The Pittsburgh Pirates have struggled quite a bit for the last few years. The 2025 season is starting to look like much of the same for the Pirates. Paul Skenes is a superstar, but that's about all the Pirates faithful has to be excited about.
On Tuesday, they decided to bring up starting pitcher Thomas Harrington to make his big league debut. Harrington is one of Pittsburgh's best prospects and the move should excite Pirates fans quite a bit. He has the potential to be one of the best young pitchers in the game if he can put all the pieces together going forward.
But in the move to make room for Harrington, the Pirates optioned closer David Bednar down to Triple-A, shocking the fan base quite a bit.
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Red Sox, Blue Jays among potential suitors for optioned closer David Bednar
On the year, Bednar has made three appearances and allowed a run in each of them. He was handed the loss in two of his three appearances. In the one game he didn't blow, he allowed two runs and barely survived the game with the lead.
This move has a lot of baseball stirring a bit. Could the Pirates trade Bednar? Is that what the future holds for the former lockdown closer? At this point, it's too early to tell, but if the Pirates do opt to trade him, the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays are two teams who could take a shot at the former star closer.
The Red Sox have next to zero options at closer this season. They could be in the market to take a chance on just about any closer who becomes available on the market in the near future, and this now includes Bednar. While the righty doesn't have the same trade value that he would have two years ago, the Red Sox may be willing to part ways with a small return in order to land the struggling righty.
The Blue Jays have a few decent options at closer already. Bednar would be able to compete for a role at the back end of games in Toronto, but when a player is optioned by the Pirates, they likely wouldn't have a guaranteed job with any team.
Trading him now makes sense for the Pirates, but it's unclear if this is something they're looking into at the moment.