The Pirates weren not without holes to address at the upcoming trade deadline before Jordy Mercer’s injury on Sunday, but Mercer’s injury certainly recasts their deadline approach in a whole new light. With a bit of time to consider the situation with Mercer, Harrison, and the team in general, I’ve tried to sort of outline the different ways the Pirates can tackle the deadline now that they’ve got a clear need (left-side infield), some other positions of probable need (first base, right field), and positions of eternal trade deadline need (pitching).
The first option is to do nothing. This is always the first option, though obviously not always the best option. This Pirate team has found most of its success through its pitching staff, though, and neither Mercer nor Harrison were huge offensive contributors this year. If these injuries had happened in May, though, it’d likely be the route the Pirates would take. If the Pirates choose to not address infield depth with a trade, I’d hope that they give Alen Hanson a shot at third base. I’m not entirely convinced that he’d be a huge offensive upgrade on Brent Morel, because of his age, relative inexperience in the high minors, and batting-average heavy offensive profile. Hanson’s ceiling is much higher, though, and since the Pirates would only need him for about a month, there’s a chance that he could tear through the NL with a .330 average before pitchers adjust to him. This approach might work, but it obviously creates problems for the Pirates. Depth would be a massive issue while the Pirates wait for Harrison to return, though, and given Gregory Polanco’s struggles, this would expose the Pirates to the risk of having two young and under-performing players in the lineup at the same time, without even mentioning the struggle-proneness of Starling Marte, Pedro Alvarez, etc. or the still-relatively-unknown factor of Jung Ho Kang. This is not an ideal approach, but I suppose the Pirates could pull this off and being able to do so might give Neal Huntington some leverage in a situation where he otherwise wouldn’t have much.
The Pirates could address the infield problem directly with a big trade. This seems unlikely to me because Harrison is due back by September and because the Pirates have quite a bit of long-term infield depth between Harrison, Hanson, Kang, and Mercer. Still, the Pirates have the farm system to pull off a big trade and they have the team to make a run at a division and more this year, so why not dream of Tulo or, say, Brett Lawrie? Still, don’t count on it.
The Pirates could address the infield problem with a stopgap. Much more likely. Clint Barmes, Aramis Ramirez, or maybe guys with a bit more upside and versatility (and thus, a higher price tag) like Juan Uribe or Kelly Johnson. Actually, Pirate fans tend to only talk about guys that have been Pirates before (Ramirez and Barmes), but Johnson and Uribe would both make sense as they have the ability to both hit and play a couple of positions. That will give the Pirates some more depth once Harrison comes back as it will let them turn to someone other than Sean Rodriguez as the first infielder off the bench.
The Pirates could address the infield problem by addressing their outfield problem. I briefly mentioned this yesterday, but it would make some sense. No matter how hard you try to slice your arbitrary end points favorably, it’s very difficult to make a case that Gregory Polanco has been better in 2015 than he was in 2014. This doesn’t mean that the Pirates should give up on him entirely, as quite a few outfielders called up at young ages have taken a while to fully develop. Not everyone can be Andrew McCutchen or even Starling Marte. Still, the reality that Polanco has been one of the Pirates’ worst hitters this year and probably the very worst hitting regular since Jordy Mercer starting heating up is difficult to avoid. Upgrading Polanco to the rumored Justin Upton or the fantasized-about-in-my-head Yoenis Cespedes would create some cushion for Alen Hanson in the infield. I think the Pirates would still need some more infield depth if they go this route, but they wouldn’t have to go that big in the infield if they did something like this.
The Pirates could trade for Ben Zobrist. Ben Zobrist plays pretty much everywhere and hits well. He fixes a number of problems — he could man third while Harrison’s out, then move to right once Harrison is back back. But then, Ben Zobrist would do that for a number of contenders and he would not be cheap.
The Pirates could trade for a first baseman. Actually, the Pirates should do this no matter what. Pedro Alvarez’s defense and power outage are a problem. I’m not sure there’s an obvious option here (Adam Lind is on everyone’s radar and might get expensive, an expensive Adam Lind is not what I’d be looking for in the Pirates’ position). Ryan Howard is mildly interesting, but the Phillies would have to eat a TON of salary and his 2017 buyout to make it a feasible trade for a platoon first baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The other options are decidedly pedestrian: Ike Davis, Adam LaRoche, Mitch Moreland, ho hum, etc. etc. I’m intrigued by Carlos Santana here, but he would not be cheap at all.
The Pirates could do something crazy and off the map. I know that this seems unlikely to anyone that follows the Pirates, but the Pirates seemed awfully close to moving a very good prospect or prospects (Josh Bell, probably) for a rental or short-term pitcher last year. In the end, the reason that they didn’t was because the asking prices last year seemed to include young big league outfielders that weren’t quite performing up to expectations. Like Gregory Polanco. I’m not saying that the Pirates should give up on Gregory Polanco and trade him, I’m saying that they could use him as a trade piece with a team demanding big league ready talent. I don’t think they would want to do this (I’d assume they’d rather trade Bell, Hanson, and maybe even Meadows first) and it’d have to be a huge deal, not the sort of rentals or stopgaps we’ve talked about so far in this piece. It’d have to be for someone that’s not even on your or my radar, someone we probably think of currently untouchable. I’m just saying that right field is a problem spot for the Pirates right now, the outfield is an organizational position of strength, and that this Pirate team is good and it’s probably worth it to go for it with them given the right opportunity. Flags do fly forever, after all.
The Pirates could trade for pitching. They probably should. You can’t ever have enough pitching.
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