For the second-straight year, the Pirates didn’t make any major moves at the trade deadline.
Pirates GM Neal Huntington and the front office were in numerous talks with other teams as reports had them asking for the likes of Lester, Price, Lackey, Bonifacio and various bullpen arms. At the end of the day, however, the asking price was too high for them as the Pirates would have needed to let go a package deal that included the likes of Josh Bell, Tyler Glasnow, Jameson Taillon, Alan Hanson , Gregory Polanco, Starling Marte or even Pedro Alvarez to get a return.
Will Graves of the AP reports Huntington didn’t want to overspend and was fine with the outcome.
Neal Huntington: “in the final decision process we felt that our best move was to stay as we were at this point.”
— Will Graves (@WillGravesAP) July 31, 2014
Huntington: “we were engaged on a ton of fronts. … We were aggressive … but we felt the right move was no move.”
— Will Graves (@WillGravesAP) July 31, 2014
The Pirates do have time to acquire any added help as the league now turns to the waiver trade season where if a player passes through waivers to the Pirates, they can offer a trade with the team that put the player on waivers or that team can pull the player back onto the roster if they don’t see a trade as fair.
The difference in this period is that teams ahead of the Pirates on the waiver list can “block” the Pirates by placing a claim on the player and then not offering a trade keeping them from reaching Pittsburgh’s spot.
Last year, the Pirates were able to acquire Marlon Byrd and Justin Morneau during the waiver trade period and they will most-likely look to add this season.
The waiver trade period runs through the end of the 2014 World Series.
(Photo Credit: AP)
