Pirates trade reaction: Can Pittsburgh unlock ‘The Password’ with Jhostynxon Garcia?

Pirates trade reaction: Can Pittsburgh unlock ‘The Password’ with Jhostynxon Garcia?

What’s up everyone and welcome back to the Postcazette Pirate Show presented by FanDuel. My name is Colin Beasley. I am one of the pirates beat reporters for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette and I’m here with my coworker and my old beat partner Noah Hiles. Noah, how are you doing today? I’m feel like a proud father right now, Beast, just watching my young Padawan take over, hosting this YouTube channel that myself and Andrew Destin helped build up from the ground. And now it’s it’s the new generation. The new Pirates beat generation. Everybody shout, “Let’s go bees.” This is great. I’m doing great, man. How are you? That was that was bad. You’re better than that. I’m doing well. Enjoying the offseason. We’ve got some Pirates news to talk about. We’ve got plenty. But but first, for the people who haven’t who haven’t seen you around in a little bit. What have you been up to lately? I know that I know that you’ve been missed on the Pirates Beats, but also you haven’t gone too too far away. Yeah, I’ve been slacking off. Been doing nothing. No, I I uh was promoted to be our sports enterprise reporter at the end of the baseball season. So rather than just focusing on uh one team, I’m focusing on trying to find the best stories in this city sports landscape. And that can vary from profiles on media personalities to, you know, a behind thescenes look in the Steelers broadcast booth on game day. Uh right now I’m in the midst of a three-part series about Navy football standouts, Eli Heiden and Alex Tes Tesca. Uh both of them Mount Lebanon products. Uh we just published part two of that series today online and it’ll be in Sunday’s paper. I highly recommend everyone check that out. And we’ve got some fun stuff uh planned down the road. So it’s been busy. It’s been a new type of challenge, but it’s been a lot of fun. But I’m also excited to uh talk some buckos here with you, Colin. Yeah, we’ve we’ve actually got some news to talk about today. Yes, we do. This is this has been good the last couple weeks, Jason and I and we’ve had help from Adam Bitner as well. We’ve talked about various Pirates rumors and various things that they could do. But the Pirates have actually done something late last night. If you haven’t heard, they pulled off a fiveperson trade with the Boston Red Sox. They sent Johan Ovido, Tyler Samgo, and catching prospect Adonis Guzman to the Red Sox for top 100 pro prospect Yostin Garcia and a pitching prospect Travaso. Jesus Travaso. It’s big. It’s an interesting trade and I think that I think that I’ve heard a little bit of your thoughts on it. I’ve given my thoughts on it. I think that we both like this trade. What were what were your first impressions? I mean, my first impression was this is the exact type of player that people were hoping they could get for Mitch Keller in July, right? I mean, when you go back and look at the teams that were interested in Keller, a lot of people were hoping they could get one of those Cubs top 100 outfielder prospects, right? Uh and there were some other names as well uh that were in the mix that were on kind of fans wish lists and yeah they got they got one for something way less valuable in my opinion than Mitch Keller. Now obviously they’re they’re letting go an asset that was cheaper and I mean I don’t actually think he had more control. This is his second ARB year so he only has two more years of club control. So, you lose a guy who’s probably going to be what, your number four starter, and in exchange, you gain someone that you desperately needed. You need a major league ready bat that has more than average upside. And that’s what this is. Now, this isn’t the fix. This isn’t a player that you’re like, “Okay, I I feel a lot better about the Pirates 2026 chances to contend because they just acquired Justinsen Garcia.” No, but this is a smart move. This makes them better. Not a ton better, but this is the type of move they should have made. It shouldn’t be their headliner move, but this is a very good start in my opinion. He’s far from a finished product, but there’s a lot to like about what they’ve brought in through this Garcia. Yeah, I agree with you. You’re right. It’s not necessarily a move that changes their that immediately turns them into a contender or anything. In fact, our friends at FanDuel, they’re still plus 10,000 to uh win the National League, the Pittsburgh Pirates are. So, those moves haven’t changed. There’s nothing that’s there those odds haven’t changed. It doesn’t change too too much, but I do feel better if he does intend. If Garcia ends up being your opening day left fielder, that’s an upgrade. It’s not necessarily the end all. Pirates are done with the outfield. They’ve fixed all their problems, but it it it is an upgrade in the outfield. And he is someone that probably could have been the opening day starting left fielder this year, let alone in 2026. The Pirates haven’t had a prospect like that. They don’t have someone with the upside of Garcia. Yeah. I mean, this is the highest rated prospect Cherington’s