Who kidnapped Neal Huntington?

Suddenly, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ general manager has morphed into “Trader Neal.”

Usually reticent against trading, well, any prospect of any value for major league talent, Huntington made a couple of jaw-dropping swaps near the trade deadline.

Jaw-dropping for the Pirates, anyway.

Huntington swung a deal for Rangers’ reliever Keone Kela in the wee hours of Tuesday morning for Taylor Hearn and a player to be named later.

Why is that a big deal?

Well, for one, Kela is better than any reliever currently on the Pirates’ roster, save for Felipe Vazquez. Secondly, he’s also only 25 and is under team control through the 2021 season.

It’ll be interesting, though, to see who that player to be named later ends up being.

Then, Huntington sent Austin Meadows and the inflated ERA of once whiz-kid Tyler Glasnow to the Rays for ace Chris Archer.

Who had the Pirates making the biggest trade of Deadline Day? Raise your hand.

If you raised your hand, you’re lying.

The nice thing about Archer is he’s the best starting pitcher this side of Jameson Taillon on the Pirates’ roster.

And like Kela, he’s under team control through the 2021 season.

These guys aren’t just rentals. They could be cornerstones of the new-look (and perhaps pretty good) Pirates of the future.

It is also a sign to a fan base that was angered by the jettisoning of Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole that the Buccos are all in this season.

Yes, the Pirates. All in.

Pittsburgh was 3 1/2 games out of a National League wild card spot heading into a key two-game series against the Cubs Tuesday.

I don’t think anyone expected the Bucs to be in this position on July 31.

Just a month ago, it looked as if the Pirates were going to be major sellers at the deadline.

Guys like Corey Dickerson, Ivan Nova, Josh Harrison, David Freese, Jordy Mercer and even Vazquez were thought likely to be traded or at least dangled to contending teams.

Then an 11-game winning streak flipped the script and suddenly the Bumbling Bucs turned into the Buying Bucs.

And Huntington made two of the biggest (and perhaps best) deadline deals in this year.

Hard to believe, isn’t it?

Time will tell how these moves will pan out.

Sometimes deadline deals work. Sometimes they don’t.

If anything, though, it shows that the Pirates are at least going to fight for that wild card spot while not mortgaging the future for that fleeing chance.

Huntington — if he wasn’t in fact snatched and replaced by a doppelganger — walked the tightrope and made it to the other side.

Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.