Pirates Add a Whole New Bullpen: Camilo Doval, Luke Weaver, Lake Bachar, Kirby Yates
The Pirates are one game under .500 at the start of play Monday. The Pirates are three-and-a-half games out of the final Wild Card spot, behind both the Padres and the Marlins. The Pirates have lost five of their last six and eight of their last 11. The Pirates have a 21.1% chance of making the playoffs, down from 47.6% just six days ago. The Pirates are going for it.
Specifically, the Pirates are going for it by completely overhauling their bullpen. On Saturday, they traded catcher Omar Alfonzo and outfielder Luis Cruz to the Yankees in exchange for flamethrowing reliever Camilo Doval. Today, they added three more relievers. First, they traded shortstop Sammy Stafura to the Mets for better-but-not-quite-as-flamethrowing reliever Luke Weaver. And then, just before the deadline, they traded three prospects — Brandan Bidois, Hyun Seung Lee, and Brian Sanchez — to the Marlins for Lake Bachar, and sent Kyle Robinson to the Angels for Kirby Yates. Any time you can land a Luke and a Lake, it’s a banner day. As of this writing, Pittsburgh’s bullpen ranks between 17th and 22nd in WAR, ERA, xERA, FIP, xFIP. It’s also tied for sixth with 19 blown saves. But this is a whole new bullpen now, and it appears the Pirates will get Evan Sisk back from the IL soon enough, too.
Let’s start with Doval, who got his feet wet with the Pirates on Sunday night. He allowed a homer to Tyler Stephenson in the eighth inning of a blowout, starting his ERA with his new club at a nice round 9.00. The 29-year-old Doval came up with the Giants, got traded to the Yankees at the deadline last year, and is now a Pirate. The Yankees will be paying a bit more than $1 million of the money still owed to Doval this year, leaving the Pirates on the hook for $750,000. He’s in his first year of arbitration, so the Pirates have him for two more seasons if they’re willing to pay for them. After starting his career with a 2.77 ERA over his first three seasons, Doval has a 4.31 ERA across the last three. This year, he’s at 4.65 with a 4.84 FIP, which means he’s actually put up -0.2 WAR. None of this sounds great, but his expected numbers are much lower, and he is the kind of guy who’s going to keep getting chances.
Doval is a right-handed sidearmer with an odd delivery and a sinker that averages 98.6 mph. I would call him a sinker-slider guy, but he actually throws his cutter 29% of the time, more than the slider. And he doesn’t really have the movement profile of a sinker-slider guy. His pitches don’t get a ton of horizontal break. He just throws them really, really hard. But he does get sinker-slider-guy results, inducing tons of groundballs and running a roughly average strikeout rate. That’s usually a great recipe, but Doval has been getting lit up for home runs this season, allowing 1.6 per nine innings. That sidearm, sinker-slider approach makes a pitcher susceptible to platoons splits, so you have to imagine that trading Yankee Stadium for PNC, which isn’t quite so friendly to left-handed hitters, will help him out some. But even if Doval keeps running a 4.65 ERA, well, six different Pirates relievers have thrown at least 10 innings with a higher ERA this season.
Omar Alfonzo is a 23-year-old, left-handed-hitting catcher out of the Dominican Republic. He’s currently sporting a 97 wRC+ in Double-A, with a serious three-true-outcomes approach. He’s walking 12% of the time, striking out 30% of the time, and homering 4% of the time. Eric Longenhagen ranked him 43rd on this year’s Pirates Top 50 Prospects list, down from 10th last year. Four other catchers have sneaked ahead of him. That’s not exactly what you’re looking for.
“Alfonzo remains below average in most facets of catching defense,” Eric wrote, “especially his framing, and his offense has tanked since he was promoted to Altoona last year. He was hitting for plus power (on the surface and under the hood) while he was in hitter-friendly Greensboro, but was also striking out a lot, which has been more consequential in roughly 100 Double-A games so far. It’s too early to completely write off a young player with this kind of left-handed power, but Alfonzo is treading water on defense while his offense backs up, putting him more on the long-term 40-man fringe.” I think the positive way to look at Alfonzo is that he might be a good change-of-scenery candidate. The power is real, but he’s been in the Pittsburgh system for six years, and it’s been a while since he’s taken a step forward. Maybe the Yankees can show him something new or get through to him in a way the Pirates couldn’t. The Yankees aren’t going to turn up their noses at a powerful left-handed-hitting catcher. That profile has worked well for them in the past.