acquired and this is year seven as a general manager and he that’s been the gripe in all of his trade returns. They haven’t got a top 100 rated guys. This and that. Like this is this is the type of player Pittsburgh fans have been waiting to see come back in any trade. I think this is a better trade return than what they got for David Bednar. I think this is a better trade return than what they got for Brian Hayes for what they got for Stling Marte all those years ago. Josh Bell, Jameson Tyion, you could keep going down. Now, some of those guys ended up turning into top 100 prospects, right? So, like the Andy Rodriguez’s, the Rowani Conturuses, they turned into guys who made those top 100 list, but this is a guy who’s already on it. He’s number three in the Red Sox farm system or was number three. And that’s one of the best farm systems in baseball. And he’s big league ready. He’s already played in the major leagues. He’s going to be 23 next week. This you you added a piece to the future here and that’s kind of again they’ve been trying to make these types of moves before and it comes with just names that are a little less familiar, a little less welming, a little underwhelming you could say. Uh but this one I I don’t know. Like I I think there is I think this is the best you could possibly get for Johan No. Um I think he’s probably a platoon guy to start. I think you could sign you can sign a a left-handed equivalent of a Tommy Fam now and pair him with this young rookie and you have a solid left field platoon and then you could also platoon in right if you want to DH Reynolds sometimes. So you have a lot of options here. This kid can also play center field too. So there there’s this is a move that I think makes them better in 26 and 27 for sure. Yeah. And Garcia is someone who if all goes well, if um if he is in fact a key part of the team in 2026, which I fully expect him to be, he’d be under team control until 2031. Yeah. So, he’s someone who if he hits, he could impact the Pirates for a while. I’ll give a little bit more of his scouting report. I’ve got his stats pulled up here. The Red Sox mainly used him in center field. He’s listed at 6′ 16. I think he’s probably put on some weight since they last updated that. Um, he made his major league debut in 2025 and appeared in five games. He went 1 for seven. Didn’t necessarily do too much, but in the minor leagues he was very, very solid between double A and AAA in the Red Sox system. Batted 267, had an 810 OPS, 21 homers, 75 RBI’s. Little bit. The one concern about him is he does swing and miss a lot. He has some strikeout concerns, but he’s also 22. That’s something that he can develop a little bit. He’ll need to cut back on the swing and miss a little bit, but he also has some real upside with his power. He’s something that the uh the Pirates, frankly, need with that that pop in the outfield. He’s also right-handed hitter, right-handed thrower, and I agree, probably a platoon guy to start, but someone still worth being excited about. I mean, the way the way I look at this now, Colin, next year the Pirates are going to have four marquee rookies contribute to their team. Connor Griffin, Bubba Chandler, Hunter Barco, and Joinen Garcia. You have it written down next to you? Yes, I do. Uh those four those are four of the top 85 prospects in Major League Baseball for MLB pipeline. So, they just they have they have a like a pretty significant wave of young talent and they’re pairing that with obviously skins. Um, and now you just got to sign veterans. Like I don’t think you need to worry about adding any more youth. I think this was important to add another youthful back because again you’re you have now two top 100 pitchers that are going to be competing for a spot in the rotation with Chandler and Barco and now you have Griffin and Garcia uh who are both going to come in and compete for a spot in the everyday lineup. So, you have youth added in. Now, it’s time to add some more veteran presence to your to your roster. Yeah, definitely definitely more to do. Noah, how would you rank those those four in terms of how you think they’ll impact the 2026 Pirates? I mean, well, MLB pipeline has Griffin ranked as the number one prospect in baseball. Chandler at 14, Hunter Barco at 78, and Garcia at 85. Garcia added into the rankings now is the sixth prospect in the Pirate system, which is pretty impressive considering he was number three in Boston. Um, Edward Florentino and Seth Hernandez are the other two top 100. Uh, but as far as ranking importance, I mean, Griffin and Chandler are still going to be one and two. Like Griffin is a guy that I mean, he’s the most important prospect on anyone’s team, right? Because he’s the number one prospect in baseball. and and Bubba Chandler, regardless if Keller stays or goes, and I’m sure we’re going to talk about that soon on this show. Um, they need Bubba Chandler to emerge as a true number two. They that that’s what they need from him this year, and I think that he has the potential to do that. Um, and then I’d probably put Garcia at three just because I think that I mean while Barco I think has a chance to to really carve himself out an opportunity on this team just because there