The Pittsburgh to New York pitching pipeline is underway. The Pirates traded right-hander JT Brubaker and international bonus pool money to the Yankees for a player to be named later, the teams announced Friday. Brubaker had Tommy John surgery last April and is expected to return sometime around this year’s All-Star Game.
Brubaker, 30, was Pittsburgh’s Opening Day starter in 2022. He has a career 4.99 ERA in 315 2/3 big league innings, including a 4.69 ERA in 144 innings in 2022, which was his last healthy season. When healthy, Brubaker throws a sinker and a high spin slider in the mid-90s, two pitches the Yankees have emphasized as they have built their pitching staff over the past few years.
This is the fifth Pirates-Yankees trade since January 2021 and the third involving major-league players. All three included sending a pitcher to New York. Here are the other two:
Taillon gave the Yankees two solid seasons before leaving as a free agent and has emerged as one of the game’s top relievers since the Holmes trade. The six players the Pirates acquired in those two trades have combined for a minus-1.5 WAR at the MLB level. Only Contreras, Escoto and Smith-Njigba remain with Pittsburgh.
Additionally, the Yankees also have former Pirates relievers Nick Burdi, Yerry De los Santos and Duane Underwood Jr. in the organization. Birdie made New York’s Opening Day roster. For whatever reason, there has been a lot of overlap in terms of pitching between the Yankees and Pirates over the past few seasons.
Brubaker is due $2.275 million this year and will remain under team control as an arbitration-eligible player through 2025. He also has two minor league options remaining, meaning the Yankees can send him to Triple-A in 2024 and 2025 without waivers. , This gives him a little roster flexibility as he is working his way back from elbow surgery.
The International Bonus Pool amount must be traded in increments of $250,000. The Pirates had a bonus pool of $7,114,800 this year, the largest in the game, while the Yankees had the smallest at $4,652,200. New York has until December 15 to spend the money earned in the trade. Chances are they already have a queue of signatures.
The Yankees and Pirates both won on Opening Day on Thursday. New York came back from 4–0 down to defeat the Houston Astros, and the Pirates defeated the Miami Marlins in 12 innings.
