The Pirates are dealing with a wave of injuries, but Ben Cherington says the bigger plan hasn’t budged.
Oneil Cruz and Spencer Horwitz are both rehabbing in Florida, and Konnor Griffin won’t be back until September after suffering a torn sagittal band in his left ring finger. Even with that list growing, the general manager said the club’s thinking at the Trade Deadline remains the same.
“[The injuries] haven’t changed how we think about the deadline or this team in 2026,” Cherington said. “In terms of the bigger picture, we believe we have an opportunity in front of us and want to improve the team. We’re focused on that.”
That said, any move is expected to wait until after the MLB Draft this coming weekend. Cherington said that when asked whether Griffin’s absence might push the Pirates to look for help at shortstop, with Jared Triolo stepping in.
Griffin’s injury, meanwhile, was enough for the Pirates to choose splinting his hand instead of letting him try to play through it. Cherington said the concern was that pushing ahead would basically mean signing up for a full finger reconstruction that would keep Griffin out for four months or longer.
The ripple effect mattered, too. The Pirates worried about how much that kind of recovery could affect Griffin’s offseason and his preparation for next year.
“That didn’t seem like a good outcome for any of us,” Cherington said. “It’s not what Konnor wants.
It’s not what we want. It’s difficult.
We want him out there. But it was clear to me, once we got that information, this was the right way to go.”
Cherington also touched on several players already in the mix, including Mitch Keller, Paul Skenes, Carmen Mlodzinski and Marcell Ozuna.
Keller’s 5.02 ERA has been a problem, and Cherington pointed to left-handed hitters as the main reason. Lefties are posting an .831 OPS against Keller, while right-handers are at .575.
“That's not brand new, but it's probably been more of a glare here recently,” Cherington said. “And teams are stacking. You can see that.”
For now, the Pirates are looking at Keller’s pitch mix, sequencing, command and execution as possible short-term fixes. A bigger overhaul could come in the offseason. Cherington also said the team has discussed using an opener for Keller, though no decision has been made.
Skenes, meanwhile, is still being monitored closely, but Cherington said the Pirates aren’t alarmed. He repeated the idea that even elite pitchers can go through stretches where velocity dips, and he said the club has noticed some minor delivery changes. Those are being addressed with information, not panic.
Cherington wouldn’t say fatigue is definitely part of it, but he didn’t dismiss the possibility either.
“I don't really know if we have a great way to measure fatigue, so that's speculation,” Cherington said. “We can see more accurately changes in the delivery.
There are some minor changes that we are seeing, that he knows about. It's not news.
It's just what do you do about that in the middle of the season? That can be part of it.
Fatigue is possible. We just don't know how to measure that, so I'm not sure how to answer it.”
He also laid out how the Pirates are handling Mlodzinski’s role. After each outing, Mlodzinski and pitching coach Bill Murphy decide on the next “live” period, the stretch of days when he can be used. From there, manager Don Kelly makes the call.
The Pirates used Mlodzinski on Tuesday in a relatively close game and kept him in for a second inning to preserve length in case he needs to return to the rotation. His recovery is generally one day per inning pitched, though Cherington said that isn’t a hard rule.
“There’s fluidity,” Cherington said. “There’s a range of dates. It's not a locked in one day."
Ozuna was back in the lineup Wednesday, and Cherington said the veteran had been dealing with a toe injury in Washington. It was only the second game Ozuna has played in July.
Cherington acknowledged that Ozuna wants to play more, but the Pirates’ roster setup has made that difficult. The club has needed to rotate other players through the DH spot, and Ozuna hasn’t produced much when he has been in there. He’s batting .202 with a .610 OPS.
Even so, Cherington pointed to what Ozuna brings inside the clubhouse and said the Pirates still believe the bat can come around.
“We're going to take it a day at a time and see how it goes,” Cherington said. “We still believe there's a potent bat in there. There's still a lot of season left and believe he can have a stretch where he's helping us win a ton of games.”
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