In the end, one of the contributing factors for trading Kevin Newman had less to do about him and more to do about the other Pirate shortstop.
On Friday night, shortly after the non-tender deadline, the Pirates traded their longest-tenured player to the Reds for right-hander reliever Dauri Moreta. Newman did have a bit of a bounce back campaign in 2022, posting a .274 batting average, .687 OPS and 1.1 WAR over 78 games after two very rough seasons at the plate, but with the middle infield options on the 40 man roster, it was determined that Newman was expendable.