1:17pm: The Pirates are sending the Rays $1MM as part of the trade, reports Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic (Twitter link). In essence, then, they’ll spend an additional $1.45MM to turn Hudson into Dickerson, while the Rays will add a reliever to their ’pen, a prospect to the lower levels of their farm system, and trim $1.45MM from their 2018 payroll.
12:24pm: The Pirates announced that they’ve acquired outfielder Corey Dickerson from the Rays in exchange for reliever Daniel Hudson, minor league infielder Tristan Gray and cash.
Tampa Bay recently designated Dickerson, 28, for assignment in a move that came as a surprise to many. Dickerson posted solid overall numbers in 2017, hitting .282/.325/.490 with 27 homers in 629 trips to the plate. Dickerson, though, faded badly after a strong start to the season.
Though Dickerson hit .326/.369/.570 with 17 homers through the season’s first three months, that production was supported by a .374 BABIP that he didn’t seem especially likely to maintain. That number came back down to earth from July through season’s end as Dickerson’s strikeout rate rose to nearly 29 percent, and he batted just .232/.273/.397 with 10 homers and an 82-to-16 K/BB ratio in the final three months of the season.
That said, Dickerson still has an overall track record as a quality bat, as evidenced by a lifetime .280/.325/.504 slash and 119 OPS+. He’ll earn $5.95MM in 2018 and is controllable for one more year via arbitration before he can reach free agency.
The Pirates desperately needed some outfield help following this offseason’s trade of former face of the franchise Andrew McCutchen, and Dickerson should slot into the organization as the team’s new everyday left fielder. Defensive metrics aren’t exactly bullish on his glovework in the outfield, though he’s graded out as generally average or slightly above-average in left field over the past two seasons after drawing poor marks early in his career with the Rockies. He’ll be joined in the outfield by Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco, each of whom is looking to bounce back from a disappointing 2017 season.
[Related: Updated Pittsburgh Pirates depth chart]
Though Dickerson isn’t likely to recreate the massive performance he rode to his first career All-Star appearance in the first half last season, he should nonetheless serve as an offensive upgrade over the Pirates’ internal options in left field. Adam Frazier and Jordan Luplow were two of the main candidates for that gig on the 40-man roster, while veterans Michael Saunders and Daniel Nava are in camp as non-roster invitees to Spring Training. Certainly, the Dickerson pickup places a significant roadblock to either veteran making the roster, and it’s fair to wonder if they’ll ultimately be allowed to seek other opportunities.
In Hudson, the Rays will pick up a hard-throwing veteran reliever looking for a rebound season of his own. Hudson’s contract calls for him to earn $5.5MM this season, so the two contracts nearly cancel each other out. However, the Pirates are also sending cash to the Rays in the deal, so it appears that Tampa Bay will come out ahead, financially speaking, in the swap.
Hudson, 31 early next month, posted a 4.38 ERA with 9.6 K/9, 4.8 BB/9, 1.02 HR/9 and a 43.3 percent ground-ball rate while averaging 95.6 mph on his fastball through 61 2/3 innings last year. A converted starter that has twice undergone Tommy John surgery in his career, Hudson has a 4.59 ERA in the ’pen over the past three-plus seasons since making the switch, but secondary metrics have been considerably more optimistic based on his strikeout rates and, outside of last season, his control. In 192 1/3 frames as a reliever, Hudson has a 3.84 FIP and 3.78 SIERA.
Tampa Bay executives Erik Neander and Chaim Bloom recently downplayed the possibility of the Rays trading closer Alex Colome before the season begins, so it seems that Hudson will pair with recently re-signed Sergio Romo to give the Rays another experienced arm in their setup corps.
The addition of that pair of veteran arms will allow the Rays to lean less heavily on what had looked to be a largely inexperienced group of relievers outside of Colome and southpaw Dan Jennings. Andrew Kittredge, Chaz Roe, Austin Pruitt, Ryne Stanek, Jose Alvarado and Chih-Wei Hu wiill be among the names vying for the remaining bullpen spots with the Rays this spring now that Hudson is on board.
[Related: Updated Tampa Bay Rays depth chart]
Gray, meanwhile, was Pittsburgh’s 13th-round pick in last year’s draft and posted a .269/.329/.486 slash with seven homers and five steals in 53 games for the Pirates’ short-season Class-A affiliate last year. The second baseman was an honorable mention on Fangraphs’ list of the Pirates’ Top 25 prospects, with Eric Longenhagen pointing to a long track record of production as an amateur but also labeling his overall offensive profile as “middling.”
