Pittsburgh Pirates closer Mark Melancon is reportedly generating interest from “multiple teams” ahead of the Aug. 1 non-waiver trade deadline.
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Pirates Looking for Big Haul on Melancon
Saturday, July 30
The Pirates would consider trading Melancon “if they can get [Aroldis] Chapman type deal,” reported Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports.
Multiple Teams Interested in Melancon
Friday, July 29
Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported Friday the Washington Nationals were among the organizations considering a deal for Melancon in the coming days.
Rosenthal added the Cleveland Indians and San Francisco Giants are also in the mix with the Pirates wanting a “seventh-inning type” reliever as part of the return.
Melancon Enjoying Strong ’16 Season
Melancon has emerged as one of the league’s most reliable bullpen weapons since the Pirates acquired him ahead of the 2013 campaign. He has posted a 1.80 ERA and an 0.93 WHIP across 267 appearances for the Pirates, tallying 130 saves and 41 holds in the process.
Pittsburgh is one of several teams that are facing a tough decision about whether to buy or sell leading up to the deadline, though. It sits just two games out of the final wild-card spot in the National League, but it’s a crowded race with six teams battling for a pair of postseason berths.
The uncertainty could make the 31-year-old reliever available because he’s also in the final year of his contract, which is paying him $9.65 million this season, according to Spotrac.
Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald passed along comments Melancon made at the All-Star Game about understanding how quickly the outlook can change:
Nobody updates me because nobody really knows. [Pirates general manager] Neal Huntington probably knows and I don’t even know if he knows every second of every day. Like I said, wild card dependency, need dependency and then injuries and all that stuff, those things can happen so quickly. [Craig] Kimbrel obviously and [Brad] Ziegler, that happened really fast.
If the Pirates do decide to trade Melancon, the Nationals are a logical fit based on the recent struggles of Jonathan Papelbon.
The Nats’ current closer has allowed seven earned runs over his last three outings, totaling just a single inning. It’s caused his ERA to rise from 2.56 to 4.41 and left the NL East leaders with a lot of uneasiness about who’s going to get the final three outs.
Few pitchers in baseball have done that better than Melancon in recent years. The key questions over the next few days will be how much teams are willing to give up for a possible rental acquisition and how desperate the Pirates are to move him with free agency looming.
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