One thing has clearly gone fallacious for him, and persevering with to place him into high-leverage conditions — or any scenario — was not doing anyone any good. Not the Pirates. Not their followers. Actually not Bednar.
It’s a gorgeous growth for him and the Pirates given how dominant he was between the 2021 and 2023 seasons. Throughout that point, he made two All-Star video games, led the league in saves in 2023 and was near automated when coming into video games.
His demotion on Tuesday ought to be a cautionary story — in a few other ways — for groups relating to coping with reduction pitchers and high-end closers.
The primary is that for as rapidly as they will emerge into star-level gamers, they will simply as rapidly lose it and stop to be productive.
A powerful bullpen generally is a game-changer for good groups and even perhaps the distinction between being a contender and a pretender. The issue is reduction pitchers are in all probability probably the most unstable place in baseball. It doesn’t take a lot for a reliever’s ERA to balloon up, and baseball historical past is stuffed with pitchers that got here out of nowhere to turn out to be dominant arms out of the bullpen.
Final 12 months’s bum will be this 12 months’s lockdown arm. Final 12 months’s lockdown arm will be this 12 months’s legal responsibility. You simply don’t at all times know when any of that’s going to occur.
Bednar is one such instance.
He initially joined the Pirates in 2021 as a part of the commerce that despatched Joe Musgrove to the San Diego Padres. On the time, Bednar was a 25-year-old reliever who had solely thrown 17 dangerous innings within the Main Leagues. There was nonetheless upside, and he was an intriguing arm, however he had not but proven something within the majors. Then he instantly grew to become a power on the back-end of the Pirates bullpen and one in every of their largest stars.
He simply as quickly misplaced that momentum.
The second lesson is that if you end up a foul group and have an in-demand reduction pitcher in your roster, it is best to in all probability attempt to promote excessive when the worth is at its peak. Or a minimum of strongly take into account it.
The Pirates had that chance on the 2023 commerce deadline once they had been greater than 15 video games beneath .500, probably not near contending and a company that had a number of huge wants. They in all probability might have had a good haul for him when it comes to younger gamers and prospects however handed on the chance as a result of he was nonetheless a high-end, extraordinarily common participant.
Ever since, Bednar’s efficiency has quickly deteriorated, his commerce worth is — in the interim — utterly ruined, and there’s no assure it ever bounces again.
Given how unstable relievers will be, and the way randomly groups can discover good ones, they need to not often be gamers which are thought-about untouchable on the commerce block (particularly if you’re not contending in that season).
Perhaps he goes to the minors, works on some issues, regains his confidence and comes again the identical pitcher he was a few years in the past. If he does, the Pirates ought to act rapidly and attempt to transfer him given the larger, extra essential wants all through the lineup.
There’s simply no assure that can occur.