All told, it’s a fairly underwhelming return for Dickerson, though that’s largely indicative of the manner in which bat-first corner outfielders have been devalued in the current economic climate of baseball. The Rays surely tried to trade Dickerson for much of the winter but seemingly found no takers before designating him for assignment, and even in this swap it seems that Tampa Bay had to agree to take on some salary to work out a deal. Jay Bruce managed to score a three-year, $39MM pact with a similar, albeit superior overall profile at the plate, but both the trade and free-agent markets for good-not-great corner outfielders have been rather tepid over the past couple of seasons.
It seems plausible that the Rays simply felt they could utilize a full season of Mallex Smith in a corner outfield spot without losing much in the way of overall value, and elected to turn Dickerson into an alternative Major League asset. The surprising trade of Steven Souza that followed Dickerson’s DFA, as the Rays’ front office told it recently, was more or less a function of an unexpected and aggressive pursuit of Souza by the Diamondbacks, who promised a prospect package the Rays felt they could not afford to turn away. The Rays were then able to capitalize on a weak free-agent market and bring in Carlos Gomez at a bargain rate — a move that further reflects the dwindling value of above-average offensive outfielders that aren’t premium defensive assets.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Wow interesting move.
Still don’t really understand exactly what Rays are doing. Any Rays fan care to explain. They seem to be cutting salary, yet adding free agents. If Dickerson was about money, why sign Gomez? If going young, why pay Hechevaria for his last Arb year, instead of running out Adames? Could have saved $6mm there. I am just confused. Would love to hear some sort of theory.
What are Rays fans?
I usually find myself cheering for the Rays… Want to study me? After our offseason moves I’m not sure I’d be against dissection…
If you add up all of their moves, they’ve stayed roughly as competitive as they were a couple of months ago, trimmed some longer term salary commitments (Gomez is a 1 yr deal), and added to their minor league system.
It’s not splashy, but such is life on a budget.
Yeah I don’t agree with that, losing souza and dickerson for a risky carlos gomez is a clear significant downgrade, odorizzi is overrated but isn’t as bad as he was last year, the rays are becoming the a’s of 5 years ago, A’s have now started to make some smart moves tho. Luckily they have a great farm system but that alone ain’t going to win you 85 games unless 3 of them are stars.
A’s five years ago won 96 and won the west–looks like a good year is coming for the Rays
Dickerson had nothing to do with Gomez..Gomez was the replacement for Souza . They essentially traded Souza for Gomez and 4 prospects.. That was a baseball trade only..nothing to do with salary.
Dickerson they apparently have been trying to shop all off season, but with the late blooming FA movement it became difficult especially since after the all star break he was god awful (to somewhat historic proportions) apparently the DFA was to spurn interested teams to make offers so it wasnt lingering during spring training. As far as Adamas goes. Hech is a placeholder till they bring him up after delaying the clock a year..
Correct, Gomez is a Souza replacement. I was commenting only on the fact that while they are adding FAs, it’s not the same long term $$$ commitment that Souza was.
Dickerson also, was a longer term commitment. He’s got another arb year left, and will push $10M in 2019. So they moved him for a reliever on a one year deal, and a minor leaguer for their system.
Assuming he does push $10M next year, still…
In what world is an insignificant 13th rounder and a 31 year old reliever (making $5.5 million next season) who’s posted a 5.11 ERA, 1.45 WHIP, and -1.8 WAR in 237.2 innings since 2012 an improvement on a 2 year, $15.95 player just posted a 120 OPS+, 2.7 WAR season and was your 2nd best hitter in 2017?
couldn’t have said it better myself
Ive never met a Rays fan.
Wanna be friends?
You should get out more.
good luck finding a Rays fan
Hi.
How about 2 in the same place at once?
Hi.
Also a Rays fan. Also sad.
They seem to be one of those teams with a trading fetish, they move around a bunch of salary and players and basically end up with the same thing. Tough to build a winning team when you’re cycling guys out each season.
Their hands are tied financially but they need to make smarter moves. Not sure how Gomez and Hudson is better than Dickerson. Considering they are paying more.
With such limited financial resources the rays really have no choice but to try and stockpile as many assets as possible.
It is pretty easy to understand if you take away names and evaluate players only by only statistical and financial means. Because Tampa has such a stringent budget they must look for value anyway they can. If they THINK that there is a high probability that X +Y + Z > A then it is almost assuredly they will make the flip even if most of the league wouldn’t.