aren’t a lot of left-handers. He’s one of the only ones that as of right now look to have a chance to make this opening day rotation. Um, I mean Garcia, there’s more of a demand for what he can do best and that’s hit for power. if if he can come in and hit 15 to 20 home runs his rookie year as a platoon guy, you know, start 100 games, 120 games, like that’s that is so much more valuable than even if Barco comes up and performs similar to what we got or what they saw from Braxton Ashcraft or or uh Hunter or not Hunter Barco, excuse me, Mike Burroughs or Bubba Chandler. Like they have other guys like that. They don’t have really anyone else that can do what Garcia is capable of doing. So, I’d put him at number three in the pecking order. But, I think I think all four of those guys should have a chance if they play if they have good seasons. Like, those are four guys who will show up on the on FanDuel’s rookie of the year odds next year. Those are four rookie of the year candidates to watch. I mean, I think Griffin might have like a a minus value in front of him. uh and and Bubba Chandler, too. But I mean, again, Garcia and and Barco are also going to get a lot of opportunities to play next year, I think. I completely agree. It’s almost like you’ve taught me everything I know. Yeah. It’s as if it’s there. Yeah. But I I agree. I think that uh Chandler and Griffin should still be one and two. I think that Garcia is definitely going to be more impactful than Barco just because I don’t know how much major league time Hunter Barco will end up having. I don’t know if he’ll break the team out of spring training. That’s obviously something we can talk about later on, but I think Garcia, there’s more of an opportunity for him to go forward. Oh, totally. Yeah. I do want to talk a little bit more about what you mentioned with Mitch Keller and kind of bring us into the winter meetings. Next week is the busiest week of baseball’s off seasonason and this is usually when you have a move like what we had yesterday. So, the Pirates have already done some of their winter meetings movement by making this trade. Do you think that this first of all, what should Pirates fans expect from the winter meeting? And I’m asking you, even though I’m the beat writer, because I haven’t been to winter meetings before, I haven’t I haven’t gotten to experience it yet. I’ll be down there and I’m looking forward to it, but I want your your perspective on what the winter meetings looks like. Well, I I think this year should be a very active I I don’t know if I want to say active. It they should be well in the mix way way more than we’ve seen in the last couple years just by the fact that they’ve been probably the most talked about team throughout this offseason so far. They’ve dominated the headlines as far as, you know, establishing that narrative that, hey, they’re they’re going to be different. They’re going to spend money. They’re going to try to do things differently. Um, I think that narrative is going to carry on into those winter meetings. Now, does anything come to fruition? I don’t know. I I I think that the Mitch Keller trade is probably the most likely move that they could make. Maybe they get a free agent signing done. Personally, I think they’ll trade Keller before a free agent signing. Um, but I could totally be wrong. I mean, I it’s certainly setting up for them to make a splash uh in Orlando next week. Um, and and maybe that splash doesn’t happen while they’re in Orlando, but maybe they lay the groundwork for a trade or lay the groundwork for a free agency signing uh before, you know, Christmas and the new year arrive. So, I think that they’re going to be really active. I think there’s going to be a lot of moving parts to it. I think they wanted to get this Garcia deal done just to kind of set a little bit of a baseline so they kind of have All right. All right. Well, we know we have at least one outfielder added on. So, now they have one item checked off their shopping list and it’s time to go to the, you know, the more expensive expensive aisle of the grocery store to get the the bigger items. And I think there’s a big potential they could make some serious moves here in these next couple of days. Yeah, that was the biggest thing that went wrong in last year’s offseason. And I know there’s a lot and I know you’ve unpacked it a lot, but once they made the Spencer Horus trade, which they made at last year’s winter meetings, there wasn’t really a second move. Like they in theory they got the ball moving, but nothing really ended up happening after that. You went to couple of smaller free agent signings. You got Tommy Fam in February. It took it took too long. I know they expected to make more trades. I know they expected to make more moves, but they weren’t able to capitalize on it. I’m I’m curious by now that they’ve made this trade before the winter meetings whether this leads to more action, whether this serves as a statement of intent to free agents that hey, we’re really trying to win here. Whether this is a signal to other teams, we’re really interested in making a trade. I think that by making this move before the winter meetings, it sets them up to be more active in Orlando next