The Pirates have taken plenty of flak since sending left-hander Francisco Liriano and a pair of prospects – outfielder Harold Ramirez and catcher Reese McGuire – to the Blue Jays on Monday for right-hander Drew Hutchison. General manager Neal Huntington explained the Bucs’ thinking Saturday, telling Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh-Tribune Review, “Our primary motivation was to acquire Drew Hutchison. … Instead, it came out that we moved two prospects to move Liriano’s contract. Now I can’t tell you that wasn’t a part of the motivation, but the primary motivation was to acquire a quality pitcher.” The 25-year-old Hutchison has spent the vast majority of the season in the minors and owns a below-average 4.92 ERA in 406 1/3 major league innings, but he has recorded a solid 15.1 K-BB percentage and is controllable through 2018. The Pirates were particularly mindful of the latter factor upon acquiring him. “Mediocre pitching is getting paid a lot of money. As we look forward, whether it’s the trade market or free agent market, the challenge of acquiring quality, controllable, productive starting pitching … is hard to do,” said Huntington. As for Liriano, Huntington expects him to do well “where hitters are unfamiliar with him, in a new environment, with new scouting reports,” but the GM believes the opposition in the National League became too accustomed to the 32-year-old.
More from the Central divisions:
- Red-hot first baseman/designated hitter Mike Napoli is “not opposed to” the idea of an in-season contract extension with the Indians, he told Paul Hoynes of cleveland.com. “Yeah, I love it here. From the guys in the clubhouse, the front office, the training staff, the cooks. Everything has been wonderful,” stated Napoli, who homered Saturday for the sixth time in the Indians’ past eight games. In total, the 34-year-old has clubbed 28 homers in 442 plate appearances and owns a terrific .253/.339/.515 batting line, thereby giving first-place Cleveland excellent production at a reasonable cost ($7MM). Napoli has also been a positive influence in the Indians’ clubhouse, manager Terry Francona told David Glasier of the News-Herald on Thursday. “Man, he’s been a blessing to us. This guy is what you want. He shows up to win. When he doesn’t win, he’s (expletive),” said Francona. Napoli is making an underwhelming 2015 look like a fluke, so – whether it’s with the Indians or another team – he should certainly do better on his next deal.
- Like Napoli, Cardinals first baseman/outfielder Brandon Moss is amid a bounce-back year and could be in line for an extension. “Overall, he’s been a great fit on this club and a great teammate. We would certainly like to keep him around,” GM John Mozeliak told David Wilhelm of the Belleville News-Democrat, though Mozeliak added that he doesn’t regard now as the right time to discuss a deal with the impending free agent. Moss, whom the Cardinals acquired from Cleveland last summer, has rendered his $8.25MM salary a bargain by slashing a fantastic .266/.349/.578 with 18 long balls in 269 PAs this season. Notably, the soon-to-be 33-year-old entered Saturday first in the league in ISO (.315) among batters with at least 250 PAs.
- Cardinals manager Mike Matheny offered high praise Saturday for center fielder Randal Grichuk, whom the team has demoted to the minors twice this season. “Overall, he’s not just a big-league talent, he’s a big-league superstar talent because of what he can do — the way he runs, the way he defends, the power, the bat speed. You name it, he’s got it,” Matheny told Mark Saxon of ESPN.com. Grichuk (25 next week) lived up to that assessment in 2015, hitting .276/.329/.548 with 17 HRs in 350 PAs while providing plus base-running and defensive production, but the 24-year-old has taken noticeable steps back this year. However, Grichuk’s increase in walks, decrease in strikeouts and .257 batting average on balls in play (down from an unusually high .365 last year) seem to indicate that he has deserved better than the .216/.280/.414 line he has produced in 293 PAs with the Redbirds this season.
Goes to show you everytime a player leaves the RedSox(Like Napoli) and goes to a different team he instantly does better. What the hell is it with boston that players sign there and turn to sh*t?
Some players just can’t handle pressure.
So Napoli handled the pressure for two years and then forgot how?
That is not correct Monkey because Napoli only hit 23 homers in 2013 with the Sox. Which was his best season and that was mediocre. He only averaged 17-18 homers after 13′.
