Ben Cherington spoke for over 31 minutes this evening about the Pirates' trade deadline activity. Here's a full transcript from his availability:
Q: "You came into this with the stated goal of improving this team for 2026. How do you think that was accomplished over these last couple of days?"
A: "I think we took an important step. We're certainly not finished, but we thought about it as we want to take a step on three things. We want to accomplish three things. One is we want to add more young talent in the organization, talent that we can grow with. No. 2 is to create the right opportunities for August and September for players and pitchers that we believe have the best chance to be part of that team in 2026 that we're building toward. And then finally, if the opportunities were out there that made sense, create some maneuverability, some options for us this offseason where we can reallocate payroll, perhaps, into other parts of the team. We wanted to try to accomplish parts of all three of those things and we believed we did. We certainly have more work to do once it hits November."
Q: "You talk about creating opportunities for players in the minor leagues, but three guys on expiring contracts -- IKF, Heaney and Pham -- weren't moved. What was the reason for retaining them on their expiring deals and do you feel like those three could potentially be taking playing time away from younger players who might have more of an impact in 2026?"
A: "I think I would speak of them one at a time. First of all, we didn't feel like we had to trade anybody. There was no sort of requirement to trade anyone. We were going to take it a case at a time. I think in those three cases, if we start with IKF, I think once we knew that the Ke'Bryan trade was happening, we knew that that opened opportunity, at least for Triolo, and maybe others. But there was at least one really big opportunity opened up there in the infield, which we felt was an important step towards creating that opportunity. I think we probably felt less motivation to move more of our infield, once we knew the Ke'Bryan trade was done. Doesn't mean there won't be opportunities for other young infielders to come up and play. We may do that. We were just in a position to look at that on its merits, and Izzy's been a really solid, dependable player for us at shortstop. He plays his tail off every game. Sets a great example for younger players. Obviously, I know I talk about building toward the best team we possibly can in 2026. Tomorrow night's game in Denver is important to us, too. We're not going to make a trade just to make one. I think in Tommy's case, it's somewhat a similar theme. He's been a pretty remarkable example for younger players in how he's pulled himself out of a very difficult start to the season and showing the toughness to do that. I still think there's going to be opportunities to get him in the lineup and also get others in the lineup in the outfield over the course of August and September. Again, another case where we didn't feel like we had to trade him. We were open to it. Ultimately felt like it made sense to hold on. And then in Heaney's case, I do think we felt it probably made sense to trade one of our starters to try to open up some opportunity for other starters going into August and September. Certainly Oviedo is on the cusp. He's up to a reasonable pitch count now in Triple-A and he's someone we want to see Major League innings for. I think we felt it was probably a good idea to trade one starter. We were open to trading more if the return was the right return and just didn't find those opportunities. Once we knew that the Falter trade was happening, we just decided to hold on Andrew and expect he'll pitch tomorrow night. Looking forward to seeing him pitch tomorrow night."
Q: "Why Falter over Heaney when Falter has better numbers and more years of control?"
A: "We liked the players we got for Bailey and as we looked forward towards 2026, it was really looking toward, 'OK, what starting pitchers in the organization have the best chance to be part of that rotation in 2026, and how do we give those guys the best chance to be ready for that?' As you know, we've got a lot of other guys. I mentioned Oviedo. There are others. Obviously Michael Burrows already getting starts. So as we look towards that period of time in August, September, really trying set up guys towards going into 2026. We felt the combination of the players we got back and the opportunity it opened up for others made sense."
Q: "Was keeping any of these players important so you could get a better feel for Donny over the last couple of months and you wanted to have a more representative roster?"
A: "I don't think it was specifically anything about Donny. Donny's doing a great job and he doesn't need us to make decisions around him. He's an incredible pro and he's going to do the job well. He was going to do the job well tomorrow regardless of what we did today. Donny and I were in touch through all of this. I think it's important that we are prepared and expect to win every night, it's not about an individual person. It's just important for the Pirates. That's the goal tomorrow night."
Q: "What went into the decision to move on from Key? He was sort of the first, major long-term signing and when you made the move, there was a lot of optimism that he was going to be part of the next winning era of Pirates baseball. What was the tipping point?
