For a few years now, the Pirates have had a couple of catchers as two of their top prospects. Henry Davis was taken with the first overall pick in the 2021 draft and has been under the microscope ever since. Endy Rodríguez was acquired in the January 2021 three-team trade that sent Joe Musgrove to the Padres and was declared Pittsburgh’s top prospect by Baseball America going into 2023.
There’s now a third name in the mix as Joey Bart had his long-awaited breakout in 2024. Selected second overall by the Giants in 2018, he struggled to establish himself at the big league level in San Francisco and had exhausted his option years by the end of 2023. He held onto his roster spot until the end of spring training 2024 but was designated for assignment at that time, getting flipped to the Pirates for minor league righty Austin Strickland.
Bart missed some time due to injury this year but got into 80 games for the Bucs and hit 13 homers. He slashed .265/.337/.462 overall for a wRC+ of 121, indicating he was 21% better than league average. His defense wasn’t highly regarded but that kind of offense behind the plate is hard to come by and was especially valuable on a Pittsburgh team that found it difficult to score runs. Among catchers with at least 250 plate appearances, Bart’s 121 wRC+ was fourth behind the Contreras brothers and Iván Herrera. With the same plate appearance threshold, he led all Pirate hitters in that stat.
Now there is theoretically a logjam with the three guys, as most clubs only roster two catchers at a time. The designated hitter spot probably doesn’t help, with Andrew McCutchen likely to be in there. He’s technically heading into free agency now but he and the Pirates seem to have an agreement whereby they can keep reupping with each other until he’s ready to retire. He’s now 38 years old but was one of the club’s only good hitters in 2024. For guys with 250 plate appearances, only Bart, Bryan Reynolds, Oneil Cruz and McCutchen were above average by wRC+.
Rodríguez debuted in 2023 and didn’t hit much, with a .220/.284/.328 batting line and 65 wRC+ in his first 204 plate appearances. However, his defense was universally praised and he has hit better in the minors. He has slashed .295/.383/.506 on the farm overall and .285/.362/.450 at the Triple-A level. In December of last year, he underwent surgery on the UCL and flexor tendon in his throwing elbow and missed the entire big league season in 2024. He started a rehab assignment in mid-September and played in a handful of minor league games, suggesting he should be good to go for 2025.
Davis has had a more infuriating career so far, as he has destroyed minor league pitching but struggled badly in the majors. In 377 major league plate appearances thus far, he has struck out in 30.2% of them and hit .191/.283/.307 for a wRC+ of 61. But since the start of 2023, he has a 13.7% walk rate and 21.5% strikeout rate in the minors, helping him produce a combined .302/.424/.550 line and 158 wRC+.
All of this will lead to some interesting decisions for the Bucs. Bart isn’t great defensively but is a big bat on a club that didn’t have many this year. Rodríguez has played some other positions but a big part of his appeal is his strong work behind the plate. Davis has also dabbled in playing the outfield but the offensive expectations are even higher at that position than at catcher, so moving him into the outfield mix would put even more pressure on his bat.
Davis and Rodríguez still have options, so it’s possible that the Pirates could keep all three, with two of them in the majors and one in Triple-A. But Rodríguez is already a solid defender by big league standards and has done plenty of hitting in the minors, making it fairly wasteful to have him back down there. Davis doesn’t have much left to prove on the farm with his big numbers there. Arguably, the best thing for him is to see more big league pitching and get accustomed to it.
Another path they could choose is trading one of these three. Doing so would sacrifice some depth but Jason Delay is also on the 40-man roster and is still optionable. But there are also arguments against trading each of the three.
Davis might feel expendable at the moment with his relatively weaker defense and the fact that he hasn’t put it together offensively just yet, but the path of Bart is a cautionary tale. The Giants would surely love a mulligan on letting him go and the Pirates are probably aware that they could end up on the other side of such a trade. Given that Davis was such a highly regarded prospect, it’s not hard to imagine them flipping him and quickly regretting it when they have to watch him have his breakout elsewhere.
It wouldn’t be an ideal time to trade Rodríguez either, as he’s coming off a completely lost season. With some health and a step forward at the plate, he could improve his value tremendously this year and down the line.
