Pirates GM Ben Cherington already listening to trade talk, says no players are off limits

With the MLB trade deadline 10 days away, Ben Cherington made it clear the Pittsburgh Pirates are active in trade talks, and no one in the organization is untouchable.

Cherington is approaching his first trade deadline as Pirates general manager with the mindset of making the club stronger for the future, which isn’t difficult given they have the worst record and one of the lowest payrolls in baseball.

“I really do believe there’s a lot of players on this team who will be part of our team when we’re good, and I’m excited about that,” Cherington said. “For a team like the Pirates, we’re going to have to be willing to make trades, and sometimes that’s going to involve players who have been good players and have meant something to the Pirates and fans may be attached to.”

Cherington refused to speak specifically about individual players, but that was his response to a direct question about the consideration of facing fan backlash if the Pirates were to deal All-Star first baseman Josh Bell, who hit 37 home runs and had 116 RBIs in 2019.

Pirates fans protested when the team traded Andrew McCutchen, the face of the franchise, and ace pitcher Gerrit Cole in separate deals in a three-day window in January 2018. One of Cherington’s first moves as Pirates GM was to trade two-time Gold Glove winner Starling Marte to Arizona for two 19-year-old prospects in January.

The Pirates have several veterans on expiring contracts who could be appealing to contenders, from closer Keone Kela to left-handed pitcher Derek Holland to speedy center fielder Jarrod Dyson. They also could consider moving their highest-paid position players, like Bell, right fielder Gregory Polanco and second baseman Adam Frazier.

“There’s no one player that, you know, we can’t talk about,” Cherington said. “There’s no one player that we need to move, either. So we’ll just continue to engage in the conversations and see if there’s ways we can help ourselves going forward over the next several days.”

Cherington has included rookie manager Derek Shelton in baseball operations meetings and invited his input on decisions. Shelton said there is a core of players the Pirates would like to build around, though he’s remaining open-minded to any moves aimed at improving the club.

“I have outlined certain people that we would like to have moving forward, and I think our group has done that,” Shelton said. “We also have to be very smart and willing to listen because it takes two people to make a deal, if there’s a deal to be made at the deadline. When we get to that point, if we get to that point, then we will sit down and discuss them.”

The Pirates traded left fielder Corey Dickerson to Philadelphia last summer for cash considerations, including international bonus pool money. But former general manager Neal Huntington declining to deal two-time All-Star closer Felipe Vazquez backfired when Vazquez was arrested on charges related to a sexual relationship with a minor.

Cherington is listening to trade talk and willing to make a deal but warned that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s conducting a fire sale.

“I think we need to work as hard as we can to see if there’s opportunities between now and the deadline to get better and help ourselves, put ourselves in a stronger position going forward,” Cherington said. “But we can’t force it. If you start thinking that you have to do something, it almost always leads to mistakes. We need to work as hard as we can to see if we can find opportunities to help us get stronger and put us in a better position, but I don’t feel like there’s anything we have to do.”