A: "It's an important question and certainly one that we've really wrestled with. You're exactly right, we can look back and think about the moment that we did the contract and I certainly haven't forgotten what I said at the time and we believe that that contract made sense and certainly believed in Key at that time. Key's done a lot of good things on the baseball field for us in a Pirates uniform. I think the biggest things were we've learned a lot during that period of time since the contract was done. We've learned a lot about other players in the organization, we've learned a lot about Key and, again, as we thought clearly about what gives us the best chance to build a team in 2026 that's better and wins more games, we got to a point where we decided that the combination of the talent we get for Key, the opportunity that opens up for other players and the opportunity that it gives us this offseason to reallocate some of those dollars into other parts of the team added up to making sense. Really wish Key the best. Like him personally. Clearly he's talented and can be a very good player on the baseball field and we'll wish him well and root for him in Cincinnati."
Q: "When you talk about reallocating that money, how much of that is spending it in free agency, and is there a certain area you want to address in free agency if that's the case?"
A: "I mean reallocation can come in all different forms. It can be players here. It can be players we acquire in trades. It certainly could be free agency. We'll get to that work in the offseason. In terms of where it might go into the team, I think we have some more to learn in August and September before we get to that planning. Pretty clearly as we talked about, we need to score more runs to win more games. I think we're going to go, I believe we'll go into the offseason and into next year with a pretty strong base on the pitching and defensive side of the ball. We need to create more runs and again whether that's through trades or free agency, but certainly continued improvement from players who are already here, that all has to happen."
Q: "Do you feel like you were able to get value you liked for David Bednar?"
A: "Yeah, we really did. Let me first say something about David and I'll get back to your question. I think I've said this before and I really mean it — there may not be a single player that I've been around in my career who checked all three of the following boxes: perform on the field, perform off the field and in the community, and be from the city. Pretty special combination. He was a great Pirate. There's no question about it. I have great admiration for him. He's going to do well going forward. So that made this a very difficult one for us. And also very clear that we get to the point sometimes where trading a player like that and adding more talent back into the organization that we can grow with is simply part of building a winning team in Pittsburgh. There's a pretty long history of the Pirates trading closers who turn into the next thing, and it's worked out well in the past. Obviously we hope this one works out well for us in its own way. In terms of the return itself, feel really strongly about the return. We had access to players who were ranked in the way that you were describing. We did, and we preferred this package. Obviously, every team is going to assess the players a little bit differently, and sometimes that could be different from the public rankings also. It was our estimation and our opinion that this was not just a really strong collection of talent to get for David Bednar, but also the best one that we had access to in this market. Flores is the headliner of this deal. We really like Perez and Sanchez also. Flores is the headliner for a number of reasons, where he is: he's already in Triple-A at a premium position. This is a player who we really believe can be a strong defensive and offensive catcher. Again, as we build toward 2026, I think he gives us all kinds of options. We feel like we've made a position of strength at the catching position even stronger, and we'll have opportunities to figure out how that plays into the 2026 roster. So for now, he'll go to Indianapolis, and we'll get to get him on the ground there and get him playing and get to know him better."
Q: "Two other big investments you guys have made are Henry at catcher and Spencer at first base. Flores plays both of those spots. How do you see maximizing their talent in 2026?"
A: "Yeah, I think we have time to figure that out. I think mostly what we wanted to do here is bring in the total combination of players and the single lead player that we felt the strongest about and Flores was that player. We're very excited about the progress and the strides that Henry has made. He's clearly made himself into a very strong defensive player at the major league level. We think the bat's coming. We're seeing progress on the offensive side, too. Endy Rodriguez is a player that we have a lot of belief in, and unfortunately, has missed a lot of time. As we look forward, it's likely that he just needs to get back on the field and play some more to continue to develop those skills. Joey Bart's done some great things for our team and has a lot of talent himself, and there's different things that maybe Joey Bart can do. So I just think it gives us a lot of options, and we'll see where we are when we get to spring training in March of 2026. We don't have to make all those decisions quite yet. We'll take advantage of August and September to put all those players in the best position to play and continue to develop."
Q: "You can look at you guys and say you haven't built enough offense over time and you guys aren't scoring enough runs. What do you say to somebody like that that might have some doubt that you guys are going to be able to do that?"
A: “Well, they’re right that we haven’t yet. Certainly, we have not built a good enough offense yet, so that’s accurate. I believe we can and will and just need to – and doing that in Pittsburgh is going to be a combination of taking chances, making bets on young players who are unproven and we’ve got to continue to do that and be right more often than we’re not right on those. Related to that, obviously, is the environment they’re in and helping those guys take the next steps offensively. And then picking our spots, whether it’s in free agency or trading for a more proven, established hitter at the major league level, which is certainly something that we tried to do in the last week and weren’t able to do this July but we’ll go back at this offseason and try again. It’s going to be all those things. We have not solved that, and we just need to – and I believe we will.”
