The Pirates today traded five players in advance of Major League Baseball's 4 p.m. non-waiver trading deadline:

Starter Kip Wells went to the Texas Rangers for minor-league reliever Jesse Chavez.

Reliever Roberto Hernandez and minor-league starter Oliver Perez went to the New York Mets for outfielder Xavier Nady.

First baseman Sean Casey went to the Detroit Tigers for minor-league reliever Brian Rogers.

First baseman-outfielder Craig Wilson went to the New York Yankees for starter Shawn Chacon.

		Chat transcript Dejan Kovacevic

To replenish their 25-man roster, the Pirates promoted center fielder Chris Duffy and reliever Josh Sharpless from Class AAA Indianapolis. Duffy's return comes after a month-long absence for personal matters and a month at Indianapolis in which he batted .349 in 26 games. Sharpless, a native of Freedom, Beaver County, had a 2.45 ERA in 33 innings and will be making his major-league debut.

Asked to assess his day, general manager Dave Littlefield replied, "I don't want to be in this situation, making trades. My goal is to win. We want to be in the position where we're acquiring players because we're battling for a playoff spot."

The main return of the day was Nady, 27, who started 70 games for New York and batted .264 with 14 home runs and 40 RBIs. In four full seasons in the majors, his average is .263 with 39 home runs and 131 RBIs in 1,040 at-bats. His current home run total is a career high, and he is three RBIs short of his career high.

Chacon, 28, was 5-3 with a 7.00 ERA in 11 starts with the Yankees. A 6-foot-3 right-hander, he has a 36-51 career record.

Chavez, 22, had a 4.43 ERA in 39 appearances split between Class AA Frisco and Class AAA Oklahoma. He had 73 strikeouts and 28 walks in 61 innings.

Rogers, 24, is a right-hander who had a 2.39 ERA and one save in 37 appearances for Class AA Erie. He also had a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 69 to 14 in his 64 innings - comparable to the Pirates' Matt Capps at that level - and had given up an average of 0.98 walks and hits per innings, a figure considered excellent in a key statistic for relievers.

And of those departed:

Wells, 29, was 1-5 with a 6.69 ERA since returning from surgery to address a blocked artery. He had been with the Pirates since 2002 and was 36-53 in that time.

Hernandez, 41, had a 2.96 ERA in 43 innings and, for the season's first two months, was the Pirates' best reliever.

Perez, 24, was 2-10 with a 6.63 ERA in 15 starts before being demoted to Indianapolis last month, where he was 1-3 with a 5.63 ERA. He is expected to remain in the minors in the Mets' system.

The Mets needed pitching because reliever Duaner Sanchez's shoulder was separated in a car accident yesterday.

Wilson, 29, was the longest-tenured player on the Pirates' roster, but he had been eager for a trade once it became clear the team would keep him on the bench this season. He batted .267 with 13 home runs and 41 RBIs in 255 at-bats. He has 94 career home runs, all with the Pirates.

Casey, 32, batted .296 with three home runs and 29 RBIs in 59 games in his only season with the Pirates. He was the team's highest-paid player with a salary of $8.5 million, $1 million of that being covered by the Cincinnati Reds as part of the December trade that brought him to Pittsburgh.

A native of Upper St. Clair, his stint in his hometown was shorter than many expected. The Pirates had sent strong signals as early as spring that they might sign him to a contract extension, with ownership clearing general manager Dave Littlefield to do so if he chose. But management shifted away from that in the past month.

For Casey, it is a chance to go from one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball to its best.

"I'm excited," Casey said. "I really enjoyed my time back home, although it didn't turn out exactly the way I would have drawn it up because of all the time I missed."

A back injury forced him to sit out six weeks in April and May.

"But I feel great about the opportunity that there is in Detroit, especially at this stage of my career. It's going to be great being in a pennant race."

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.