week. Yeah. I mean, this this is their Spencer Horowitz trade and it happened before winter meetings. So, I I think that this kind of gives them an idea on Mitch Keller’s market. I think they wanted to take Mitch into the winter meetings. I I I didn’t think they wanted I think they were against moving him before getting to Orlando and having a chance to really talk face to face with some of the other teams that are going to be there. So, um yeah, I still anticipate Keller getting traded. I I don’t know if it will happen during the winter meetings, but I think that that’s going to be their focus is they’re going to kick the tires on some free agents, but they really want to try to get this Keller deal complete. And once Keller is out of the picture and they clear a little bit more salary up, then they can really start to go shopping. I haven’t gotten too into the weeds yet on this. I haven’t I haven’t gone and had too many conversations about about Keller. So there’s not since since the um most recent trade. However, I kind of think that this trade makes it more likely that they hold on to him. I think that you’re I disagree. I I I I know we’re going to debate this here. I think that this is something where you’ve traded away your only pitcher beyond right now. The Pirates have two pitchers in their rotation who had any relevant experience before the 2025 season and that’s Paul Skins and that’s Mitch Keller. Odo had some experience, but it right now it’s just Keller and Ske who have done anything beyond Jared Jones Jared Jones. Okay, he’s had one season, but um I think that it’s worthwhile having someone who’s who’s been around and now that you’ve kind of solved some of the left field issue, not the entire left field issue. I feel like it’s worth having someone who’s who’s reliable and in there and obviously he has the salary. He still has high trade value. I’m curious to see what those conversations at winter meetings will lead to. But now that you’ve traded from your depth, I no longer feel as big of a need to trade from your pitching depth in order to improve the rotation that or improve the outfielder offense. Obviously, you still need to do it, but I feel like you’ve traded depth for outfield piece. Here here’s the thing, though, Colin. I mean, just because they trade Mitch Keller away doesn’t mean they can’t add more starting pitching. They’ve had a pretty good track record of signing left-handed free agents, veterans, guys who could come in here on a one-year deal. Obviously, Andrew Heene’s tenure didn’t end well, but if you go back and look, I mean, they they’ve got good value out of guys like Tyler Anderson, uh, Jose Canana, who’s now turned into Garcia, that’s signing, as you look at his trade tree. Um, and I and I I think that could be the play here. Like you look, they there’s a clear need for left-handed pitching here. Like you said, they have a whole bunch of young guys. Some guys coming off of injury, uh, some guys coming off of a rookie season, some guys approaching their full rookie seasons. Um, I wouldn’t be surprised if they trade Keller for BAT and then use some of that Keller money. I mean, Keller is making 16 and a half million next year, allocate half of that on a one-year deal to someone like a Nester Cortez or someone else, just just a a veteran lefty who could come here on a one-year prove it deal. I agree they need a little bit more veteran presence, but when you look at that top three, it’ll be it’ll be Skins, Chandler, and Jones whenever Jared’s back. You can have a guy at the bottom at least for half the season till you figure out what else your rotation is. If Burroughs does belong, if Hashcraft does belong, if Thomas Harrington can figure it out. Um, whoever else too. Maybe Karma Majinsky works his way back into the starting rotation. Anything could happen really. So, I think that yeah, I I anticipate them I wouldn’t even be surprised if their highest paid free agent this off seasonason like as far as an annual value ends up being a starting pitcher just because they can move Keller to get something affordable and then they sign someone even if it’s like a $14 million a year. I mean, they this was a team that tried to acquire Nick Paveta last off seasonason for a multi-year deal. This is a team that’s that’s made pushes. They love signing lefties in the offseason. I anticipate them doing that again and they’ll use some of that Mitch Keller money that they save to do it after they trade him. Yeah, this definitely is a case where I I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they did that. I would be very very surprised if Karma Majinsky ends up in the starting rotation again. Yeah, that would be a problem. That that would be that would be a problem. I feel like you found where he’s best served as a multi-inninging reliever and he was really really good and he seemed to get that he was really really good. But I I I digress. Yeah, I wouldn’t be that that surprised if that’s where they go if they do in trade in fact trade Keller. I do think you need a lefty. I think that that’s something that the Pirates would be well served in order to to to get a left-handed starter. I just don’t see trading Keller as a necessity now the way that