Q: "You've traded a starting pitcher, a closer, a reliever and a starting third baseman. What do you do at closer and with filling Bailey's spot in the rotation?"
A: “We’re not ready to quite announce the replacement for Bailey because there’s some communication that needs to happen. There’s one in particular I think we’ll get to that next turn and certainly others we’d like to see as we get into August. In terms of the bullpen, I don’t know. Donnie and I haven’t had a chance to think about or talk about that yet, in terms of specifically the ninth inning. When we started 2025, we didn’t know who the closer was. Then, obviously, David went on a tear and kind of earned that role back. So we’ll what happens. There’s a history here of closers emerging and winning that job over time. That’s just going to have to happen again. Honestly, I couldn’t tell you exactly how that’s going to play out, but I do believe that we have a lot of young, talented pitching currently in our bullpen and in Indy and more on the way. Out of that total combination of pitchers, I believe we have enough total talent for that pitcher to emerge. I just can’t tell you exactly who that’s going to be. If we have a lead tomorrow night in Denver and it’s a save situation, Donnie will make a call. I don’t know who will be put in there.”
Q: "Did you find, as you assessed the market, that to get an impact bat at this point in the season would be a more difficult task than it would be during the offseason?"
A: "We definitely made efforts to acquire that bat you're describing in the last week and the last month through the trade market. We probably anticipated that would be hard because there just weren't many proven bats traded and it's also true that if you're a contender, you're not very anxious to give up a proven bat, at least as it's related to David's market. That was always going to be a little bit of a tough match maybe. The bats that were traded, obviously the teams that are in it and have a chance at the playoffs in 2025 are gonna place a lot of value in August and September more than we would. We're going to place more value past 2025. So it probably was going to make it a tough match. We tried, nonetheless. We could have acquired proven major league bats. There were opportunities on the table for us, but not at a price we were comfortable with. We just gotta carry that into the offseason. I think we know a lot more about how teams are thinking about their own players and thinking about our prospects and players in general. We're just going to have to get back into it in November."
Q: Mitch Keller's name was mentioned pretty prominently leading up to the trade deadline and as you got closer to the trade deadline, it sounded like he was off the table. Can you discuss the thoughts that went into that?
A: "We didn't use that term 'off the table.' I think our job was to listen and learn about how teams were thinking about our players and what they were trying to do. In Mitch's case specifically, the way I felt and feel is that Mitch is both unusual and hard to find in the sense of how reliable he's been, the amount of innings he pitches and the amount of starts and innings he's taken over the last three years is certainly amongst the top in baseball. That's not an easy thing to find. He's been a very effective pitcher and I think he can be even better. The combination of all that was going to make it a high bar to cross. We were not motivated or anxious to trade him, we needed to listen. In the end, it was clear to us as we got into today, and probably even late last night, that there just wasn't going to be anything out there that fit the goals that would have actually made us better than Mitch Keller himself. Mitch is really important and I never thought it was all that likely. I felt like we had to listen, and I explained that to Mitch. I'm not surprised that he's a Pirate and I'm very happy he's a Pirate."
Q: You've been vocal in the past that the more likelihood of you improving the big-league lineup is going to come from trades rather than free agency. Do you think there's a higher likelihood that you guys could be a bigger player in free agency this upcoming offseason compared to the past offseasons you've been here?
A: "Could be. I think we need to get into it. Trades and internal improvement, too. Internal players and internal improvement, those are the areas where we're always gonna rely on more than free agency. We've got to operate well and excel in those areas. But, sure, we'll be open-minded about free agency. We've pursued legitimate major-league position players in the past here since I've been here and I'm sure we'll do it again. It's never going to be one thing that solves that issue and helps us figure out the offense that leads to a winning team. It's always going to be lots of things and a lot of that has to happen internally."
Q: I know in some cases you have to take what the market gives you, but did you accomplish what you wanted to at this trade deadline?
A: "I feel very good about what we did, and of course there's always more that you want to do. If you could draw it up perfectly, there's five more things that we would have found, 'Well, this was really the right price for this and we believe that we're really getting value back and it's taking us another step closer to the team we want.' There's always more things like that that you want to do, so I feel really good about the things we did do. I do believe we put ourselves in a stronger position going into August, September and the offseason. Of course there was more we wish we could have done, and we'll just have to get back to that in November."
Q: Among the names of those guys with the potential to fill Bailey's spot, is Bubba's name a part of that conversation yet, and with Braxton, he's been so effective out of the bullpen, do you anticipate him staying on that end of the pitching staff, at least in the short term?