Luis Cruz is much more of a lottery ticket. He’s an 18-year-old, left-handed-hitting outfielder who’s posted great batting averages, walk rates, and strikeout rates in the DSL without hitting for any power. As we haven’t published anything about him before, here are the notes that Eric sent me:
Cruz is a projectable DSL outfielder with excellent contact feel and very little present bat speed. He tracks pitches well and moves the bat all over the zone, but he’s currently peppering the shallow part of the outfield with his hardest balls in play. As of his trade to New York as part of the Camilo Doval deal, he had yet to hit a ball to the warning track this season. He needs to get stronger, but has an impressive contact foundation to build.
Brendan Gawlowski let me know – and if you’re wondering, the answer is yes, I do look forward to deadline day because it’s the time when I get to chat the most with the prospect dudes – that Cruz’s slight build hurts his projectability. Right now, Brendan sees Cruz as an honorable-mention type, rather than a ranked player on a prospect list. Put it together, and he seems like the sweetener that got this deal done.
Moving on to the first reliever Pittsburgh acquired on Monday, the 32-year-old Luke Weaver signed a two-year, $22 million deal with the Mets over the offseason, so the Pirates will have him next year too. The Mets are covering $2.2 million of the money still owed to him this year and $6 million for 2027, meaning the Pirates will only owe him a total of about $5.2 million through the end of next season. Regardless of who’s paying, Weaver has certainly lived up to his end of the contract so far. He’s putting together a fantastic season. He’s running a 1.84 ERA with a 2.82 FIP. His ranks 19th among all relievers with 1.1 WAR. He’s had his ups and downs throughout his 11 big league seasons, but this is his best by a mile.
Now, these numbers do have several hallmark signs of being unsustainable. Weaver is running a particularly low home run rate, a career-low BABIP, and a career-high strand rate. But he’s also posting his highest groundball rate since 2017. He’s still averaging over 95 mph with his fastball, and even his 3.50 xFIP, the worst of his ERA estimators, would be a welcome improvement to the Pittsburgh bullpen. He is a real weapon who racks up whiffs, avoids walks, and does a good enough job of keeping the ball on the ground. He’s due for some regression, but he’s a great reliever and one of the most entertaining interviews in the game. I’m not sure what more to say. Over the past three years, he’s got a combined 2.90 ERA and a 3.40 ERA, and his 2.6 WAR rank 29th among relievers. The Pirates have themselves a good pitcher.
Sammy Stafura is a 21-year-old shortstop whom the Reds drafted in the second round in 2023. He joined the Pirates last year in the Ke’Bryan Hayes deal. Stafura has dealt with a hamstring injury this year, so he’s only gotten into 60 games split between Low- and High-A. But in those 60 games, he’s putting up a 133 wRC+, and he’s doing it with some serious power and swing-and-miss. He has a 30% strikeout rate, but he’s got 20 homers! Just for fun, that would be a 54-homer pace across a 162-game schedule.
His contact rate is down and his hard-hit rate is up. This is a huge change for a guy who had a 24% strikeout rate last year and hit just six homers across 119 games, and Eric noted that this seems to be happening a lot across the Pittsburgh system. Players are trading contact for power in a big way, and it remains to be seen which version of Stafura the Mets will get. Eric ranked him 32nd in the Pirates system in June, but MLB Pipeline had Stafura all the way up at eighth. Stafura also possesses strong plate discipline, and whether or not he keeps popping homers and striking out at this clip, he’s a shortstop with a great glove and good speed. Eric put a 40 FV on him this year, and sees him riding the defense to a utility role.
Next we move to Lake Bachar, who has had quite journey. As David Laurila noted last year, Bachar was an All-Conference kicker and a punter at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in addition to playing baseball. The Padres drafted him in the fifth round in 2016, and it took him nine years to make it up to Triple-A. He had a 3.89 ERA and a 4.84 FIP in 49 Triple-A appearances in 2024, and then, after nine years, the Padres waived him. The Marlins picked him up and sent him to the big leagues, and he has run pretty similar numbers. Across three seasons, he’s got a career ERA of 3.88 and a FIP of 4.31 (and his numbers this year are nearly identical). He boasts quite a big repertoire for a reliever, throwing a four-seamer, a slider, a sweeper, a curve, a splitter, and the occasional sinker, which could be the reason he’s posted roughly neutral platoon splits over his career. Like Doval and Weaver, though, Bachar has been better against righties this season. The curveball is a new addition in 2026, and it has so far been his best pitch.
As I’ve mentioned, Bachar has been extremely consistent. He strikes out around a quarter of the batters he faces, which is pretty good, and he walks around 9 or 10%, which is less good. He struggles with the long ball. Although he’s outpitching his FIP and giving up an alarmingly high number of pulled fly balls, he did the same last year. Maybe I’m reading too much into Bachar’s consistency after just two years, but once again, he looks like a solid addition to the bullpen. He also has two minor league options left, and another full season before he becomes arbitration eligible. He’ll be affordable and under team control for quite awhile.
