The list of second basemen the Pittsburgh Pirates are interested in has no end.
The latest name to pop up in the rumor mill is the San Diego Padres' Jake Cronenworth. He joins a line that includes the St. Louis Cardinals' Brendan Donovan, the Tampa Bay Rays' Brandon Lowe, the New York Mets' Jeff McNeil, and the Arizona Diamondbacks' Ketel Marte.
Cronenworth might not be a high-impact bat the Pirates are hoping to land, but he is a solid left-handed hitter who would bolster a weak lineup heavy on right-handed hitters. The 31-year-old hit .246/.367/.377 with 11 home runs this season in 135 games. The downside is that Cronenworth had minus-8 defensive runs saved, which is still three better than the minus-11 of Pirates second baseman Nick Gonzales.
The Padres likely wouldn't be so eager to trade Cronenworth if he had continued to perform as he did in his first two full MLB seasons in 2021 and 2022, when he hit .252/.336/.424 with 38 home runs and was selected to the All-Star Game each year. In the three seasons since then, Cronenworth has a .239/.333/.382 slash line with 38 homers.
However, the Pirates are interested in Cronenworth because he should be easy to acquire. He has five years and $61.5 million remaining on a seven-year, $80-million contract. Industry sources say the Padres would like to offload Croneworth's salary and spend on starting pitching after the departures of right-handers Dylan Cease and Michael King in free agency this winter.
Cronenworth's contract is affordable. And if the Pirates took on all or most of that money, they wouldn't need to give up much to the Padres in return.
With their need for starters, the Padres might take right-handed prospect Thomas Harrington, who had a down year in 2025. Harrington made his major-league debut and had a 15.88 ERA in three games and was 7-9 with a 5.34 ERA in 21 games (20 starts) with Triple-A Indianapolis. However, Harrington is just 24, and Baseball America ranked him as the game's 74th-best prospect going into spring training.
Suppose the Pirates could get Cronenworth for Harrington and a long-shot prospect from the lower levels of the minor leagues. In that case, it's something general manager Ben Cherington would need to consider.