A: "We just haven't had time to talk about the planning yet with this just happening. We obviously have to plan for Falter's start, and we will do that and once the communication is done on that, we'll let everyone know, but otherwise I think we just need to take a breath and have time to think about how to answer those questions of like, 'What are the best opportunities for a guy like Braxton?' At some point, yeah, we want to see Bubba. We want to put him in the best position to be ready for that, and there are others. There may even be others on our team now, but we'll see. I think we just need a little bit more time to answer those questions."
Q: With Flores, do you see him as a guy who could stick it at catcher? And how do you balance having a guy who, obviously it takes a lot to be major-league ready as a defensive catcher, but he's also an exciting bat who you'd love to have in that lineup sooner than later?
A: “We really believe in the defensive part of his game. He’s a different defensive player than Henry, Endy or Joey. He’s just different. Part of what really drew us to him is how much and how fast he’s continued to improve that part of the game and which speaks to the work ethic and the aptitude and his desire. We see a young catcher who’s already a good receiver and framer. We see a young catcher who’s, from our due diligence anyways, has already earned a reputation of being, like, a really smart game caller and helpful with pitchers. He’s a good blocker. The throwing is solid. It’s probably an area that could still improve a little bit. The people in our organization that we trust the most to help us assess catcher defense, which is a unique thing. Catcher defense is unlike any other position. It’s a unique thing. We’ve got people in the organization who are particularly, I think, good at assessing that. I feel really strongly about this kid. I think all that added up, with that confidence on the defensive part of his game and he’s been a really good hitter in the minor leagues too. So if we can get both of that in that position, all the better. He can do other things on the field. He has played first base, as was mentioned, we’ll see if that makes sense down the road. He’s going to go to Indy and he’s going to catch.”
Q: "What went into the decision to take Taylor Rogers and then send him to Chicago?"
A: "Acquiring Taylor from Cincinnati, first of all he’s had an incredible career. Taylor Rogers, obviously respected him a lot from a distance for a long time. That piece of the Cincinnati deal, it was a way to facilitate that deal. It was a piece to make it work for both teams and once we had him, as we looked at the opportunities that we want to provide for pitchers who are already in the organization, in our bullpen currently, or in Triple-A, perhaps, and we want to see more opportunities for in the big leagues, we just felt it made sense, perhaps, if there was a trade to move him along. That has nothing to do with Taylor Rogers who has been a really good pitcher and we respect the heck out of and more about fulfilling the goal of, again, opening up as many innings in our bullpen for guys who have the best chance to part our of bullpen going forward. So it really just came down to that.”
Q: "Some people are going to view some of these moves as salary dumps. What's your response to that?"
A: I’d just go back to the thing I said at the beginning. Our full focus is on building the best possible team for 2026. Coming into this deadline, we had three goals and we felt if we could accomplish some of these three goals, it would put us closer to that goal of building that team we want in 2026. It would put us a step ahead. Again, those three goals were, let’s add as much good, young talent as we can, that we can grow with, let’s create the right amount of opportunity in our team for August and September in terms of innings and playing time, so that players can continue to play and develop and let’s create some flexibility going into the offseason, so that we can do different things and pursue different things, whether that’s through trades or free agency. So, believe that each deal by itself and the combination of the deals put us closer, checked some of those three boxes and put us closer to that goal. Certainly we’re not finished. There’s obviously a lot more work to be done and right now, we’ll turn our attention toward the games on the field and taking advantage of every day to help players get better, put players in a position to get better. Be stronger going into the offseason and then we’ll pick up the player acquisition part of it in November and keep that work going.”
Q: "Where will Evan Sisk report to?"
A: “He’ll probably go to Triple-A to start. This is a left-hand pitcher who we’ve been on for a while. We think he’s a major-league pitcher. I think in the short-term, given where our roster is, he’ll probably go to Triple-A to get going first. We’ll have some other roster announcements tomorrow when everyone gets settled in Denver.”
Q: "When acquiring a guy like Rogers, do you let him know there's a chance you trade him in the next 24 hours?"
A: “I did in this case. He was in Cincinnati and I don’t know Taylor, obviously. Known of him for a long time and yeah, we just had a nice pleasant conversation about the unusual nature of this time of year and I told him how much I respected him and that I thought it probably made sense to for him to sit tight in Cincinnati until we knew more and by late today, we would know more and I would call him and so that’s what I did and he was great about it and wish him well in Chicago."