They think outside the box compared to the rest of the league and have done so for years.
A article was written a Year or so ago that explains the Rays build a roster to finnish .500.
Bounce of the ball, luck, injuries & individual player performances determine if they finnish below, meet it or above it aka make the playoffs.
But recently the Rays have been improving their overall farm system to give them a steady supply of high ceiling young players (’13 to about ’15 the Rays farm system was rated poor).
that system upgrade is coming with a big help from trades – they haven’t drafted as well as their player strategy demands. So now they have embraced the portion of the tank method that has emerged – we don’t care what the fans think.
As a Rays fan, here is my thought. No one wants Span at 13 million, he comes off books next year. Ramos and 5 Million come off next year, Hech is Simmons equal as best fielding SS in majors.We have the 5th best minor league talent,must be slowly developed. Dickerson cannot field and was horrendous in the second half. Souza like Longoria hit HR’s when the team was up 7 runs or down 7 runs and struck out way too much. With or without them we would be third at best behind Sox and Yanks. Restructure like we did before when we made the World Series and hope the new stadium can be worked out.
Simmons’ equal? Did Hechavarria suddenly become a consistently good defender? Simmons is all time great level defensively. Hechevarria isn’t even the best defensive shortstop in his division. Simmons still leads the NL in defensive value since 2012 and he hasn’t been in the NL for 2 years. Hechevarria is 7th in the NL among qualified fielders since 2012.
Pirates win Corey Dickerson sweepstakes.
Well it’s something pirates fans
Gasp. Seriously???? lol
Holy hell, they…they did something smart?
marte Dickerson polonco.
finally a positive move.
Agreed. That’s a solid OF to run out there for a couple years and moving Hudson along with the deal is a nice move by NH.
I could honestly care less about getting Dickerson…
They somehow managed to get rid of Daniel Hudson.
Amazing work.
You’ll love Dickerson. Gives 100% and hopefully the 2nd half version was a blip. Usually a solid bat.
Not slagging Dickerson, it’s just that Daniel Hudson was one of the worst moves Huntingdon has made (Vogelsong and Jaso right up there) and I didn’t think they’d be able to get rid of him and that one of their young relievers might get pushed to Indy instead of developing at the MLB level.
So, I’m very happy to hear he’s gone…
Dickerson is just icing on the cake.
I don’t care what Vogey did in Pit, but he had a huge hand in Giants WS. He’ll always be a Giant, and a warrior. No I’m not talking about our Champion basketball team.
*couldn’t
It really doesn’t make that much of a difference. If caring is on a 1-500 scale, couldn’t care less would mean 1, whereas could care less could mean 2. Because it is a common phrase we all know what he meant, and can assume the amount of cares. The difference is negligible.
Why does SLIM chance and FAT chance mean the same thing?
It is a difference. Could care less means he cares too much a 500 on your scale. Couldn’t care less means he doesn’t care at all a 1 on your scale. People do mix up saying that all the time though
Finally the important questions, seriously what is the English language
English is hard. But it can be figured out using tough thorough thought though
You’re correct on your observation. Too many people seem to look past it’s many nuances. They’re prone to many grammatical errors in their sentences. Hmmm… see what I did there?
Nice for Pirates. Give me a choice of Dickerson or McCutchen for 2018 only and … I’m not sure whom I’d pick to be honest.
except Dickerson can be controlled for two seasons.
And cost half as much
Definitely Dickerson. Love Cutch and glad he’s a Giant, but was hoping the front office would pull their head out of their rear end and snag Corey too before anyone else could. Probably didn’t even pick up the phone because of the salary situation. Pathetic.
If the Giants were able to move Pence to tex like they wanted, they could have made a move for Dickerson and still had money to play with.
“The Rays MUST have exhausted all of their options before DFAing Dickerson!!!”
It would be interesting to know the best offer they fielded for him leading up to the DFA. I’m sure the Dodgers offered decent prospects for Dickerson as long as TB was willing to take Matt Kemp in the deal.
How much cash? Why would Rays dump Dickerson…and pick up Hudson’s contract?
Assuming everything else is equal, contact, performance value, etc, a reliever who gets off to a decent start is a more valuable and liquid asset than an outfielder, especially midseason. Could be as simple as that.
Difference though, is that Dickerson has the option of an additional season of team control, while Hudson would be a strict rental.
