After Johan Oviedo, the Pirates want to trade another pitcher

Just last night (Thursday), we learned that the Pittsburgh Pirates had sent their starting pitcher Johan Oviedo to the Boston Red Sox in a transaction involving five players.

The Boston outfit also acquired reliever Tyler Samaniego and catcher Adonys Guzman, paying top-100 prospect Jhostynxon Garcia and right-handed pitcher Jesus Travieso in return.

Both teams fill a need. https://t.co/ZElsf3eaAB

– Passion MLB (@passion_mlb) December 5, 2025

But the Pirates' work isn't done. In fact, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, Pittsburgh would be open to trading any of its starting pitchers, with the exception of National League Cy Young Trophy winner Paul Skenes.

Yet even after trading Oviedo, the Pirates are open to trading another starting pitcher except Paul Skenes, according to team sources. The return would have to be a hitter who would go directly into their line-up.

It's understandable that the Pennsylvania representatives want to seek reinforcement on the offensive side of the ball, as they've been one of the worst batting teams this season, posting the worst power percentage (.350), while hitting the fewest long balls (117), scoring the fewest runs (583) and producing the fewest runs (561).

Conversely, the Pirates finished among MLB's top clubs on the mound with the seventh-lowest earned run average (3.76) and the most shutouts (19).

As mentioned above, Skenes won't be moving from Pittsburgh, at least for the time being. Instead, Mitch Keller is the pitcher most likely to be traded, earning $16.9 million next season, the Pirates' highest salary. He still has around $56 million to receive, on the strength of a five-year, $77 million extension he signed in 2024.

Pittsburgh also has four young guns who excelled last season: Braxton Ashcraft, Mike Burrows, Bubba Chandler and Hunter Barco.

This content was created with the help of AI.