THE ASYLUM
Cherington's post-deadline transcript
Ben Cherington spoke for over 31 minutes this evening about the Pirates' trade deadline activity. Here's a full transcript from his availability:
Q: "You came into this with the stated goal of improving this team for 2026. How do you think that was accomplished over these last couple of days?"
A: "I think we took an important step. We're certainly not finished, but we thought about it as we want to take a step on three things. We want to accomplish three things. One is we want to add more young talent in the organization, talent that we can grow with. No. 2 is to create the right opportunities for August and September for players and pitchers that we believe have the best chance to be part of that team in 2026 that we're building toward. And then finally, if the opportunities were out there that made sense, create some maneuverability, some options for us this offseason where we can reallocate payroll, perhaps, into other parts of the team. We wanted to try to accomplish parts of all three of those things and we believed we did. We certainly have more work to do once it hits November."
Q: "You talk about creating opportunities for players in the minor leagues, but three guys on expiring contracts -- IKF, Heaney and Pham -- weren't moved. What was the reason for retaining them on their expiring deals and do you feel like those three could potentially be taking playing time away from younger players who might have more of an impact in 2026?"
A: "I think I would speak of them one at a time. First of all, we didn't feel like we had to trade anybody. There was no sort of requirement to trade anyone. We were going to take it a case at a time. I think in those three cases, if we start with IKF, I think once we knew that the Ke'Bryan trade was happening, we knew that that opened opportunity, at least for Triolo, and maybe others. But there was at least one really big opportunity opened up there in the infield, which we felt was an important step towards creating that opportunity. I think we probably felt less motivation to move more of our infield, once we knew the Ke'Bryan trade was done. Doesn't mean there won't be opportunities for other young infielders to come up and play. We may do that. We were just in a position to look at that on its merits, and Izzy's been a really solid, dependable player for us at shortstop. He plays his tail off every game. Sets a great example for younger players. Obviously, I know I talk about building toward the best team we possibly can in 2026. Tomorrow night's game in Denver is important to us, too. We're not going to make a trade just to make one. I think in Tommy's case, it's somewhat a similar theme. He's been a pretty remarkable example for younger players in how he's pulled himself out of a very difficult start to the season and showing the toughness to do that. I still think there's going to be opportunities to get him in the lineup and also get others in the lineup in the outfield over the course of August and September. Again, another case where we didn't feel like we had to trade him. We were open to it. Ultimately felt like it made sense to hold on. And then in Heaney's case, I do think we felt it probably made sense to trade one of our starters to try to open up some opportunity for other starters going into August and September. Certainly Oviedo is on the cusp. He's up to a reasonable pitch count now in Triple-A and he's someone we want to see Major League innings for. I think we felt it was probably a good idea to trade one starter. We were open to trading more if the return was the right return and just didn't find those opportunities. Once we knew that the Falter trade was happening, we just decided to hold on Andrew and expect he'll pitch tomorrow night. Looking forward to seeing him pitch tomorrow night."
Q: "Why Falter over Heaney when Falter has better numbers and more years of control?"
A: "We liked the players we got for Bailey and as we looked forward towards 2026, it was really looking toward, 'OK, what starting pitchers in the organization have the best chance to be part of that rotation in 2026, and how do we give those guys the best chance to be ready for that?' As you know, we've got a lot of other guys. I mentioned Oviedo. There are others. Obviously Michael Burrows already getting starts. So as we look towards that period of time in August, September, really trying set up guys towards going into 2026. We felt the combination of the players we got back and the opportunity it opened up for others made sense."
Q: "Was keeping any of these players important so you could get a better feel for Donny over the last couple of months and you wanted to have a more representative roster?"
A: "I don't think it was specifically anything about Donny. Donny's doing a great job and he doesn't need us to make decisions around him. He's an incredible pro and he's going to do the job well. He was going to do the job well tomorrow regardless of what we did today. Donny and I were in touch through all of this. I think it's important that we are prepared and expect to win every night, it's not about an individual person. It's just important for the Pirates. That's the goal tomorrow night."
Q: "What went into the decision to move on from Key? He was sort of the first, major long-term signing and when you made the move, there was a lot of optimism that he was going to be part of the next winning era of Pirates baseball. What was the tipping point?
