Could Pirates Trade Promising Pitcher For Impact Bat?
The balance of using their pitching depth to improve the offense has been one of the top storylines for the Pittsburgh Pirates this offseason.
Pittsburgh did it once when it traded a trio of pitchers, including right-handed starting pitcher Luis Ortiz, to the Cleveland Guardians for left-handed hitting first baseman Spencer Horwitz. Could an even bigger move be in store for the Pirates to improve an offense that ranked in the bottom-10 in nearly every major hitting stat last year?
Bleacher Report's Zachary Rymer listed eight realistic trades that could happen before the 2025 season. Among them was the Pirates trading promising right-handed starting pitcher Jared Jones to the Boston Red Sox for left-handed hitting first baseman Triston Casas and middle infielder David Hamilton.
"What the Pirates have less of is impact bats, which has been a theme for a better part of the last decade," Rymer wrote. "Casas has enormous potential in this regard, as his 222 games at the MLB level have yielded a .830 OPS and 42 home runs."
The addition of Casas would likely prompt the Pirates to move Horwitz to right field, which remains one of their most glaring needs. Horwitz made 70 starts in the outfield in the minor leagues and made just two errors.
Casas' bat would be a welcome addition for the Pirates. Even with a rib injury limiting him to just 63 games last season, Casas still batted .241/.337/.462 with 13 home runs and 32 RBIs. In the lone year Casas, 24, played a full season, he batted .263/.367/.490 with 24 home runs and 65 RBIs and posted a 129 OPS+.
Hamilton, 27, improved exponentially at the plate in 2024, batting .248/.303/.395 with eight home runs and 28 RBIs and posted a 2.6 Wins Above Replacement. He also proved to be dangerous on the base paths, stealing 33 bases.
Jones went 6-8 with a 4.14 ERA across 22 starts and struck out 132 batters over 121.2 innings pitched in his rookie season. A rough second half that included Jones missing nearly two months due to a strained right lat overshadowed a strong first half, as he went 5-6 with a 3.56 ERA in 16 starts and struck out 98 batters in 91 innings pitched.
While the Pirates are built to withstand trading some of their major league pitching for an impact bat, there's certainly a limit to it. Jones flashed front-of-the-rotation type of stuff when he was healthy in 2024, and parting with a pitcher of that caliber just one season into their MLB career could backfire if the player he's traded for doesn't turn into the offensive presence Pittsburgh desperately needs.