Anthony Swarzak brought back a nice prospect for being a 2-month rental. Maybe the Rays can get something for Hudson in July.
Probably the difference between contracts.
I don’t get this from the Rays perspective
Hudson is a league average reliever who makes about the same amount as Dickerson does.
Wouldn’t be a shock to see the Rays outright release Hudson.
Hudson and Dickerson will make about the same in 2018. but in 2019 Hudson is a FA and probably gone. Heck if he actually has a good season the Rays might even be able to trade him for something at the deadline.
In 2019 Dickerson will be Arb3 and in line to make something like $8-9M
That may be true, however they shot themselves in the foot in terms of leverage the second they DFA’d Dickerson. Had they waited for JDM to sign and marketed Dickerson, they may have been able to actually get a legitimate return. I mean, guys with a career .829 OPS who just landed his first all-star appearance don’t grow on trees. Especially at a rather palatable cost at just under $6m
Nah. DFA just means they’re gonna send him to AAA. Doesn’t mean an outright cut. He doesn’t have that kind of service time yet.
Dickerson has 4.101 years of service time.
He’s well over the 3.0 years needed to be able to reject the outright assignment and elect free agency.
The few teams considering JDM were looking for a RH bat. Hence, Arizona trading for Souza. His signing didnt effect the market for Dickerson at all.
Pirates sending cash in the deal as well
not bad at all, quality corner outfielder, allows Marte to stay in center
Interesting. Just wow. Pittsburg kinda stacked at of if polanco and marte can bounce back. But the big question is what will happen with austin meadows
Forcing Meadows to beat out a Daniel Nava or a Bryce Brentz is one thing. This sends a clear message to him that he’s going to have to earn it.
Allows the Pirates to get an additional yr of control over Meadows.
What good is it to have him an extra year if he is not needed?
Also considering the season he had at triple a last year, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Pirates think that he’s not ready for the MLB yet.
Pirates brass really want Meadows in the minors for one more season. The idea is that he’ll be ready by 2019 which will enable them to deal Marte to a team who doesn’t win the Harper and Blackmon sweepstakes.
Meadows isn’t as close to ready as he should be. Can’t make decisions depending upon him right now.
There is either more to the story…or Dickerson is going to have a vengeful, monstrous year.
Worst case scenario for TB is that Dickerson becomes the next David Ortiz (who was DFAd by MIN and went on to a legendary career in BOS).
Man the AL East is gonna be so easy this season….#GOYANKEES
2 team race. But the Red Sox are better.
I hate the Yankees, but I don’t see any way they don’t win that division.
I think it will be very close. But I’m picking the Sox by a nose.
Judge regresses.
Stanton gets hurt like most years.
Tanaka’s UCL finally snaps.
Sabathia’s knee finally caves.
Severino is on the Verducci Effect list for this season.
Torres flops at 2B.
I can see multiple ways that Yankees wouldn’t win that division. I’d probably still pick them, but they have plenty of question marks.
Greg Bird – biggest question mark of them all.
There are ways the Sox could improve also.
They should have a potent lineup, but their pitching staff….held together by some k-tape and hope.
Your bias is showing, forwhomjoshbelltolls, :-\
And Our teams are such great trade partners too 🙁
The Red Sox had 6 position player regress with the bat and 3 starting pitchers regressed or were injured most of the season and they won the division by 2 games.
There is something called regression towards the mean. Those guys will improve towards their average. Some will surpass their career averages.
They added a bat that put up a .690 SLG last season and good young players like Devers will get a full season of playing time.
Price and Wright are healthy. Even with them out most of the season, the Red Sox starters ranked 4th in baseball.
fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=sta&…
There are a lot of reasons for Red Sox fans to be enthusiastic about their team this season.
The Yankees added Stanton, but lost 25% of their starting 8 and will once again be counting on Bird to be healthy. Stanton has only surpassed 120 games once in his career, Judge seriously regressed for 3 months in the middle of last season, they are going with Torreyes and Wade at 2B, and Gardner is 34. On the pitching side, Sabathia is 38 years old, Tanaka still has elbow issues that limited him to 30 starts and a 4.74 ERA in 2017, Gray was limited to 27 starts by injuries, and Montgomery is a question mark. Plenty of reasons for Yankees fans to not be so confident that they are destined to win the AL East.
I still think that the AL East is going to be one of the most entertaining battles in baseball next season between those two teams. Wish I could say my O’s were going to give them a run for their money, but I doubt the O’s beat last season’s win total.