A: "It's an important question and certainly one that we've really wrestled with. You're exactly right, we can look back and think about the moment that we did the contract and I certainly haven't forgotten what I said at the time and we believe that that contract made sense and certainly believed in Key at that time. Key's done a lot of good things on the baseball field for us in a Pirates uniform. I think the biggest things were we've learned a lot during that period of time since the contract was done. We've learned a lot about other players in the organization, we've learned a lot about Key and, again, as we thought clearly about what gives us the best chance to build a team in 2026 that's better and wins more games, we got to a point where we decided that the combination of the talent we get for Key, the opportunity that opens up for other players and the opportunity that it gives us this offseason to reallocate some of those dollars into other parts of the team added up to making sense. Really wish Key the best. Like him personally. Clearly he's talented and can be a very good player on the baseball field and we'll wish him well and root for him in Cincinnati."
Q: "When you talk about reallocating that money, how much of that is spending it in free agency, and is there a certain area you want to address in free agency if that's the case?"
A: "I mean reallocation can come in all different forms. It can be players here. It can be players we acquire in trades. It certainly could be free agency. We'll get to that work in the offseason. In terms of where it might go into the team, I think we have some more to learn in August and September before we get to that planning. Pretty clearly as we talked about, we need to score more runs to win more games. I think we're going to go, I believe we'll go into the offseason and into next year with a pretty strong base on the pitching and defensive side of the ball. We need to create more runs and again whether that's through trades or free agency, but certainly continued improvement from players who are already here, that all has to happen."
Q: "Do you feel like you were able to get value you liked for David Bednar?"
A: "Yeah, we really did. Let me first say something about David and I'll get back to your question. I think I've said this before and I really mean it — there may not be a single player that I've been around in my career who checked all three of the following boxes: perform on the field, perform off the field and in the community, and be from the city. Pretty special combination. He was a great Pirate. There's no question about it. I have great admiration for him. He's going to do well going forward. So that made this a very difficult one for us. And also very clear that we get to the point sometimes where trading a player like that and adding more talent back into the organization that we can grow with is simply part of building a winning team in Pittsburgh. There's a pretty long history of the Pirates trading closers who turn into the next thing, and it's worked out well in the past. Obviously we hope this one works out well for us in its own way. In terms of the return itself, feel really strongly about the return. We had access to players who were ranked in the way that you were describing. We did, and we preferred this package. Obviously, every team is going to assess the players a little bit differently, and sometimes that could be different from the public rankings also. It was our estimation and our opinion that this was not just a really strong collection of talent to get for David Bednar, but also the best one that we had access to in this market. Flores is the headliner of this deal. We really like Perez and Sanchez also. Flores is the headliner for a number of reasons, where he is: he's already in Triple-A at a premium position. This is a player who we really believe can be a strong defensive and offensive catcher. Again, as we build toward 2026, I think he gives us all kinds of options. We feel like we've made a position of strength at the catching position even stronger, and we'll have opportunities to figure out how that plays into the 2026 roster. So for now, he'll go to Indianapolis, and we'll get to get him on the ground there and get him playing and get to know him better."
Q: "Two other big investments you guys have made are Henry at catcher and Spencer at first base. Flores plays both of those spots. How do you see maximizing their talent in 2026?"
A: "Yeah, I think we have time to figure that out. I think mostly what we wanted to do here is bring in the total combination of players and the single lead player that we felt the strongest about and Flores was that player. We're very excited about the progress and the strides that Henry has made. He's clearly made himself into a very strong defensive player at the major league level. We think the bat's coming. We're seeing progress on the offensive side, too. Endy Rodriguez is a player that we have a lot of belief in, and unfortunately, has missed a lot of time. As we look forward, it's likely that he just needs to get back on the field and play some more to continue to develop those skills. Joey Bart's done some great things for our team and has a lot of talent himself, and there's different things that maybe Joey Bart can do. So I just think it gives us a lot of options, and we'll see where we are when we get to spring training in March of 2026. We don't have to make all those decisions quite yet. We'll take advantage of August and September to put all those players in the best position to play and continue to develop."
Q: "You can look at you guys and say you haven't built enough offense over time and you guys aren't scoring enough runs. What do you say to somebody like that that might have some doubt that you guys are going to be able to do that?"
A: “Well, they’re right that we haven’t yet. Certainly, we have not built a good enough offense yet, so that’s accurate. I believe we can and will and just need to – and doing that in Pittsburgh is going to be a combination of taking chances, making bets on young players who are unproven and we’ve got to continue to do that and be right more often than we’re not right on those. Related to that, obviously, is the environment they’re in and helping those guys take the next steps offensively. And then picking our spots, whether it’s in free agency or trading for a more proven, established hitter at the major league level, which is certainly something that we tried to do in the last week and weren’t able to do this July but we’ll go back at this offseason and try again. It’s going to be all those things. We have not solved that, and we just need to – and I believe we will.”
