The Pirates aren't waiting around at the position that's giving them the most headaches right now. Pittsburgh scooped up Christian Bethancourt from the Yankees in exchange for cash considerations, a move that popped up on the wire Wednesday and quietly signals something's off behind the plate in Pittsburgh.
This isn't a splash move, and it's not supposed to be. Bethancourt is a journeyman at this point, a 34-year-old who's bounced through six organizations over 8 big league seasons, hitting a career.229 with 35 homers along the way. He'd been grinding it out at Triple-A Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for the Yankees before Pittsburgh came calling, and he's actually got history with the organization — he played for Pittsburgh's minor league affiliate back in 2021 and hit.281 with 14 home runs that year.
The real story here is what's happening with Pittsburgh's actual starter. Endy Rodriguez has been in and out of the lineup all summer, first landing on the IL July 6 with a left glute strain, then getting shut down again August 10 with left hip inflammation after managing just 10 games back. That's a lot of soft-tissue trouble piling up for a guy who's supposed to be the long-term answer behind the plate, and it's forced the Pirates to lean on Henry Davis and Rafael Flores Jr. to hold things down.
Adding insult to injury, Davis himself got plunked by a pitch and had to get checked out — X-rays reportedly came back clean, but it's the kind of scare that makes a front office want a warm body on standby. That's exactly what Bethancourt is: insurance. He'll head to Triple-A Indianapolis first, with a path to the taxi squad when the Pirates kick off a 9-game road trip against the Dodgers in Los Angeles.
None of this screams contender behavior, and it shouldn't — Bethancourt's minor league numbers this year (.270 with 14 homers in 67 games split between the Cubs and Yankees systems) suggest he can still contribute in a pinch. For a Pittsburgh team just trying to survive a run of catcher attrition, that's more than enough. Sometimes the deadline-adjacent moves aren't about winning a trade, they're about not losing a season to a position group falling apart.