The Orioles and Blue Jays will likely bounce back, Orioles are much better by subtraction to be honest.
I hate to say it because they are my team, but the O’s are going to suck.
Jones, one of my favorite players, Davis and Trumbo are on the downside of 30 and in decline. Rasmus, a throwaway, is our RF. We are counting on a rookie to be our catcher. Beyond Bundy and Gausmann our pitching staff is a mess filled with #5 starters that can’t stay healthy. Our closer is hurt and won’t be back to June and they are projecting that 2 Rule 5 picks will start the season in our pen.
The O’s are a hot mess.
Okay finally a move to add a quality player, and not only did they add a good bat they moved out a bad contract. Good stuff.
I’m stunned. As the old saying goes, even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then.
I hope Dickerson kills the Brewers
Good move by the Pirates
Funny to me to presume that Dickerson will play left. It’s much more difficult to play at PNC Park than right is. I would think Polanco will now play left.
Polanco was terrible in LF and he knows it, he told the team he wants to play RF for the rest of his career.
They were prepared to let a 2B/Util guy in Adam Frazier play LF over Polanco.
Rights hard to play too with the Clemente Wall giving off weird bounces.
Didn’t they DFA him to save money? Makes zero sense to give up ~5M just to get Daniel Hudson and a 13th rounder.
Coulda just cut him for 1/6th his salary
Pirates sent cash.
DFA doesn’t save them any money. They are still responsible for his salary even if he was released.
Doesn’t even matter that it’s Dickerson. Getting rid of Hudson was the real W.
Wow. I stand corrected for my comment the other day.
I hope a Josh Harrison trade is coming soon. Adam Frazier needs to play and his LF spot now seems gone.
I think Josh Harrison trade to Cincinnati Reds he live there where he was kid hope Josh Harrison play Cincinnati Reds this year
Reds aren’t in a position to trade young assets for veterans.
Reds need to get their pitching staff straightened around before adding any veteran position player.
I’d be behind this too, if Frazier wasn’t an eyesore defensively at 2B. They should probably wait til the deadline to trade JHay, when he’d presumably have more of a market.
Frazier could win LF if they keep Harrison. I doubt they hand Dickerson a starting job.
Wrong. Frazier either starts at 2B (because they trade Harrison), or he’s a strong utility guy.
I honestly think that they’ll stick Frazier at second and hope he can learn to play defense there, play Harrison at third, and move Freese to a bench role/late inning replacement for Bell.
Moran is the starting 3B
Unless they can get moustakas
I’m just happy the Giants didn’t capitalize on it
I’m not would have made their OF defense even more of a liability and he hasn’t really shown a track record that suggests he can hit lhp. He’s just a meh. I wouldn’t exactly call him a game changer.
Josh Harrison will play with Cincinnati Reds
That’s one trade scenario that has a very low chance of happening. They have Scooter Genett at 2B, Suarez at 3B, and will have Peraza at shortstop. Plus, The Pirates would want prospects, and The Reds shouldn’t be ready to trade prospects.
They mine as well put the rays and marlins together as one team that’s the only way they will win games
This stuff makes me sick I’m glad I’m not a fan of those 2 teams
At least the Marlins are seemingly attempting to get better in time.
They’ve saved a lot of money to get themselves out of debt, while acquiring some very, very strong prospects
The Rays have just been acting like they’re being run by Dave Stewart.
Rays have always been competitive, but they never go all in or full teardown. They can shuffle the deck all they want, but it’s still gonna be the same deck.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the Rays. They have been setting themselves up to open a new competitive window in the next 2-3 years. The Rays have a top 5 farm system, with several top 100 type prosepects and lots of pitching depth ready at AAA and some more contributing types at AA. They are also poised to double or triple their team revenues in the next 3-5 years. Long term, the Rays will be fine.
Just about every Red Sox had a below-par last year, while every Yank (including Stanton) and Astro had a career-type one…..the road to the WS goes thru Boston……….
Took me a moment to realize you meany the Houston Astros and not David Price’s dog Astro
The Yankees will take that road the same way Houston and Cleveland did.
He’s a power bat for a team that desperately needs it, and Hudson is, to be kind, a fungible asset. Unless the Gray kid turns into something, this is a hell of deal for the Bucs.
Good get for the Bucs! As I said, I knew there was ZERO chance this dude would make it to waivers.