Q: "You've traded a starting pitcher, a closer, a reliever and a starting third baseman. What do you do at closer and with filling Bailey's spot in the rotation?"
A: “We’re not ready to quite announce the replacement for Bailey because there’s some communication that needs to happen. There’s one in particular I think we’ll get to that next turn and certainly others we’d like to see as we get into August. In terms of the bullpen, I don’t know. Donnie and I haven’t had a chance to think about or talk about that yet, in terms of specifically the ninth inning. When we started 2025, we didn’t know who the closer was. Then, obviously, David went on a tear and kind of earned that role back. So we’ll what happens. There’s a history here of closers emerging and winning that job over time. That’s just going to have to happen again. Honestly, I couldn’t tell you exactly how that’s going to play out, but I do believe that we have a lot of young, talented pitching currently in our bullpen and in Indy and more on the way. Out of that total combination of pitchers, I believe we have enough total talent for that pitcher to emerge. I just can’t tell you exactly who that’s going to be. If we have a lead tomorrow night in Denver and it’s a save situation, Donnie will make a call. I don’t know who will be put in there.”
Q: "Did you find, as you assessed the market, that to get an impact bat at this point in the season would be a more difficult task than it would be during the offseason?"
A: "We definitely made efforts to acquire that bat you're describing in the last week and the last month through the trade market. We probably anticipated that would be hard because there just weren't many proven bats traded and it's also true that if you're a contender, you're not very anxious to give up a proven bat, at least as it's related to David's market. That was always going to be a little bit of a tough match maybe. The bats that were traded, obviously the teams that are in it and have a chance at the playoffs in 2025 are gonna place a lot of value in August and September more than we would. We're going to place more value past 2025. So it probably was going to make it a tough match. We tried, nonetheless. We could have acquired proven major league bats. There were opportunities on the table for us, but not at a price we were comfortable with. We just gotta carry that into the offseason. I think we know a lot more about how teams are thinking about their own players and thinking about our prospects and players in general. We're just going to have to get back into it in November."
Q: Mitch Keller's name was mentioned pretty prominently leading up to the trade deadline and as you got closer to the trade deadline, it sounded like he was off the table. Can you discuss the thoughts that went into that?
A: "We didn't use that term 'off the table.' I think our job was to listen and learn about how teams were thinking about our players and what they were trying to do. In Mitch's case specifically, the way I felt and feel is that Mitch is both unusual and hard to find in the sense of how reliable he's been, the amount of innings he pitches and the amount of starts and innings he's taken over the last three years is certainly amongst the top in baseball. That's not an easy thing to find. He's been a very effective pitcher and I think he can be even better. The combination of all that was going to make it a high bar to cross. We were not motivated or anxious to trade him, we needed to listen. In the end, it was clear to us as we got into today, and probably even late last night, that there just wasn't going to be anything out there that fit the goals that would have actually made us better than Mitch Keller himself. Mitch is really important and I never thought it was all that likely. I felt like we had to listen, and I explained that to Mitch. I'm not surprised that he's a Pirate and I'm very happy he's a Pirate."
Q: You've been vocal in the past that the more likelihood of you improving the big-league lineup is going to come from trades rather than free agency. Do you think there's a higher likelihood that you guys could be a bigger player in free agency this upcoming offseason compared to the past offseasons you've been here?
A: "Could be. I think we need to get into it. Trades and internal improvement, too. Internal players and internal improvement, those are the areas where we're always gonna rely on more than free agency. We've got to operate well and excel in those areas. But, sure, we'll be open-minded about free agency. We've pursued legitimate major-league position players in the past here since I've been here and I'm sure we'll do it again. It's never going to be one thing that solves that issue and helps us figure out the offense that leads to a winning team. It's always going to be lots of things and a lot of that has to happen internally."
Q: I know in some cases you have to take what the market gives you, but did you accomplish what you wanted to at this trade deadline?
A: "I feel very good about what we did, and of course there's always more that you want to do. If you could draw it up perfectly, there's five more things that we would have found, 'Well, this was really the right price for this and we believe that we're really getting value back and it's taking us another step closer to the team we want.' There's always more things like that that you want to do, so I feel really good about the things we did do. I do believe we put ourselves in a stronger position going into August, September and the offseason. Of course there was more we wish we could have done, and we'll just have to get back to that in November."
Q: Among the names of those guys with the potential to fill Bailey's spot, is Bubba's name a part of that conversation yet, and with Braxton, he's been so effective out of the bullpen, do you anticipate him staying on that end of the pitching staff, at least in the short term?
