trade block in order to overhaul an offense that posted the fourth-worst OPS in all of baseball this season.”
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Outside of Oneil Cruz and Bryan Reynolds, the Pirates do not have many threats offensively. They added Bryan De La Cruz at the trade deadline this year, which was positive for the lineup, especially since he had three years of arbitration control remaining. Finding a team that needs pitching in exchange for young hitters would be a great way for Pittsburgh to improve its roster.
More MLB: Pirates Could Potentially Deal Mitch Keller To Improve Roster
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