In exchange for Bachar, the Pirates sent three players to the Marlins. Brandan Bidois is a 25-year-old Australian righty. Eric Longenhagen ranked him 27th in the Pittsburgh system with a 40 FV in June. Bidois was unhittable in 2025, running a 0.74 ERA and a 2.44 FIP across 61 innings and four minor league levels. He made his major league debut this season, but he’s combined for ugly numbers both at Triple-A and in Pittsburgh. He’s striking out the world, but he’s also walking the world and allowing all the home runs in the world. If the Marlins can figure out how to teach Bidois some control, he could be a great pitcher, but that’s man-sized if.
Hyun Seung Lee is an 18-year-old third baseman from Korea who has split time between the Complex League and Low-A this season. His numbers are great at the Complex, but he’s struck out 48% of the time in 15 games at Low-A. Eric ranked him 48th in the system and put a 35+ on him in June, writing: “There’s enough lefty bat speed and feel to hit here for Lee to be a notable young prospect with some trade value even though he isn’t an especially good defensive player. He’s likely to play a mix of second and third base, and hopefully develop enough at both spots to be versatile one day. There’s a glimmer of prospect status here, which a year and a half removed from a low-six-figure signing, is already a positive outcome for Pittsburgh.”
Brian Sanchez is a 22-year-old Venezuelan outfielder who came over from the Yankees in the David Bednar trade last year. He’s got plenty of power, but Eric cited stiffness and bat path issues last year, and that seems to have shown up this year. Sanchez has a 25% strikeout rate and a 94 wRC+ at High-A this season. However, he’s walking more than 10% of the time and he’s hit nine home runs over 83 games.
There’s a small chance that this trade blows up in Pittsburgh’s face. Bachar could stop outpitching his FIP, and Bidois could eventually develop some command and turn unhittable like he was just last year. But the Pirates look like they’ve locked in a stable arm for a long time at the price of three players whose flaws are, right now anyway, hard to look past.
Alright people, we’re on to our very last trade. Deep breaths. At this point, you think you’d know what you’re getting from the 39-year-old Kirby Yates, but he’s been up and down in recent years, running a 1.16 ERA with the Rangers in 2024 and a 5.23 mark that was bad enough to keep him from pitching for the Dodgers in the postseason last year. This season, he’s somewhere in the middle, with a 3.95 ERA and a 3.17 FIP. He has a 31% strikeout rate and a 10% walk rate. His home run rate is down, but so is his strand rate. Although Yates’ top-line numbers aren’t disastrous, and the underlying ones are downright good, his win probability added is -1.98. Among relievers with at least 20 innings pitched, that ranks 266th out of 267. Still, this is the kind of move you make at the deadline. Yates is a veteran who can strike out the side on any given night, and after making just one postseason appearance in 13 major league seasons, you have to imagine he’ll do anything to get the Pirates into October. One thing that won’t surprise you: The sidearming Yates has much better numbers against righties than lefties.
Kyle Robinson is a 23-year-old right-hander who spent less than three months in the Pirates system. The A’s drafted him out of Texas Tech in the 11th round in 2024, then traded him to the Pirates for Alika Williams this past May. Eric labeled Robinson a fringe 40-man reliever in June, noting, “He sits 91-94 mph from a high slot and has a good changeup, but he struggles to land his slider.” This may not sound inspiring, but Robinson does have some things you can’t teach. He’s 6-foot-6 with an extremely high release point, and despite the command issues, his secondary pitches play pretty well. Eric and Brendan still see him as a fringe guy, putting a 35 FV on him, but you can understand why the Angels (and the Pirates, ever so briefly) want to take a look.
I can’t tell you whether the Pirates are going to make the playoffs, but they clearly believe that the path to getting there involves a better bullpen to back up their young starters. If they do make it to October, then these four moves could help them make some noise. Imagine going into a short Wild Card series against the Pirates knowing that Paul Skenes, Braxton Ashcraft Doval, Weaver, Bachar, Yates, Sisk, and Yohan Ramírez might be the only pitchers you’ll face. That’s a tall order. If you want to be critical, you can note that Weaver, Doval, and Yates all specialize in getting right-handed hitters out, and that’s not something the Pittsburgh bullpen has really struggled with this season. (To be clear, Weaver has been good against lefties this season, too, just not as dominant as he’s been against righties). In fact, Pittsburgh’s relievers have allowed a best-in-baseball .275 wOBA against righties. They’re at .338 against lefties, the 20th-best mark in baseball. But it’s nice to see the Pirates going for it, even if their version of going for is still involves getting the New York teams to chip in $9 million.