The Pirates announced that they have elected not to tender contracts to first baseman Pedro Alvarez and outfielder Jaff Decker for the 2016 season. The rest of the team’s arbitration eligible players, aside from Alvarez, have been tendered contracts. Alvarez had been projected to receive an $8.1MM salary next season, per MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz.
Alvarez, the second overall pick in the 2008 draft, adds an intriguing name to the free-agent market for teams in search of power. He’s crushed 111 homers over the past four seasons (11th in all of Major League Baseball) while hitting .238/.310/.456. That, on the surface, would seem to make Alvarez a worthy tender, but Alvarez comes with a number of less appealing factors as well.
Alvarez broke into the league as a third baseman, but the Pirates moved the 6’3″, 250-pounder across the diamond to first base in 2014 due to defensive issues. While Alvarez readily accepted his new role, he proved to be a liability at first base as well. Both Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating pegged Alvarez at -14 runs in 906 innings this season, and his 23 errors tied him for third in all of baseball at any position despite the fact that he had the fewest defensive innings played of any player in the top 30 of that dubious list.
Additionally, Alvarez has long struggled against left-handed pitching. He hit .258/.292/.419 against lefties in 2015, though he was limited to 65 plate appearances versus same-handed pitchers. Those limitations were placed on Alvarez with good reason; he’s a lifetime .203/.270/.332 batter against fellow lefties. On the flip side of the equation, Alvarez has proven to be a formidable force against right-handed pitchers. He’s a .246./320/.473 hitter against righties in his career with 114 of his 131 homers coming while holding the platoon advantage.
The Pirates certainly made an effort to trade Alvarez, tweets Stephen Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but were simply unable to find a willing taker. Considering the fact that the still-28-year-old Alvarez (29 in February) averages a home run every 19 plate appearances versus right-handed pitching, he should draw considerable interest from American League clubs looking for a first baseman/designated hitter that can be platooned with a potent right-handed bat. Clubs like the Orioles and Indians stand out as possible fits, while the Rays and White Sox could make some sense depending on their ability to move James Loney and Adam LaRoche, respectively.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Padres have their new first baseman. Put money on that.
That would be Myers
Alvarez is the worst first baseman ever. He needs to be a DH over in the minor league…..
I’d put my money on Baltimore. They’re likely to lose Davis, and that short RF at Camden might allow this guy to hit 45 home runs next year…
Carter is going to be out there also now. Combine one of Alvarez/Carter with the free swinging Trumbo and the O’s have 2 all or nothing types out of 9 in the lineup that have an OBP hovering at .300 or less generally.
If the got Carter/Alvarez, would probably go after Carter anyway than have to wait on Boras chasing every last nickel and holding out longer in the offseason.
The O’s had the 3rd highest K% in baseball last year. I don’t think they care about strikeouts as much as you might think…
before Trumbo, this would’ve made sense…. Now with Trumbo? i don’t know if the lineup can take it.
for sure being discussed but to stay “put money on that” – i’d want 10/1 odds
27 HRs and they don’t tender him a contract… I know those are surface numbers but they couldn’t of tried to trade him?
I’m sure they tried, but with NT deadline looming, PIT had no leverage.
There is no try when it comes to tendering a contract. You either tender one or you don’t.
he means tried to trade him
That makes WAY more sense!
Surprised they couldn’t even get a Clevenger caliber player in return from some AL club looking for a DH
with that suggestion, if you were the O’s would you have taken Trumbo for 9mil or pedro for 8 mil?
I believe an AL team will pick him up
See ya El Toro you were good for the Pirates, good luck on getting a new team
Perfect storm of player and team realizing theyre probably both better off moving on. Pedro was liable to give up as many runs as his pitchers some days but played huge part in winning a bunch of games too. Hope fans don’t forget that
What does Pedro Alvarez and the late Michael Jackson have in common? They both had a glove on one hand for no discernible reason. Alvarez’s work at first base was, uh, crazy bad.
Actually that was pretty funny
Sad, but funny 
Maybe he can go to an AL team as a full time DH, hit 30 HRs and have a bobble head give away so I can have one to match his Pirates one.
I could see an AL East team taking a shot like the Blue Jays or Yankees.
Because both of those teams so need a DH or first baseman.
Toronto could have been in the running if they hadn’t tendered a contract to Justin Smoak. But he’s the left-handed bat in the platoon with Chris Collabello, and he doesn’t have much trade value.
Yankees have A-Rod, Tex, and Bird to take up those two positions.
Mets would be wise to nab this guy as insurance for wright
He can’t play third. He’s really a DH at this point
Should have been at 1st a year or two sooner. Didn’t expect him to have so many problems fielding at 1st, almost all his errors at 3rd last year were throwing issues
Why in the world would you want that? He’s an obvious liability in the field, hence not trading him for anything
Damn! I wanted the Pirates to get something for Pedro. He’s not worthless.
It’s Jose Bautista all over again!!
Disclaimer: I think Neil H. Is a great GM and that he used good judgment with this move…..