Love this move, mainly cuz we can finally move on from Hudson. He struggled when we needed him most last yr nd his contract was bad for the pirates. Dickerson on the other hand is a great pickup to shore up LF. He probably wont repeat his first half from last yr but he is much better than our alternatives. But overall this has been a weird offseason for the Bucs so i hope this move helps the morale in the clubhouse cuz that was this teams biggest obstacle this yr tbh.
I more excited that we got rid of Hudson, than we got Dickerson.
The rays are idiots and the braves are idiots also for not jumping on a deal for this guy. He was too easy for us to get and would have been a great pickup
And play him where exactly? Acuna will be up after the first month of the season. Then you let Nick be a 11 million dollar bench guy? The Braves are cruising into next offseason. They will only have 35 million on the books with a roughly 129 million payroll budget (hence the Kemp trade). The FA class next year is exceptional. Spend it then.
It’s not like it’s a super expensive transaction lol. Dickerson is cheap comparatively speaking , and yea nick can be an expensive bench piece. That’s fine. So what. Not a big deal
Why wait until next year when you can get a bargain this year?
Well, wonder what the evening drive time guy will have to say about the Pirates tonight. Spent all last night before they went to Pitt losing another ACC game railing that the Pirates were done for the off season and all they did was grab a couple of reclamation projects. Kept repeating it over and over and over and over……Like @forwhomjoshbelltolls a day or so ago, the guy knows nothing about baseball. Obviously, has not been paying attention that not much has happened in signing any free agents or trades until the last week. The off season is not close to being over. Can’t wait to see how he spins this to something awful for the Pirates
Got a down vote……..maybe the Drive TIme guy is a reader here?? 🙂
and a family member too? 🙂
Mark Madden?
Zeise.. On the Pirates flagship station…. Unfortunately, he was bumped for the Pitt Basketball coaches show when I was driving…….
What this also could mean is they’ve found a dealer for Colome. Why else would they even get a reliever like Hudson? He would have some of the most experience in the pen. Could put him in the closer role (if they are in the position to ever win a game) and then spin him for decent value. A few “ifs” there but hey, that’s Rays.
Trust me, you don’t want Hudson closing games for you, especially if you want to flip him for something of value.
An actual positive move by the Pirates I can get on board with.
Harrison 2B
Dickerson LF
Marte CF
Bell 1B
Polanco RF
Cervelli C
Moran 3B
Mercer SS
If the Pirates stay healthy they’ll battle for a Wild Card spot
That is the big if for just about every team. Hope they can stay healthy and no one suspended this year.
Switch Polanco and Dickerson and that’s probably the opening day batting order
typical Pirates…putting another Moran at 3B
Also if healthy, Taillon, Kuhl, and Williams all have the ability to excel this year in the rotation. Nova should provide decent innings. Musgrove is a question mark, but I like him a lot. Nice pitch selection & good command. Just needs Mr. Miyagi or something (ahem… Searage).
Still a tough division, but that outfield hole is no longer glaring.
I see almost no way they won’t be a better team in 2018 than 2017. Now, that doesn’t mean they’ll have a better record necessarily, because the rest of the division got better, too.
But look at each position….
C- Cervelli will either be healthier or else Diaz will be playing instead of Chris Stewart. Better.
1B- Bell will have a year of experience under his belt (though, a sophomore slump could happen, unlikely but possible). Freese and Rodriguez as bench options are big upgrades over Jaso. Better.
2B/SS- These are the two spots that might not be better but shouldn’t be much worse.
3B- Freese wasn’t good as a starter. Good chance Moran can be better. Freese on the bench upgrades the backup 3B spot, too. Better.
LF- They had a motley crew there last year, even when Marte came back he wasn’t right. Dickerson is a big upgrade here. More depth behind him, too. Better.
CF- Outside of two hot months, Cutch wasn’t all that good and his defense was bad. If he gets back to being the Marte of old with the bat and on the bases, this is a huge upgrade. I guess Polanco is the backup? Better.
RF- Polanco was terrible last year. Seems like he should rebound, but…who knows. Maybe better.
Bench- Frazier, Freese, Rodriguez, Diaz and maybe one of Saunders or Brentz. This is much better than last year’s mix.
SP- Taillon had a tough year off the field last year, hopefully he can just focus on pitching this year. Kuhl quietly made similar style changes to Charlie Morton and was throwing 98 regularly at the end of the year. Williams looks solid. If Musgrove can replace Cole’s worst season ever…better.
