Longtime Pirates SS Newman traded to Reds

The shape and substance of the Pirates’ infield gained some measure of clarity on Friday night with Pittsburgh sending one player out and likely committing playing time to another the organization added late in the 2022 regular season.

Most notable among a flurry of roster moves around the nontender deadline was the trade of Kevin Newman to the Reds, the Pirates moving their longest-tenured

player shortly after announcing they had tendered him a contract for 2023.

The return for Newman is righthanded reliever Dauri Moreta, a 26year-old Dominican reliever with swing-and-miss stuff — his slider had a 48.9% whiff rate in 2022 — and a problem allowing too many homers.

In 35 games (38 1/3 innings) with the Reds last season, Moreta had a 5.40 ERA and 39 strikeouts ... with 10 home runs allowed.

The Newman trade makes sense given the workflow up the middle for the Pirates. With Oneil Cruz, Ji Hwan Bae, Rodolfo Castro and others on the way, Newman’s arbitration projection ($ 2.8 million) would’ve been a lot to pay for someone whose OPS sat under .600 in 2020 and ‘21.

Newman did enjoy an offensive uptick in 2022, hitting .274 and producing a .687 OPS over 78 games. His wRC+, where 100 is considered league average, sat at 94 compared to 53 each of the past two seasons. In the field, Newman made just six errors in 289 total chances, including one error in 178 total chances at second base.

On young teams in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, Newman’s attitude and steady play are seen asassets. It

also makes sense why the Pirates wanted to move on. The swap was first reported by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and confirmed via a PostGazette source.

Next, Miguel Andujar, with whom the Pirates avoided arbitration, settled on a $1.525 contract for 2023. Andujar, 27, is a right-handed bat who had 27 homers and 92 RBIs with the Yankees in 2018.

The Pirates claimed him off waivers in September because they think there’s something there. Andujar had just nine games with Pittsburgh in 2022, hitting .250 with nine RBIs.

As the Pirates look to address an offensive void at first base, bringing back Andujar makes sense. He provides a right-handed complement to Ji-Man Choi and theoretically has more power in there. The two of them can also occupy plenty of DH reps.

Shortly after arriving in Pittsburgh, Andujar talked a lot about how injuries the playing for the Yankees cut into his available playing time, something that obviously hasn’t been an issue in Pittsburgh. Next season, he should get to play plenty, assuming he produces.

Aside from Newman and Andujar, the Pirates tendered contracts to the remaining five players eligible for arbitration: Choi, Robert Stephenson, Duane Underwood Jr., Mitch Keller and JT Brubaker.

It’s a little more surprising that the Pirates decided to go through arbitration with Underwood Jr., who had a 4.40 ERA and 1.448 WHIP while making a career-high 51 appearances.

While Underwood Jr. elicited frustration from fans, he did have some decent numbers that may have pushed the Pirates to make this decision: a 2.92 FIP, one home run allowed, 25 walks and 57 strikeouts.

If deployed in the sixth or seventh inning, fine. Part of the issue with Underwood Jr. this past season was poor usage; he doesn’t need to be pitching the eighth inning with a lead or trying to close out games.

Claimed off waivers in late August, Stephenson was actually solid for the Pirates. They tweaked his delivery, hoping to pick up a couple mph on his fastball and accentuate his devastating slider.

The results were noticeable, with Stephenson pitching to a 3.38 ERA in 13 games with the Pirates, walking just one and striking out 18. And get this: His slider achieved a whiff rate of 44.1%. In 2019, Stephenson’s slider had a 51.6% whiff rate, and Cherington talked at his end-ofseason press conference about adding more swingand-miss into the bullpen.

It’s also true that the

Pirates need bullpen help. Badly.

Also on Friday, the Pirates announced they had non-tendered Tyler Heineman and Manny Banuelos, players who were designated for assignment on Tuesday.

Heineman doesn’t matter much.

The Pirates need more catching depth, and this means Jason Delay and Ali Sanchez are preferred options. In fact, the Pirates would probably be thrilled if they were third and fourth in some order behind Roberto Perez and another signee.

Losing Banuelos, the lone lefty in the bullpen, should be a concern.

However they do it — Rule 5, free agency, trade — the Pirates absolutely must get at least one southpaw as they address shortcomings

into the bullpen.