A: "We just haven't had time to talk about the planning yet with this just happening. We obviously have to plan for Falter's start, and we will do that and once the communication is done on that, we'll let everyone know, but otherwise I think we just need to take a breath and have time to think about how to answer those questions of like, 'What are the best opportunities for a guy like Braxton?' At some point, yeah, we want to see Bubba. We want to put him in the best position to be ready for that, and there are others. There may even be others on our team now, but we'll see. I think we just need a little bit more time to answer those questions."
Q: With Flores, do you see him as a guy who could stick it at catcher? And how do you balance having a guy who, obviously it takes a lot to be major-league ready as a defensive catcher, but he's also an exciting bat who you'd love to have in that lineup sooner than later?
A: “We really believe in the defensive part of his game. He’s a different defensive player than Henry, Endy or Joey. He’s just different. Part of what really drew us to him is how much and how fast he’s continued to improve that part of the game and which speaks to the work ethic and the aptitude and his desire. We see a young catcher who’s already a good receiver and framer. We see a young catcher who’s, from our due diligence anyways, has already earned a reputation of being, like, a really smart game caller and helpful with pitchers. He’s a good blocker. The throwing is solid. It’s probably an area that could still improve a little bit. The people in our organization that we trust the most to help us assess catcher defense, which is a unique thing. Catcher defense is unlike any other position. It’s a unique thing. We’ve got people in the organization who are particularly, I think, good at assessing that. I feel really strongly about this kid. I think all that added up, with that confidence on the defensive part of his game and he’s been a really good hitter in the minor leagues too. So if we can get both of that in that position, all the better. He can do other things on the field. He has played first base, as was mentioned, we’ll see if that makes sense down the road. He’s going to go to Indy and he’s going to catch.”
Q: "What went into the decision to take Taylor Rogers and then send him to Chicago?"
A: "Acquiring Taylor from Cincinnati, first of all he’s had an incredible career. Taylor Rogers, obviously respected him a lot from a distance for a long time. That piece of the Cincinnati deal, it was a way to facilitate that deal. It was a piece to make it work for both teams and once we had him, as we looked at the opportunities that we want to provide for pitchers who are already in the organization, in our bullpen currently, or in Triple-A, perhaps, and we want to see more opportunities for in the big leagues, we just felt it made sense, perhaps, if there was a trade to move him along. That has nothing to do with Taylor Rogers who has been a really good pitcher and we respect the heck out of and more about fulfilling the goal of, again, opening up as many innings in our bullpen for guys who have the best chance to part our of bullpen going forward. So it really just came down to that.”
Q: "Some people are going to view some of these moves as salary dumps. What's your response to that?"
A: I’d just go back to the thing I said at the beginning. Our full focus is on building the best possible team for 2026. Coming into this deadline, we had three goals and we felt if we could accomplish some of these three goals, it would put us closer to that goal of building that team we want in 2026. It would put us a step ahead. Again, those three goals were, let’s add as much good, young talent as we can, that we can grow with, let’s create the right amount of opportunity in our team for August and September in terms of innings and playing time, so that players can continue to play and develop and let’s create some flexibility going into the offseason, so that we can do different things and pursue different things, whether that’s through trades or free agency. So, believe that each deal by itself and the combination of the deals put us closer, checked some of those three boxes and put us closer to that goal. Certainly we’re not finished. There’s obviously a lot more work to be done and right now, we’ll turn our attention toward the games on the field and taking advantage of every day to help players get better, put players in a position to get better. Be stronger going into the offseason and then we’ll pick up the player acquisition part of it in November and keep that work going.”
Q: "Where will Evan Sisk report to?"
A: “He’ll probably go to Triple-A to start. This is a left-hand pitcher who we’ve been on for a while. We think he’s a major-league pitcher. I think in the short-term, given where our roster is, he’ll probably go to Triple-A to get going first. We’ll have some other roster announcements tomorrow when everyone gets settled in Denver.”
Q: "When acquiring a guy like Rogers, do you let him know there's a chance you trade him in the next 24 hours?"
A: “I did in this case. He was in Cincinnati and I don’t know Taylor, obviously. Known of him for a long time and yeah, we just had a nice pleasant conversation about the unusual nature of this time of year and I told him how much I respected him and that I thought it probably made sense to for him to sit tight in Cincinnati until we knew more and by late today, we would know more and I would call him and so that’s what I did and he was great about it and wish him well in Chicago."
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