The Pirates announced on Monday that second baseman Josh Harrison sustained a fractured fifth metacarpal in his left hand when he was hit by a Jose Urena fastball in yesterday’s game. He’s expected to return to game action in about six weeks, per the team.
Harrison, 30, has gotten off to a .263/.328/.351 slash with a homer, two doubles and a stolen base through his first 14 games (64 plate appearances). With the veteran infielder headed to the disabled list, the 11-4 Pirates can turn to Adam Frazier or Sean Rodriguez at second base, though the team’s depth around the infield will be a bit thinned out. Max Moroff and Christopher Bostick could conceivably come up to fill in an infield spot on the bench, though it seems likely that multiple roster moves are on the horizon; the Pirates are also still in need of a 25-man move to accommodate the claim of out-of-options lefty Enny Romero from the Nats.
Harrison is earning $10MM this season as part of the four-year, $27.3MM deal he signed three years ago. Had the Pirates gotten off to a sluggish start, there’d likely have been trade chatter surrounding Harrison this summer, though so long as they can maintain some of the momentum they’ve built up, that no longer seems likely. Harrison’s deal contains club options for $10.5MM in 2019 and $11.5MM in 2020.
Hurdle Will use his love child Sean Rodriguez. But hopefully, all the double bubble in the duggout will convince him to use Adam Frazier….
Adam Frazier….the man with a great bat but a glove only his mother can love.
That’s not a nice thing to say about Frazier’s mom.
Urena is an accident waiting to happen every time he’s out there. Throws 95-98 with absolutely no control.
He reminds me of a guy I knew who threw a no-hitter in high school. He was a flame thrower who was just wild enough to be effective – gave up no hits, no runs, but hit 4 batters and walked 9.
Like Taillon and Suarez ? Guys get hit and josh gets hit a ton
Ouch. They were doing so well, started out w/ 11-4 start?
Guess that puts the fire out on those Harrison trade rumors.
Bucs have to strongly consider looking into acquiring some help at 2B until Harrison gets back. Frazier can hit but can’t field. Rodriguez can Field OK at some positions but not at 2B full-time, and can hit for power but not average. Moroff and Bostick are not starter material.
I doubt we make a trade. No one wants to trade a starter in April and our bench guys are as good as most.
Hurdle will just mix and match @ 2nd.
You’re probably right. I was thinking more along the lines of a waiver claim or minor-league level deal in any case, someone who could keep the seat warm.
Max Moroff is capable of keeping the seat warm. He had a terrible start to his MLB career last season when he rode the bench and barely got 50 plate appearances over 3 or 4 months but had an OPS over 800 in September when he had more regular playing time if I remember correctly.
They have? When was this? Nah, it will be in house only until he returns.
First Plawecki now Harrison. All because the Marlins use young, high velocity pitchers who don’t have major league command. I know Urena is better but it’s inexcusable to have a guy like Guerrero in the majors.
It’s a major breach of etiquette to have Guerrero in the majors threatening careers.
As opposed to threatening careers in the minors?
Brandon Phillips is available!
These constant hit by pitch injuries are bad for the Pirates and Harrison’s MLB career, but they really fuel his spokesman for Allegheny Health Network career. He’s all for health.
I like Adam Frazier and will be interested to see what he can do with regular at bats.
The problem with Frazier is that he’s below average in the field, doesn’t have much power, has some speed but not enough to be a stolen base threat so in order to be a useful player he has to hit at least .300.
The promise of Frazier is that he’s a guy who might be able to hit .320 or .330 with regular playing time. The swing is short and sweet and both his approach and eyes are good.
Let’s see what he can do.
I think that Rodriguez is Hurdle’s favorite because he is a very good to good fielder wherever he plays.This will be a good test for Frazier to see if he can play the position if given regular time.Moroff is a fine fielder who hit well the second half of last year.Jahay does not have good on base skills but is a fine fielder and I think a good leader and that will be the hardest thing to replace.
Bring up Chris Bostick
Bostick did fairly well at the end of last year and has played well at AAA for the short season so far this year.He seems to have more promise than I initially thought and he may very get a chance at some point this year.
It is always a good thing to have too many reasonably good players.
The problem I see with the Pirates is the same problem that I see with most small market teams-they do not have the superstars.
I agree I have personally met him and feel he would do great at the major league level