Ben Cherington Addresses Pirates Trade Candidates

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates will have a busy MLB trade deadline on July 31, with players moving around and coming in.

The Pirates currently hold the third worst record in baseball at 39-61 after 100 games and will most likely sell some of their best assets, which they believe will boost the team for the future.

Pittsburgh already made one trade, as they sent utilityman Adam Frazier to the Kansas City Royals for Triple-A shortstop Cam Devanney on July 16.

Frazier signed with the Pirates on a one-year deal and with the Pirates in the position they were in, a trade isn't surprising at all.

The Pirates also have other players who signed one-year deals in the offseason that they will likely move as well, in left-handers, starting pitcher Andrew Heaney and relief pitcher Caleb Ferguson, plus outfielder Tommy Pham.

Starting shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who the Pirates acquired in a trade last season from the Toronto Blue Jays, is in the final year of his two-year, $15 million contract, and already has teams interested in him as well.

Cherington spoke with Pirates play-by-play announcer Greg Brown on his radio show on 93.7 The Fan and said that he started receiving phone calls on players back on July 14 during the second day of the 2025 MLB Draft.

He also noted that while players sign with the Pirates looking to win, trades are a part of the business and they know that this can come, depending on the outcome of the season.

“Yeah, I think in those cases they absolutely understand that [they could be traded],” Cherington said. “It doesn’t mean that they’re gonna be traded and honestly we don’t know. I expect we’ll continue to get phone calls on those players and others as we go forward.”

The Pirates have players under long-team control that others teams are also looking at, including right-handed starting pitcher Mitch Keller, third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes, right-handed relief pitchers in David Bednar and Dennis Santana, as well as outfielder Bryan Reynolds.

Keller, Hayes and Reynolds still have multiple years on their long-term contracts, while both Bednar and Santana have an extra year of arbitration before hitting free agency after 2026.

Cherington has his number one goal of improving the team for the 2026 season, which may include trading those long-term players, but it provides a drastic change in trade discussion over

"Our goal is to win in 2026, so we’re looking to improve the team going into 2026," Cherington said. "So anything that would involve a player path that has a chance to be a Pirate past 2025 is gonna be a different conversation than a player who’s a free agent at the end of the year."

The Pirates rank as one of the worst hitting teams in baseball in 2025, with the worst slugging percentage (.339) and OPS (.639), plus the least amount of runs (333), doubles (133), home runs (66) and RBIs (322)

Cherington and the front office targeting MLB-ready or prospects that excel at the plate is the likely strategy for the trade deadline.