Selling high on Bart might be appealing because they grabbed him at such a low point and saw him take a big step forward. But as mentioned, the club had so few productive hitters in 2024 and subtracting one of them would be a risky ploy.
Though there’s potential downsides with these considerations, the Pirates might think about it anyway. They generally don’t spend a ton of money in free agency but need to upgrade the roster somehow. General manager Ben Cherington has had his job since November of 2019 and the club has been stuck below .500 since then. They were rebuilding for the first few years of his tenure but expectations have been raised with some flashes of winning baseball in the past two campaigns. Unfortunately, they finished with a 76-86 record both last year and this year, perhaps leading to a bit of desperation in getting over the hump in 2025.
It’s possible that the free agent catching market could work in their favor this winter. The best available backstops are guys like Danny Jansen, Carson Kelly and Kyle Higashioka. Jansen is coming off a nightmare season and is a big question mark right now. Higashioka is coming off a career year but will turn 35 in April, making it fair to wonder if he just peaked. Kelly has been inconsistent in his career and more okay than great even when at his best. The Cardinals will likely make Willson Contreras available on the trade market but he has a pricey contract and is about to turn 33 years old. Christian Vázquez is in a similar situation to Contreras as a pricey veteran but with the offense and defense flipped, as Vázquez is a glove-first guy and Contreras bat-first.
Several clubs could use help behind the plate, with the Rays, Padres, Nationals, Cubs, Reds, Phillies and Braves just some of the possibilities. All three of Pittsburgh’s catchers are cheap, with Davis and Rodríguez still in their pre-arb years and Bart just getting to arbitration for the first time. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Bart for a modest $1.8MM salary in 2025, not much above next year’s $760K league minimum. Those affordable salaries would naturally appeal to clubs with budgetary or competitive balance tax concerns.
What do you think the Pirates should do with their many catching options? Have your say in the poll below!
The pirates need to sign a defensive catcher to help their pitchers
This team has so many things to worry about I’m not sure where catcher falls
Ugh, I can’t read
Bah I mean it’s not like the article talked about the pirates having a highly regarded defender in Rodriguez
TJECK109;
The poll should have been:
‘Will The Pirates Acquire A Major League Catcher?’;
Toronto (who has a need for a catcher) has entered the chat (cue Shatkins “c’mon Ben, you owe us a favour for rebuilding your value as an exec”).
Moreno trade will become infamous
Upvoted zee Canuck just for the username. Top-shelf chuckles and I thank thee! Cheers
Took the Pirates job so he didn’t rebuild much value. He was either insane and thought that was the best job available or no one else wanted him.
ATL could use some help behind the plate? Sure, Murphy had a down year from a G1 oblique injury that derailed his season to offensive career lows, but nothing to suggest the same with a healthy year, partnering with d’Arnaud returning when they pick-up his option and one of their top prospects being C Drake Baldwin, currently impressing through AFL play.
They’re fine, and not a possibility.
The Mets probably will need a backup catcher and not the Braves.
They need to keep Bart and trade one of the others for a sure fire hitter. Not sure who that is though. Pirates have to add two good hitters this off season. I assume they get one by trading away one of their minor league pitchers or maybe one of these catchers. The other needs to be an uncharacteristic free agent signing. The fan base is getting impatient and Cherringtons run may be ending if he doesn’t produce a winner this year
Agree keep Bart trade one of the others. Davis has that draft pedigree someone would probably like.
I’m suggesting just the opposite. Why sell low on Davis? Yes Bart had a fine year with the bat but defense is more important in today’s game and you might be flipping him high.
They gotta keep Bart he’s the only one you can count on in 2025.
They’re in a difficult position with the catchers. Hard to trade Bart because he’s a decent hitter. Hard to trade Rodriguez because his ceiling is high. Hard to trade Davis, because although his ceiling may be high offensively, his value defensively is low and they’d be trading at his lowest value.
Cherington previously said that he wasn’t going to be signing any significant free agents and instead add players through trades
Do we really have any reason to believe a word he says? He also said he was adding bats 2 months before the trade deadline, and waited until the last day. I guess we can believe no significant FA signings anyway.
Which one they trade may depend on their trade partners.
