The trade deadline for the Pittsburgh Pirates and the rest of Major League Baseball is Tuesday evening. Whatever the Pirates do, it’ll no doubt make their Major League roster even less competiti … uh, I mean …
… it’ll no doubt stock their farm system with even more pieces for the inevitable turnaround this franchise will soon enjoy.
No seriously. They mean it this time.
Especially after trading pitcher Jose Quintana to the St. Louis Cardinals Monday night for right-handed relief pitcher Johan Oviedo and infield prospect Malcolm Nuñez.
Whatever iteration of a roster the Pirates assemble over the next few weeks will be charged with snapping a seven-game losing streak and preventing the big-league product from becoming even more of a joke than it has already become.
All while emphasizing individual player development against other clubs who have their eyes on — wait for it — contending for the playoffs.
Crazy concept, right?
The Bucs are now 40-62. That’s the worst winning percentage (.392) in the National League Central. Only the Oakland A’s (.375) and the Washington Nationals (.337) have a worse winning percentage than the Pirates.
If the Pirates are to change their fortune, it won’t be easy. Having lost their last four series, manager Derek Shelton’s club now opens a three-game set Tuesday night against the Milwaukee Brewers at PNC Park.
The Brewers come in with a 57-45 record. That puts them atop the NL Central. Milwaukee has won seven of nine games since the All-Star break, and they are hitting the ball well. In those seven victories, Milwaukee has managed to score at least six runs six times.
To make matters worse for the Pirates, they will no longer have Quintana available to pitch Game 3 of the series. And they will have to face Corbin Burns in Tuesday’s opener. The reigning Cy Young Award winner is 8-4 on the season with an ERA of 2.31. He leads the National League with 160 strikeouts and has beaten the Pirates twice already this season. Burnes has allowed three earned runs in 13 innings pitched over those two games. His strikeout-to-walk ratio is 15:4.
After facing the Brewers, the Pirates go on the road for nine games as they swing through Baltimore, Arizona and San Francisco. No National League team has more road losses than the Pirates (33).
The Orioles are quite good at home, with a 29-20 record. They’re also a surprisingly competitive 52-51 on the season, only three games out of a wild-card spot.
Things could lighten up against the Diamondbacks, though. At 45-57, they are last in the NL West and have lost four in a row. The Pirates took two of three from Arizona at PNC Park in early June. And the Giants are scuffling at 51-52, but they did grab two of three at PNC Park earlier this season.
Regardless, the rest of the season for the Pirates is likely to be ugly, if it is worth watching at all. And it very well may not be.
But that’s OK. Kenny Pickett got second-team reps for the Steelers on Monday. Maybe we should just enjoy the hyperbole over that nugget of news, as opposed to choking and gagging on the smoke that’s being blown at PNC Park.
Unless it’s at the end of a fireworks night, of course.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via Twitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.