4-1-25 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on X
I felt like the Pirates and David Bednar were coming to a head, but it was very hard to convince myself that they’d actually use his options and demote him to AAA.
Thankfully, they did.
Because it’s the right move. For the player, for the organization, for everyone.
I’m not going to go through all his numbers or try to explain why he might be salvageable, or they should just move on, instead I’m going to simply say David Bednar gave the Pirates 3.5 very good years as a high leverage bullpen arm, and in the grand scheme of things, that’s pretty long for a closer who isn’t likely in the HOF discussions we’ll have some day.
Jason Grilli gave the Pirates 3.5 really good years. Mark Melancon, yup you guessed it, 3.5 good years, excellent years actually and he probably had more to give.
Matt Capps delivered 3 solid years too.
See, it’s fairly common for the shelf life of a leverage reliever to expire, and when it does expire, it goes quickly like a banana on the fridge, you have X amount of time from purchase to bin.
I know what Bednar did last year, I know what he started this year like, but I also know what he did for this club both on and off the field as the local kid who came good.
It’s easy for fans to hate players in the moment, but given time, I think most of us will look back fondly on the Renegade, you know, unless they bring him back up regardless of what he’s changed, improved, figured out in AAA and he bombs again.
As time passes, we’ll have plenty of time to shoulda coulda woulda this to death as it comes to trading him and when they should have. The urgent matter now is, this team put all their closer chips in this basket, and now, they’re out in the snow with no shoes.
I’m sure we’ll have a lot more on this as they start to figure out who does what for this team.
On another, much happier note, Thomas Harrington makes his debut tonight for the Pirates in Tampa. The 79th ranked prospect on Baseball’s Top 100 list and the Pirates number 3 is mature beyond his years.
The 23 year old North Carolina native is a bit of a surprise. Almost all the buzz has been around Bubba Chandler, and from a purely stuff perspective, I get it, but Chandler is not as polished as Harrington.
His mix is mature, his demeanor is mature and more than anything, he represents yet another Pirates number 1 pick (36th comp) who makes it to the league and starts a game for the Bucs.
He’s had really good numbers just about everywhere he’s ever pitched, never having a professional season where he posted an ERA north of 3.53.
He won’t blow anyone away with velocity, instead opting for pinpoint command and a willingness to throw strikes with every pitch he offers, Harrington is a pitcher, not a thrower.
Enjoy, this is arguably the best trade they’ve made since Priester for Nick Yorke.
Steel City Pirates 
Relievers are so volatile we should feel lucky to get 3.5 years out of Bednar.
On another note, and to your point about why is Tommy Pham playing on Locked On, is there an argument to be had to just go all out on defense? Esteury Ruiz was DFA’d, would he not improve the OF defense? Play Triolo at 2B? Bring up Cheng at SS? You still have at-bats for Cruz-Cutch-Bart-Reynolds and I’m not sure their bats would be that much worse then what we’re trotting out there right now. I like IKF as a utility player and Frazier is OK I guess as a bench player but the defense looks suspect to me at this stage and their bats aren’t going to add anything (IKF’s good start notwithstanding)
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