No. The should have traded one LAST offseason when the prospect value was still intact on Davis and Rodriguez. They still could have picked up Bart midseason and nothing would have changed, When you have two star prospects coming through your system at the same position, you get more bang for the buck by moving one of them in a trade instead of trying to keep both and wedging one into an unfamiliar position. That usually doesn’t work.
At this point, the best you can do with Davis is a change of scenery deal. If I am the Pirates, I would still go with that because otherwise they will be in the same position as the Giants were with Bart last year. End up losing him for nothing.
I bet Davis will be the odd man out
He either gets traded for peanuts or DFA’d like Bart
Dude put up a 145 wRC+ in AAA. I get that its still AAA, but not many MLB catchers can do that. I doubt you DFA someone like that with 4+ years io team control.
but not many MLB catchers can do that.
=========================
But is he a catcher?
Send the Mets Bart and the Pirates Marte back. I know the financials don’t work but the players do.
Oh jeeze……
I really don’t think David Stearns is interested in an offensive catcher that multiple manages and coaches haven’t been able to square away.
Enough.
Marte is old and injured. If they’re trading a catcher, it will be for young controllable talent
How much value do you think the catchers got? They aren’t getting a huge return for any of them. A trade would be to get rid of an extra player hopefully for something useful.
Simple….no. Endy is the future, Bart is a stud (at least on this team he is), and Davis has absolutely no trade value currently.
Bucco79;
The fact that Davis can’t run well. Yet the Pirates baseball people are trying to make him into a RF. They play in the big PNC yard where OF positions are among the largest to cover in MLB. It explains a lot as to what’s been going on there.
No! Keep the depth and rotate at 1B, corner grass, DH, etc. Secure a SP, fill out the Pen, grab a serviceable SS & 1B and maybe trade Bednar? It’s about time to start that competitive team spending (again), Nutting.
That makes sense to me. Start Endy at C, Move Bart to 1B. Give Davis a couple starts a week at catcher, mostly against LH pitchers. Seems pretty simple. It’s a better plan than wasting a few mil on another stopgap 1B like Tellez. If Davis figures it out and starts forcing his way into the lineup with his bat it becomes a good problem to have.
Home run Donnie! Happy Halloween amigo
Same to you buddy.
Bednar and Tork can form the basis for a trade package. Tigers need a closer or late inning guy so they can play the Pads next year in the WS 😉
I’m not sure Tork would have the Pirates interested. Bednar is coming off a rough year, but RH hitting, 1B-only types need to hit a lot more consistently than Tork has to have value. The Tigers surely have players the Pirates might want, but I don’t think it’s Tork.
Moving Bart to 1B seems the best means to keeping all three guys and invalidates the need to get a RH 1B assuming Bart can handle the switch. For what it’s worth I think he’d be better defensively at first than catcher anyway.
Trade whichever one of the three that will get the best return of either a young stud first baseman or left fielder. Of course, the return they should look for depends on what the plans are for where Reynolds will be playing.
LF, almost garans. Keep Cruz in CF. David Peralta in RF? He looked solid as a Pad and won’t be ex$pen$ive.
Davis for Torkelson? Both change of scenery 1st overall picks.
Both teams probably like their own guy better than the other guy.
No, they should trade Paul Skenes to the Dodgers or Yankees so he has a chance at some rings.
I doubt you get anything for anyone but Bart. He’s probably the one to keep though.
Trade one to the Rays!!! We have plenty of no-hit/good defense catchers we can give you in return!! Rene Pinto, we will probably re-sign Jackson, and both of them can be available in a trade! Well even throw in Tyler Walls and Jose Siri!!
The Rays would be a logical partner, but I think the Pirates would be better served if Yandy Diaz was part of those discussions.
There is never enough catcher depth as we’ve seen here before.
I would like Davis to move to first base full time as I see some Bagwell comps possible. Endy and Bart should be regulars in gear, Endy can also spell 2b, 1b as he shows recovery from loss of last year progress.
Trade Bart. Lock in some gains from picking him up. Decide whether Davis really a catcher. and move him to 1B if you decide otherwise.
Bart not going anywhere! Bat plays,wake up!