Gone Goes Frazier

 Adam, we barely knew ye...

In what has become a depressingly familiar scenario, the Pirates yesterday traded a popular and quite good player for, say it with me now, prospects!

Like many of the deals that have sent popular players packing in recent years....Neil Walker, Andrew McCutchen, Gerrit Cole....the trade of Adam Frazier can be defended in a pure baseball sense, to wit:

• He will turn 30 years old this coming off season, an age when, or so the data tells us, players begin to decline
• The Pirates are a rebuilding team, targeting a window of contention that should begin to open in 2023 or so, by which time Frazier's skills really will be in decline, or so the data tells us
• Ding-ding-ding....He will be eligible for free agency after the 2022 season, he will no doubt test those waters at that time, so trade him now and get something for him 

We Pirates fans can recite this kind of shit in our sleep, and like I said, in a pure baseball sense, it is all true and defensible.  However, rooting interest in a team is an emotional thing.  Maybe it shouldn't be, but it is, and when you are rooting for a lousy team, a guy like Adam Frazier, a solid and good ball player, is someone for whom fans (aka, paying customers) can latch onto and cheer, and now....gone!

This is Adam Frazier in 2021:  125 hits (leads the league), .324 BA (second in NL), .836 OPS, Gold Glove caliber second baseman, a starter on this year's NL All Star team.  

Here is what the Pirates are getting in return:

• Infielder Tucupita Marcano (fifth best prospect in the Padres organization!!!)
• Outfielder Jack Suwinski
• Relief pitcher Michell Miliano

Are any of these guys any good?  Is this a good trade?  As a Pirates fan, I sure hope so, but we really won't know the answer to that for years.  Let's just hope that the plan of GM Ben Cherington works.

Hey, in the end, we're all just rooting for the laundry anyway.