Oakland will sign Decker. The guy is a career 267 hitter in the minors, but he has a 393 on base percentage!! That’s an ISOOBP of 126.
This is going to hurt the Pirate’s in many other ways IMO. This will be strike 3 with Boras.
Strike one: The Alvarez signing to begin with. Many people in the know stated that Alvarez really didn’t sign within the deadline period due to hassles with Boras.
Strike two: Mark Appel. Boras totally ripped Pirate’s for drafting him, stating that he “hadn’t been contacted” regarding it.
Strike three: Non-Tendering Alvarez now. That is a lot of lost money to Boras, and he already said that the Pirate’s would tender him.
We already know that Cole is represented by Boras, so you can now bet there is NO WAY Cole will sign any type of extended contract now. And you can be sure that Boras will do his best to block any new draft pick from going to the Pirate’s as well.
As for not tendering him a contract, I was always sitting on the fence with it. What I don’t know is if the Pirate’s approached him prior to today and offered him a salary equal to his 2015 contract, with Alvarez having to know he wasn’t worth 8M. If they did, and he turned it down, then I have no problem with this move. If they didn’t, then I do have a problem with it. However, since I don’t have access to that kind of inside information, it is what it is.
Pedro Alvarez himself said it would be not a bad idea to move on though. Boras can’t do what his clients say they don’t want.
To be honest, it’s doubtful they extend Cole no matter what. He’ll probably need about 20 million a year, which I just don’t see the pirates paying and also boras clients almost never stick with their original team. I would say at least 50/50 odds he’s a Yankee.
Yep. Its too bad. He seems destined to be a Yankee. Again, kind of.
Why does everyone assume every Pirate will leave to become a Yankee? There are 28 other teams you know. The Dodgers would be a much better fit for Cole.
or the Giants with his brother-in-law.
Cole grew up a huge Yankees fan. He was at the Yankees D’Backs World Series as a kid, and he was originally drafted by the Yankees. I think it’s safe to assume there would be strong mutual interest between Cole and the Yankees.
Pedro Alvarez…age 29 for 2016.
Hits Left-Handed.
Based on his career numbers…if got about 500 AB’s against :
— only RHP….he’d project out to about 30-80 -.250 / .322
— only LHP……………………………………..15-101-.200 / .270
And Cleveland was happy to get Colin Cowgill ???
This one will be interesting to follow.
Seems to be a trend that low BA/OBP type power hitters aren’t getting as much love as they used to. Trumbo, Carter and now Alvarez. I think Alvarez has more upside as a hitter but at least Trumbo could fake it on the field a little better,
He would be a beast in Yankee Stadium but with Arod, Tex and Byrd we obviously don’t have a place for him.
I think the Rays would make sense depending on his price. They received very little power out of their 1b/DH platoons and Alvarez isn’t that much worse than Looney in the field.
Anybody need a left-handed platoon DH?
Rays will pick up this clown if they can move fellow clown Loney. Another fellow clown Morrison will play 1B and Alvarez will DH vs right handers
Would looooooove for the Phillies to take a chance on him and play him at first. Yes I know his defense is atrocious but the potential with the bat is fantastic. Have him work with Charlie in the spring and see if he can tap back into his 30+ home run power.
Send Howard packing, release him if need be, and roll with an Alvarez-Ruf platoon.
Any left field possibilities for Pedro?
No. He moves well for his size but can’t expect him to chase hard liners
You can never have too much depth at the large, left handed man position.
He has Rays written all over him.
Maybe a good sign offensively that with the Royals World Series win this year combined with last years success based on “making contact” and putting pressure on the defense to consistently make plays on a ball put into play, that the strikeout isn’t a “productive ” at bat. All or nothing puts no pressure on the “D”. Just looks pretty.
And in this case, there isn’t anywhere to put this chap on the diamond where defensively he isn’t a liability.
Alvarez is basically Ryan Howard with slightly better wheels at this point.
yup and both have 30hr potential
The white sox have enough first basemen/DH types.
Good luck Pedro! His bat will play well on many teams and shouldn’t have a problem getting picked up else where.
The Pirates were forced to make an $8,000,000 decision on Alvarez, and it was a no brainer. For all of his potential, he is truly a “head case”. He had great difficulty playing any defensive position on the field, from throwing the baseball continually into the second row of seats, or to executing a routine play in his position. He cannot hit in the clutch, and his pinch hitting statistics were abhorrent. Despite his perceived power, he typically batted 7th in the Pirates order, and could only hit well against right-handed pitching (but seldom against top tier pitchers). The home runs hit were sometimes towering shots, but usually of the solo variety. He is probably best suited for the DH position only and platooned against only right handed pitching. The big question is, why wasn’t Alvarez traded? The answer is that he is not worth anywhere near the money that Boras will expect, and Pedro Alvarez is not anywhere near close to a complete major league player, and never will be.
I’d rather watch him strikeout than LaRoche.
No ones mentioned the Rockies as a fit? Coors field could help with his average and just imagine the home run potential there.
Cardinals fans will rejoice if he ends up in the AL
Josh Bell a-comin’!!!