The Pirates have announced that they've designated Travis Ishikawa for assignment. The move comes as no surprise, after the Bucs' acquisition of another left-handed first baseman, Ike Davis, via a trade with the Mets yesterday. The move clears space for Davis on the Pirates' active roster.
Ishikawa, 30, hit .206/.263/.382 in 38 plate appearances with the Pirates this season after beating out fellow lefty Andrew Lambo to share first base with righty Gaby Sanchez. Ishikawa hit .290/.389/.465 at the Triple-A level in 2013. In addition to the Pirates, he has played for the Giants, Brewers, Orioles and Yankees.
Amazingly, in his short time with the Pirates, Ishikawa managed to hit more home runs and drive in as many runs as Morneau did for the Pirates.
He played just as good of a first base as Morneau, too. Hey, Travis hit as many homers for the Bucs as Andrew McCutchen did in the same amount of time, and Travis did it in less at-bats! ;)
I really hope that he gets another shot at the big club as a bench bat. He hit well and did everything that was asked of him. I was skeptical when he was signed, but he did a good job for us in limited time.
His biggest limitation is that he only plays first base. It’s hard to keep a guy on the bench who can only play one position unless he’s the backup catcher.