Last year's David Bednar trade is going to haunt the 2026 Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen had another meltdown on Friday night during an 11-9, 10-inning loss to the Philadelphia Phillies. The Pirates had leads of 6-0, 8-3 and 8-5 in the game, with the latter lead being the score going into the top of the ninth inning with a chance to secure a big win to open an important weekend series.

It was at that point that they turned to new closer Gregory Soto to face the bottom of the Phillies lineup.

Thanks to an error from rookie shortstop Konnor Griffin, a couple of walks from Soto and a near grand slam from Bryce Harper that smacked off the top of the right field wall, he let the entire lead slip away. 

Things continued to unravel in the top of the 10th inning when Dennis Santana (the former closer) allowed three more runs. 

A lot of these bullpen problems go back to a misguided trade the Pirates made at last year's trade deadline.

David Bednar trade is still haunting Pirates

It was at last year's deadline that the Pirates traded their established closer, David Bednar, to the New York Yankees for a collection of minor leaguers. It was a controversial trade at the time given that Bednar is from Pittsburgh, loved being a Pirate and had been one of the most effective relief pitchers in baseball for several years.

It also came at a time where there was mounting pressure on the Pirates to field a competitive team around Cy Young Award-winning pitcher Paul Skenes. 

If they had any delusions of winning during Skenes' Pirates tenure, it would have made some sense to keep a top relief pitcher.

The Pirates opted to try to sell at high value and get young talent back.

It has not worked.

The centerpiece of the Bednar trade was catcher Rafael Flores, which even at the time seemed underwhelming. Flores is 25 years old and not only still in Triple-A, but he has managed only a .688 OPS this season and is buried behind Henry Davis, Joey Bart and Endy Rodriguez on the Pirates' depth catching depth chart. None of those players are effective major leaguers at this point, and Flores has been so bad he is not even mentioned in passing as a potential catching option. 

Bednar, meanwhile, has continued on as a rock-solid, reliable bullpen arm for the Yankees. 

It would have been one thing if the Pirates had moved Bednar for somebody that could help them, or make them noticeably better somewhere else on the roster.

They didn't. 

Even worse, they didn't come close.

Now their bullpen has become a major weakness that is costing them games and potentially ruining what could have been (and what should be) a potential playoff team.