The Pirates have been relatively quiet in this off-season, but that changed just a little bit yesterday, which gives me an excuse to write about them as the snow falls in McCandless, PA.
The biggest news, and it should come as no surprise, was the release of 1B/RF Garrett Jones.
The career year that Jones had in 2012 was followed by a mediocre one in 2013, and when you combine that with the fact that he is headed for arbitration for the second time this winter, well, as I said, no surprise. In his five seasons with the Bucs, Jones produced 102 HR, 330 RBI, hit .254, and had a .774 OPS. A left-handed hitter, he is the quintessential platoon player, and the Pirates will not pay over $5 million for that. I have no doubt that he will catch on with some team and that he will probably do well, if he is used properly.
He was also quite popular, and appeared to be a Good Guy. Thanks for you time here, Garrett, and all Pirates fans no doubt wish you well
The Pirates also made a trade of minor leaguers with the Padres yesterday, sending Alex Dickerson to San Diego in exchange for OF Jaff (pronounced "Jeff") Decker and P Miles Mikolas. I know that some viewed Dickerson as a possible "first baseman of the future" and Decker has some good minor league numbers, and Mikolas seems ordinary at best. Who knows?
On the A.J. Burnett front, nothing seems to be happening. The Pirates have made it clear that they will not / cannot pay market value ($28 Million for two years) for the 36 year old A.J. Burnett, and Burnett hasn't changed from his Pirates-or-Retire stance, but you can be sure that his agent is trolling and no doubt some team is going to make him that market value offer. Then we'll see how sincere Burnett has been. At the SABR meeting last week, Clint Hurdle made it clear that the Pirates need a decision from Burnett one way or another soon or they will need to move on. Stay tuned.
The Post-Gazette today listed those remaining Pirates who will be eligible for salary arbitration: Gaby Sanchez, Charlie Morton, Neil Walker, Mark Melancon, Vin Mazzaro, Travis Snider, Mike McKenry, and Pedro Alvarez. Should be some interesting figures bandied about over these guys. I am guessing that Alvarez will no doubt set a record for an arbitration award where the Pirates are concerned, and it will be interesting to see if the team will try to avoid arbitration with Walker by seeking to sign him to a multi-year deal. If they do not, it will speak volumes, I believe.
The Pirates have the same questions hovering over them this off-season as they did last year, namely, first base, right field, and to a lesser extent, short stop, although I believe that Jordy Mercer has earned the job there for 2014. Not everyone agrees. It looks like they will seek a lefthanded hitting first baseman (who comes cheaper than Jones) to platoon with Sanchez, and that right field will still be up for grabs with Jose Tabata first among equals at this point. However, in his blog this morning, Bob Smizik raises an intriguing question about a free agent currently on the market - Carlos Beltran, and he makes a compelling argument. Read on:
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/smizik-on-sports/2013/11/26/In-right-field-for-Pirates-Why-not-Beltran/stories/201311260120
Some good stuff to toss into the Hot Stove as you prepare to stuff the Thanksgiving Turkey. Have a great holiday, everybody!
Events have kept me away from the keyboard these last few days, but my plan was to blog this Sunday morning on the Pirates signing of free agent pitcher Francisco Liriano. Then I come home last night to find that the Buccos madcap GM Neal Huntington had worked his magic once again and engineered a deal that will send All-Star relief pitcher Joel Hanrahan to Boston for, yep, you guessed it, prospects. So far, a pitcher and an "outfielder/first baseman" (I can't remember their names, don't feel like looking them up, and does it really matter anyway?) will be coming to the Bucs. Also, it is reported that one other Pirate and two other "prospects" from the Red Sox will be involved once physicals are taken and the deal is finalized sometime after Christmas.
Exchanges on Facebook's Pirate Chat page have been voluminous and lively. The consensus is that this is yet another Pirates Salary Dump (Hanrahan is arbitration eligible and would have probably been awarded a salary in the $7 million range) in which Huntington deals away an All-Star player for some batting practice balls and a couple fungo bats. The Huntington supporters, and there are some, believe it or not, claim that this could be a good if not great deal for the Pirates, since Hanrahan's value is high, you can always find someone to close for you, and you can "get something" for him.
My thoughts are, yes, a team should be able to find a closer, and yes, why should a cash-strapped (purportedly) team like the Pirates shell out seven mill for such a commodity, so, in some sense, it DOES make sense to shop and even trade a guy like Hanrahan. My beef is that this trade reeks of almost every other trade made by the Neal Huntington Regime (NHR). When the dust settles, and the highly played and proven player leaves Pittsburgh, the Pirates are left with "prospects", guys with "high upsides" over whom the Pirates will have multiple "years of control". What this really means is - CHEAP. And how have these trades worked out for the Pirates so far? How come guys like Andy LaRoche, Brandon Moss, Tim Alderson, Gorkys Hernandez, Craig Hansen, Jeff Locke, Jeff Clement and others of their ilk have yet to lead the Pirates to multiple pennants? Hey, maybe I've left out someone that Neal HAS traded for that has been a big contributor, and I've failed to mention him, and if so, I apologize. Wait, he did trade Nyjer Morgan to the Nationals and received Joel Hanrahan in return. That was great deal for the Pirates, right up until the time Hanrahan got too expensive.
My point - and my frustration - is that this is yet another deal where the Pirates are looking to "the future" and are not looking to win now, today, in 2013. The Washington Nationals got ripped two years ago when they signed Jayson Worth to a mega-contract, but that signing proved to Nats' fans that the team was going to win right away, and not build for some undefined "future" that, in the Pirates case, anyway, always is being redefined and pushed further and further out into the distance.
My friend Al Cotton predicted that the next guy to go will be Garrett Jones. He, too, will be arbitration eligible and will be getting a huge raise after his 27 HR season last year. Couple this with the Huntington's stockpiling of "outfielder/first baseman" and I'd say that Jones is as good as gone. Again, the NH Supporters were out saying that Jones' is nothing but a platoon player (true, but one that hit 27 HR, 86 RBI, and an .823 OPS), whose value "will never be higher" (which could very well be true) so why not deal him? Well, here's two reasons why not. One, the Pirates might certainly be a better team with him than without him in 2013, and two, based on his track record, do you have any confidence at all that Huntington will get equal, much less better, value in return? I don't.
Oh, and about that Liriano signing? My initial thoughts were, hey, this guy was one of the very brightest young pitchers in baseball a few years back when he came up with the Twins, so what the hell, this might be a good signing. At the very least, he would be the equal of Kevin Correia, and better than Eric Bedard. On the other hand, to use a phrase that Neal himself likes to use, Liriano's performance has been "trending down" in recent seasons, but still he is only 29 years old, so, again, what the hell? But once again on the other hand, this is the Pirates that are making this signing, so how good can it really be? This is how the NHR has rotted my perspective, and taken away my ability to be positive about the team that I have followed and loved for 54 seasons.