He has hit 28 already with the tribe and the season aint even close to being over. So we have not seen Napoli hit with this much power before anywhere. His best power numbers were 30 homers with the Rangers in 2011. And hes on pace to pass that by alot. Maybe he hits 40-45 this year.
If you asked me i dont think players feel comfortable in Boston. Wether its management or the organization as a whole players do not succeed in beantown. Something has to change because its obvious there’s a problem.
So the only way to measure quality of a player and whether they are handling pressure is their hr numbers? He is on pace to be worse by fWAR this year then he was in 2014
Don’t get me wrong,I hate the Red Sox, but who else would fit that description?
Mark Malancon
Wade Boggs, Johnny Damon, Babe Ruth, and Lester and Lackey if you want to count rentals.
Carl Crawford before Red Sox. Mark melancon, josh Reddick, Napoli, etc.
Johnny Damon. Wade Boggs. Babe Ruth (bought, but I’ll count it). Jon Lester? I haven’t checked the numbers, but these guys all played at least at the same level they did after leaving.
Lackey
Rich Hill?
Adrian Gonzalez got better. If you count prospects, Anthony Rizzo. Sox have killed David Price. All sorts of names. Justin Masterson had a few good years after he left.
Yoenis Cespedes was another. He was supposed to be a great double and homer threat there but that didn’t pan out and he vocally expressed he hated how the organization was ran.
Yes! Forgot about Cespedes as well.
Dave Roberts had some better years after with San Diego, but he stole the base, so you can’t really beat that.
Edgar Renteria, Julio Lugo, Jack Clark, Joel Pinero. And those are just the ones that played for St. Louis.
The contrapositive, guys who come to mind who got worse when they joined Boston: Jason Bay (after one great year), Hanley Ramirez, Sandoval, Hanrahan (granted, perhaps due to injury), Mike Cameron, Allen Craig, Coco Crisp…
From Boston, overall I agree. Media is intense here and it really gets to the players’ heads. And that’s a problem given that baseball is half physical, half mental.
I think all those concussions have scrambled mathenys brain. Has no idea how to manage a bullpen, now praising grichuk. A superstar talent? Really? Anyone who watches the cardinals daily will tell you that he’s been awful.
I can’t speak for the concussions as being the reason but Matheny does stick to his processes without a second thought.
Unfortunately for Cardinal fans (and most who study the game) those processes are more and more predictable. When your enemy knows what’s coming it is a lot easier to prepare.
And I am too accustomed to Neal’s BS and using Travis as his mouth piece..
I wouldn’t call Hutchinson a quality pitcher. He didn’t pitch well on the road at all while in Toronto. He also leaves a lot of pitches over the plate. That’s been one of his problems. He’s a guy who never lived up to his potential in Toronto. Maybe Pittsburgh figures they can fix him like they have done with other pitchers. As a Jays fan, I was quite happy with the return we got for him. I never expected to get that much for a pitcher who was struggling in AAA at the time of his trade
It’s funny because I think in 2014, hutch was amazing on the road and terrible at home, then last year the exact opposite happened. And the only reason we got the return we did for hutch is because we took on lirianos salary
Agree
I never expected it to be that difficult to obtain Drew Hutchison. I always thought a couple of bats and a dozen baseballs would do the trick. How wrong I was.
Indians are too scared to commit to older players after the bourn/swisher debacle. A napoli extension means Santana has to walk. Payroll can’t increase with attendance down. The Minnesota series drew under 20,000 every game. Unless the Dolans find an investor things will be the same. Tough to say to Santana (who’s having his best year) we can’t pick up your option. Plus now with Miller on board(9 mil). Carrasco/Kluber/Gomes/Kipnis/Brantley contracts increasing it’s tough to extend Davis/Napoli. ‘What if’ Swisher/Bourn happens again? Tribe would be in serious trouble, we were lucky the Braves bailed us out of those contracts. Yes Napoli is great in the clubhouse, however will he keep producing at his age? It would be avery high risk move for a small-market team.
Hutchison is not a quality pitcher… Huntington pretty much traded mediocrity and two prospects for someone who can’t even pitch in the majors!
If your primary goal was to acquire drew hutchison, it shouldn’t have cost that much.