RP- Watson and Hudson were terrible last year. This year’s group is very unproven but has a lot of upside. Could be much better. We’ll see. A full season of Rivero as closer is a great starting point.
If Meadows comes up and makes an impact that would help a lot.
But, the one thing that could change their season (next few years) would be Tyler Glasnow replicating what he’s done at AAA in MLB. If he gets his feet wet in the bullpen, has some success and gets an opportunity in the rotation and finally becomes what he was supposed to be…then this team could absolutely challenge for the playoffs.
That is a great breakdown. Like to see posts like that because as a fan of another team, I don’t get as good of an understanding of teams that are not in our division. I get what is going on with the Yankees, Red Sox and Blue Jays. No one knows WTH the Rays are doing. But I don’t see enough about other teams to fully understand their issues and strengths without digging. So thanks. I appreciate it.
Somebodies drinking the kool-aid! I’l admit, if EVERYTHING, goes there way, they could have a fun, competitive team, but way, way too many question marks. Love Taillon, but his ceiling is a good #2 starter. Love to see Kuhl turn into that diamond in the rough. No reason at all to think Glasnow will ever figure anything out; on the flip side, I remain hopeful for Meadows and Keller. Except for Cervelli’s contract year, he is always hurt. Moran starting at 3rd – really?! I’ll enjoy Mercer as a Pirate for one more season. Harrison will be gone at 2nd, Rodriguez can field and Frazier can hit – can you platoon that way?! Bell is future face of the franchise – good. Polonco is super over-rated locally, and who’s to say Marte can return to presuspension levels? Rivero = awesome, so he’ll be traded at this year’s deadline; who needs a closer when you lose 100 games?
someone’s drinking the kool-aid!! (lol kinda /s of course) They don’t need EVERYTHING to go their way. they just need FEW things to go against them and they should be better. thats not to mean they’re a play off contender but .500 reasonably in reach.
if everything goes their way then a wild card should be easily in their gasp.
Taillion getting full season, Bell improving, Moran proving that his small sample last year was real, Corey proving me wrong and learning to hit those fast balls. Polanco finally having that healthy break out season.. glasnow figures out how to pitch at this level, etc….. that’s an awful lot to ask for though lol
No power, not enough pitching
Dickerson and Bell are both power options. Then you have Polanco and Marte who both can drive the ball hard along with Rodriguez on the bench. There’s some power there with a lot of speed.
Moran is supposed to be bringing some power too.
They need more pitching. Right now, they’ve got 2 proven relief pitchers in Kontos and Rivero.
Did this mean that nobody from the AL wanted him?
My understanding is they were free to deal him to anybody since he was DFA’ed.
The Rays had until tomorrow to trade or put on waivers. Was not on waivers yet.
OR just send him to AAA
Could not send him to AAA unless he cleared waivers.
And, after clearing waivers, accepted the outright assignment (he has 4.101 years of service team; you only need 3.0 to reject it).
What is the point of sending him to Triple-A? He would still get paid the same amount. Unless you are deliberately trying to lose.
I am guessing this is how the Rays are going to rebuild. Trade what they have now and replace with 1 year free agents that they can trade at the deadline. I think they could have done better though as they haven’t got anything interesting back so it makes it seem like a big salary dump.
I really think Colome’s trade value is at its peak right now, so even if the plan is a half-hearted rebuild, TB should trade him now to the highest bidder. It does make sense to hold onto Archer until the deadline when they are likeliest to get an overpayment of talent.
I dunno, they have gotten some interesting pieces back. With the Longoria trade, they got back the Giants top prospect. With the Souza trade, they got back a high ranked prospect in the D-Backs system in Banda and the #12 ranked prospect in the deep Yankees system in Solak. Im not sure how good the INF from MIN they got is, but they got a prospect and another player to trade at the deadline for Dickerson. These trades havent been too bad at all. Its not like they were competing in the AL East with their roster before the trades anyway. They got a handful of prospects and salary relief. I would have done something similar if given the opportunities.
look at their trade history – they acquired Souza thinking he was their next big thing – whoops. Dickerson is a hack in the field so he doesn’t provide flexibility and he was butt ugly making contact in the 2nd half. Rays basically admitting here they missed on a couple of prior acquisitions. Moving on. Hudson, Gomez, Ramos, Colome and Archer are all strong midseason candidates to be traded for additional pieces. Timing is everything and what assets the Rays have at the ML level won’t be around when the farm produces enough. So they are giving up on the now and trying to construct a timely arrival in a couple years for enough assets on the farm to make a difference.