it kind of was. I going into the offseason before this trade, I kind of thought that they needed to trade Mitch Keller in order to the best case scenario on a Mitch Keller trade would be getting the money to sign a left fielder or a third baseman and getting a prospect that’s a left fielder or a third baseman and kind of filling a hole that way. I no longer feel like it’s necessary, but which but I still wouldn’t be that shocked if they did it. Yeah, I mean they have they can they have a whole bunch of different routes they could go. I mean, they could keep Keller. I just think if your payroll I mean even if they say their payroll is going to go up to what 100 110 whatever the reports have been you you still have more room to operate if if Keller’s not on this roster. So by moving him and Keller’s what a two- win pitcher you can find a two- win pitcher for less than $16.5 million probably. So, I I think that that’s probably the move. And then you allocate you’re just at a when your payroll is going to be that small. I don’t think it’s fiscally responsible to pay your number two or number three starter more than anyone else on the roster. So, that’s where I think the the logic comes into play and they make a move. Yeah, that was that was part of the reason David Bendar got built got dealt. You don’t want to pay a eight figure salary to your closer when you’ve only got 90 to 100 to spend. So, yep. What other things you have your eye on in terms of in terms of winter meetings? What else are you expecting out of the Pirates out of this? I’m I think I’m most excited to see how how what they’re doing has been perceived nationally. I’m looking forward to talking to other teams reporters, other teams executives, and hearing hearing how they view the Pirates offseason so far. I’m interested to see uh their connection to the two Japanese corner infielders. Um that’s that’s going to be a spectacle. I remember last year Roki Sasaki’s agency put on a big show and there was probably a hundred reporters surrounding him and and I knew at that point last year I was like well we do not need to cover this because the Pirates are not going to be in on this guy. Uh, but like you better work your way up into that scrum bees because like I think that that’s gonna be when I when I look at it, they’re gonna have to overpay if they want to get, you know, an O’Harn, a Jorge Palano, whoever else. I think it makes most sense to overpay on these guys because it is a gamble and they’re going to have to take gamles. That’s Yeah. you know, it’s it’s either you’re gonna have to overpay tens of millions of dollars to get a Kyle Schwarber here, uh, if not more than that, or you could pay maybe a little bit less of an overpay to get someone who’s less proven. And and so I I think that’s something that I’m going to be monitoring. I I just from afar, I think the Pirates could continue to make a push for those guys, especially over the winter meetings, because um I don’t I don’t believe either one of them is officially posted yet. Uh, and I could be totally wrong. I think they’re posted, but they’re not expected to do anything until closer to January 15th, which I think day, but um, you you will see there will be there will be a day there where this gets a ton of traction and I and I expect the Pirates to be one of the teams uh, connected to them. Yeah, I’m I’m intrigued by that, too. I The Pirates are in the business of making gamles. They have to make gamles considering their status as a small market team. I saw some people who were upset about yesterday’s trade because Garcia is a gamble, because he’s a prospect. But that’s something you have to do. You have to trade away some guys that maybe you know what they’re going to be in order to got in order to find guys who will be around for the longer term just to kind of put bring this back to Garcia a little bit. Yep. I don’t know. It’ll be it’ll be interesting. I’m excited to see a lot of things at this winter meetings. I’m excited for my first winter meetings experience. I’m excited to go down there with Jason Mackey and see everything that’s that’s going to happen in Orlando. It it should be fun. Post Gazette will have you covered for every step of the way. We’ll be on this YouTube channel a lot. We’ll be writing a lot at post-gazette.com. Check out all of my work there. You can check out all of Noah’s work there, including his must-read features on the Navy football players. Highly, highly recommend it. Noah, any final words to add before I send us off? Enjoy the winter meetings, Beast. Tell everyone I said hello. I will. Thank you guys for watching. Don’t forget to like and subscribe. We will talk to you guys next week. [Music]

The Pirates have made their first major move of the offseason, acquiring top-100 prospect Jhostynxon Garcia and pitching prospect Jesus Travieso from the Red Sox for right-hander Johan Oviedo, catching prospect Adonys Guzman and left-hander Tyler Samaniego.

Pirates insider Colin Beazley analyzes the move with Noah Hiles and look at where Garcia might fit in best. Could he be an opening day outfielder? And does trading Oviedo mean anything about the future of Mitch Keller?

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