Deadline day chaos hit Pittsburgh hard, and not in the usual way. Instead of shipping out veterans for prospects like they have in past summers, the Pirates spent the final hour of the 2026 trade deadline adding arms, closing out a bullpen makeover that had already included Luke Weaver earlier in the week.
Kirby Yates to Pirates, sources tell me and @WillSammon
Ken Rosenthal broke the Yates news first, and the pickup came from the Angels, who sent the 39-year-old righty to Pittsburgh for right-hander Kyle Robinson, who'd been pitching at Double-A Altoona in the Pirates system. Yates is a two-time All-Star, first with the Padres back in 2019 and again with the Rangers a couple years later, and he's now on his 8th career stop after posting an 0-5 record with a 3.95 ERA and 3 saves across 31 appearances for the Angels this season.
Minutes later, a second deal landed. Jeff Passan and Jon Heyman both confirmed the Pirates were also getting reliever Lake Bachar from the Marlins, a separate trade that closed out the bullpen spending spree right at the buzzer.
Three prospects coming to Miami…
Rosenthal's follow-up nodded to what Miami was getting in return: 3 prospects headed to the Marlins as part of the Bachar swap. Bachar himself has been solid depth this year, sitting at 1-2 with a 3.84 ERA and 2 saves while striking out 61 batters over 58.2 innings, the kind of multi-inning reliever teams love to stash for October leverage spots.
Add it up and Bachar is the 6th different reliever Pittsburgh has brought in since the start of July, joining Brandon Eisert, Ron Marinaccio, Camilo Doval, Weaver and now Yates. That's an aggressive, almost un-Pirates-like level of bullpen spending for a front office more known for subtracting than adding at the deadline.
Whether this is a real push for October or just Ben Cherington hedging his roster with cheap veteran arms remains to be seen, but the volume of moves says the Pirates wanted swing-and-miss stuff and length in front of their closer spot before the buzzer sounded. Now it's on Yates and Bachar to actually hold down innings in a pennant race Pittsburgh didn't look built for a month ago.