Never realized the voice and opinion and David Freese were so powerful. Takes ownership to task and team gets three outfielders in three days. Imagine what he’s like at All You Can Eat Beef Burritos Night
So if the trade is essential cash neutral, that minor leaguer better turn out to be pretty good for the Rays because there’s no way Hudson equates to Dickerson
If the Pirates believe a pitcher is bad enough that they can’t fix him and are willing to pay a million to get rid of him, then that guy is a lost cause.
No matter how Dickerson put up those numbers, they are good. If he hit 1.000 in April and May and .100 the rest of the year, it’s still .300 when all is said and done. Consistency is not a requirement for the stats to count. If it is then Judge’s season was a failure because he hit .211 over a 3 month period from mid-June to mid-September.
McCutchen always struggled with month-to-month consistency. He was our hero nonetheless!
This trade reminds me so much of another Pittsburgh sports transaction…
Rob Scuderi for Trevor Daley.
A player that no one thought could be traded at all is instead SOMEHOW traded for something pretty good.
I doubt Dickerson wins two championships in his two years here as Daley did, but…still. Great trade.
What do ya think the evening talk guy will say about this move? 🙂
Honestly, I don’t think Zeise even listens to himself talk. I can just picture him watching TV or texting or ordering off a menu or something while he does his show. He routinely makes one point and then the exact opposite point within minutes of each other.
But I have to say…in the various places I usually see the worst Pirate bashing (DK, Trib comments, etc.) even they gave credit. Hard to find a way to not like this move from a Pirate perspective.
Now that I’m done marveling over their ability to move Hudson getting Dickerson seems like a really nice addition. Realistically, the OF is better this year than last year now.
And they also got Crick for the BP, and a decent OF prospect in Reynolds for Cutch. Cutch would be about the same or maybe a little better than Dickerson but he would be gone for nothing at the end of 2018. They get Musgrove and Moran to fill holes on the ML roster now, another BP arm in Feliz and another decent OF prospect in Martin for Cole. Musgrove may not have the upside of a #1 like Cole was supposed to be for the Pirates, but he is a solid arm and trading Cole filled a hole at 3B and possibly made the BP much better.
Zeise also struggles with the English language. He should be tutored by Poni and Mueller since they invented it.
Come on AA what are you doing ? The Braves yet again coulda beat that package. I am not high on Dickerson like that but for his cost he could provide some much needed power.
I agree —- what are the Braves waiting for?
Woohoo! Let’s go, Bucs!
Im wondering why the SF Giants not take Dickerson when they aquired Longoria. Where the Rays thinking that they could have aquired something of a higher caliber player for him in a separate deal and know are just taking what ever they can on Dickerson. Its a good move for the Pirates. You get 2 years of control for Dickerson.
Hah! I had this one right. I knew it would be Pittsburgh picking up Dickerson. (Of course, it is a rather obvious fit).
whoever came up selling people short with the phrase, “not likely to maintain”, needs to cone up with something different.
Steal of the offseason
Wasted opportunity for the White Sox, another head scratching move by the Rays and a decent pick up for the Pirates despite the fact that Dickerson would be better served in the A.L. where he could DH most of the time.
Dude can’t hit fastballs…pitchers figured him out second half. Basically the position player form of Jeff Locke. He’ll be underwhelming unless he can fix his swing.
Good read on the Rays recent moves…
troptalk.com/rays-fire-sale-fake-news/
Pirates have a pretty good outfield.
Corey’s got some issues but for the cost to get him… great deal.
For whatever reasons, the Rays and the rest of MLB just doesn’t value Corey Dickerson the way us fans do. I’m sure the Rays didn’t pass up better trade proposals to take this one just because. It sounds like the Rays were looking to trade Dickerson and Odorizzi most if not all offseason and the trade market never developed like they thought it would. I never thought I would see the day that an above average hitting, defensively average 29 year old LF, who has been worth 2 WAR/500 PA for his career, including 2.5 WAR last season would have zero value at $6 milliion with an arb 3 season of control still remaining.
Did the Pirates actually make a baseball trade??? McCutchen trade still hurts and Cole trade was a disaster (yes, I’m saying that without having any idea if any of the return players will pan out), but I will at least pay attention again and decide later if I’ll take the kids to a game or two this year. Previously it was a ‘hell no’. Let’s see if they get anything for Harrison or if they can dump Cervelli.
Best wishes in the Bay, Cutch!