First Call: A good reason why the Pirates should not trade closer David Bednar

Between now and the Aug. 1 MLB trade deadline, one topic figures to be the subject of plenty of debate amond Pittsburgh sports fans: Should the Pirates trade All-Star closer David Bednar?

MLB.com got the ball rolling Thursday, naming Bednar one of the six All-Stars most likely to be dealt before the deadline.

As the debate begins in earnest, here’s a case against trading away Mars’ favorite son.

There’s no guarantee – there isn’t even a probability – that the Pirates will get something of value in return.

First Call did an extensive analysis (read: looked at baseball-reference.com for a while, stopping for five minutes to play Immaculate Grid) on the returns the Pirates have received when they’ve traded away their closer in the last 20 years.

It hasn’t been much.

The Pirates had a decent run in the middle of last decade of trading their current closer away and receiving their future closer in return. They moved Joel Hanrahan to get Mark Melancon, then moved Melancon to get Felipe Vazquez.

Those deals didn’t make the Pirates appreciably better, though. They just kept the chain of effective closers going, and that chain was snapped – in the ugliest fashion possible, really – by Vazquez.

The other times they dealt away closers, they didn’t get much.

In 2021, Richard Rodriguez went to Atlanta for starter Bryse Wilson, who went 4-13 with a 5.37 ERA for the Pirates.

In 2014, the Pirates sent Jason Grilli to the Angels for reliever Ernesto Frieri, who went 1-1 with a 10.13 ERA with the Bucs.

In 2010, the Pirates traded Octavio Dotel to the Dodgers for starter James McDonald and outfielder Andrew Lambo. McDonald was OK. Lambo less so.

In 2007, the Pirates moved Mike Gonzalez to Atlanta for Adam LaRoche. No Pirates fan is pining for the LaRoche era.

In 2003, the Pirates dealt Mike Williams to Philadelphia for a guy named Frank. (Brooks was his last name, if you must know.)

Get the picture? Turning an All-Star closer into a future asset isn’t as simple as it sounds.

Now, in fairness to the other side of the argument, the wisdom of this exercise hinges largely on the definition of “closer.”

In 2017, lefty Tony Watson wasn’t technically the Pirates closer – Vazquez held down that role with 21 saves – but Watson did save 10 games.

At the trade deadline, the Pirates traded away Watson for the Dodgers’ 23rd-ranked prospect, an 18-year-old in his second season of pro baseball who everyone figured would have to switch positions because of a five-inch growth spurt he just had.

The Pirates wanted him because they liked his athleticism and tools.

As you’ve probably figured out, the prospect was Oneil Cruz.

That trade of a reliever worked out pretty well.

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Save the date

Here’s a fun little exercise: The Pirates released their 2024 regular season schedule Thursday. Take a look at it and predict the date for No. 1 draft pick Paul Skenes’ MLB debut.

The Pirates open the season with four games in Miami and three games in Washington. If they give Skenes his first MLB start on the road, the whole front office should be charged with felony box office malpractice.

So the first logical option is the April 5 home opener against Baltimore.

But, as astutely pointed out by Super Genius Mark Madden, if the Pirates start Mitch Keller for the home opener and Skenes for the second game of the first homestand, they’re guaranteed two sellouts rather than one. So Saturday, April 6 looks like a real possibility.

Here’s a good darkhorse date to consider as well: Friday, June 21 at home against Tampa Bay.

Cruz made his MLB debut June 20 last year. Henry Davis made his June 19 this year.

At the risk of being cynical, that’s not a coincidence. Right around the third week of June is when teams assume the Super Two deadline has passed and top prospects can be safely called up without adding a year of service time.

Skenes may very well supercede those concerns. He may be too good for service time manipulation. But let’s be real: Maybe not.

We’re No. 2!

According to a recent study conducted by thegameday.com, Pennsylvania is the second-best state in the union at producing high-level team sports athletes, trailing only California.

Here’s how the website came to that conclusion: They made a list of the 50 greatest athletes of all-time in the four major North American pro sports. (A subjective exercise if there’s ever been one.) Then they awarded a point to each state where those 50 players were born and went to high school and college.

Good old PA finished with 38 points, behind California (47) and ahead of Texas (36) and New York (32).

Here’s a look at the PA-born players who scored points for the Keytone State by sport:

Football: Johnny Unitas, Marvin Harrison, Dan Marino, Darrelle Revis, Chuck Bednarik and Joe Montana

Baseball: Roy Campanella, Reggie Jackson, Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner and Stan Musial

Basketball: Pete Maravich, Earl Monroe, Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain and Paul Arizin

Hockey: Mike Richter and Hobey Baker

Buyer’s remorse

On July 1, the Arizona Coyotes signed forward Alex Galchenyuk to a $775,000 contract to begin his third stint with the club.

On Thursday, the Coyotes released a statement saying Galchenyuk had been placed on unconditional waivers for the purpose of terminating his contract and the club would have no further comment.

A curious situation. What happened in the meantime?

On July 9, Galchenyuk was arrested by Scottsdale police on charges of private property hit and run, disorderly conduct, failure to obey, resisting arrest and threatening or intimidating. According to reports, no one was injured.

Galchenyuk is best known around here for being acquired by the Penguins from Arizona in the 2019 Phil Kessel trade. He had five goals and 17 points in 45 games in black and gold.