Sitting in fourth place in the National League Central, we still have to give some credit to what the Pittsburgh Pirates have been able to do throughout the year. The Pirates are unfortunately in a tough National League Central at the moment, sitting at 23-19.
The NLCentral is the only division in Major League Baseball in which every team is at least .500 at the moment.
There's been a lot of really good baseball played, with the Chicago Cubs arguably being the best team in the game at 27-14.
Regardless, there's no debate that the Pirates need more on both sides of the baseball at the trade deadline.
It's going to be tough for them to win the division because of how well some of these teams have played, but there's no excuse for them not to make the playoffs if they make the necessary moves at the deadline. Of course, we have to worry about whether they'll make the right moves, since the ownership hasn't necessarily done all the right things in the past.
While making moves will be a big task, it's also important that Pittsburgh doesn't make the wrong ones.
According to the latest, there isn't an expectation that they'll take a chance on a player like Matt Chapman, which is a very good sign that Pittsburgh isn't being emotional about what it wants to do.
“A quality third baseman who can hit would likely carry a big contract. A talk show proposed getting San Francisco’s Matt Chapman. Chapman, 33, is having a bad season. Just one home run to date. Chapman is also on a $151 million contract that runs through 2030. Nutting would never take that on. He shouldn’t.
“The Pirates shouldn’t trade a legit pitcher, either, or an above-the-line prospect. So, except for maybe a meh trade-deadline rental, the Pirates probably got what they got. Improvement or adjustment from within doesn’t offer much promise, save the return of Jones,” Mark Madden of TribLive wrote.
I'm a big believer that making a move just to make a move never works out as well as anybody wants.
There's definitely a feeling that the Pirates have to do something, but Chapman just isn't that guy at this stage of his career. He's still a plus defender, but the Pirates need help on the offensive side of things for the most part, and unfortunately, the Platinum Glove winner just isn't that guy any longer.