Pirates somehow lost the Quinn Priester trade even worse than we thought

The Pittsburgh Pirates' front office incompetence is best summed up by Ben Cherington's fumbling of the Quinn Priester trade.
Milwaukee Brewers v Seattle Mariners
Milwaukee Brewers v Seattle Mariners | Steph Chambers/GettyImages

The Pittsburgh Pirates made very little noise at the MLB trade deadline, but GM Ben Cherington continues to dig himself into a deeper hole. In 2024, he (now infamously) dealt RHP Quinn Priester to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for 2B Nick Yorke. At the time, Yorke was Boston's No. 6 prospect.

Priester was flipped to the Milwaukee Brewers this past offseason, where the 24-year-old has found his groove. He has a 3.27 ERA and 1.23 WHIP in 20 appearances (15 starts) and 107.1 innings pitched this season, notching 89 strikeouts. The sinkerballer has four straight starts with two or fewer earned runs allowed.

While Pittsburgh is not responsible for Priester ending up in Milwaukee, it's hard to ignore his success when he was viewed as a potential Pirates cornerstone only a year ago. It is the perfect summation of what makes Cherington such a hapless GM for a Pirates team in desperate need of a more visionary decision-maker.

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Quinn Priester blossoms with Brewers while Nick Yorke hits snag with Pirates

As Priester dominates for a division rival, the Pirates' return gets worse by the day. Nick Yorke has a .664 OPS and two home runs in 37 MLB at-bats this season. His numbers in Triple-A — .750 OPS and seven home runs in 314 at-bats — aren't exactly sensational. Worse yet, it appears that Yorke is trending in the wrong direction.

The Athletic's Keith Law told 93.7 The Fan that Yorke has developed a "crazy pause" in his swing. He added: "whoever changed his swing needs to be taken behind the woodshed."

This is obviously not great news if you're a Pirates fan. The anticipation for Yorke was fairly high going into the season, in no small part due to what Pittsburgh gave up for him. The Pirates' history of hitting development is extremely shaky, however, and it's becoming increasingly clear that Yorke is becoming a victim to his situation.

Pirates' Quinn Priester blunder proves Ben Cherington's incompetence

Pittsburgh has deep organizational flaws to wrangle with. The history of hitting development under Cherington is egregiously bad. Obviously the GM isn't in the batting cages with his top prospects every day, but Cherington needs to get a better handle on how his players perform in relation to their coaches.

The broad concept behind the Priester trade was sensible. The Pirates need more hitting and are overstuffed with quality young pitchers. That does not mean Priester wouldn't be helping Pittsburgh a heck of a lot more than Yorke right now. Trading a player to address positional needs without receiving appropriate value in return is bad process. It's also worth noting how volatile hitting prospects in Pittsburgh typically are. If the Pirates can't confidently fine-tune Yorke's weaknesses, then trading an MLB-ready arm for him was — you guessed it — a huge mistake.

Meanwhile, the Pirates tend to develop pitching well, if not much else. Priester's breakout in Milwaukee almost certainly would have happened in Pittsburgh, probably on a similar timeline. So in the end, the Pirates are banking on Yorke fixing this new "crazy pause" in his swing in order to come out close to even on this trade. Ben Cherington's seat keeps getting hotter.