Pirates outfielder Jason Martin underwent surgery to address a left shoulder labral tear, Adam Berry of MLB.com was among those to report. Martin is likely in line for a four- to six-month recovery period, which could be cutting it close for the start of the 2020 season.
Next year will be the third in the Pittsburgh organization for Martin, whom the Pirates acquired from the Astros as part of the teams’ trade for right-hander Gerrit Cole in January 2018. As those who follow the game know, the Houston version of Cole has been a pitching demigod, someone who has a legitimate shot at a World Series title, AL Cy Young honors and a $200MM-plus payday in the coming weeks.
Unfortunately for Pittsburgh, no one it received for Cole has come close to making a star-level impact. While righty Joe Musgrove has done respectable work from the Pirates’ rotation, third baseman Colin Moran has been merely a replacement-level performer, reliever Michael Feliz hasn’t developed into a late-game force and Martin has been almost nonexistent in the majors. An eighth-round pick of the Astros in 2013, Martin just wrapped up a difficult season divided between two levels. The 24-year-old hit .259/.312/.419 with eight home runs and nine stolen bases in 406 Triple-A plate appearances, leaving him with an 83 wRC+, and slashed .250/.325/.306 with a pair of steals in his first 40 PA in the bigs.
Despite his struggles in 2019, a healthy Martin could vie for a role next year in an outfield facing some uncertainty as the winter approaches. Rookie sensation Bryan Reynolds is sure to be back in 2020, while Gregory Polanco‘s set to return after an injury-wrecked campaign. On the other hand, Starling Marte looks like a trade candidate and Melky Cabrera is on his way to free agency.
Astros and Rays made absolute fools of Pirates with trades. Two huge embarrassments for that organization. The trade of Archer for Meadows and Glasnow may be even worse than the the Cole trade. Why is Huntington still GM? Is the ownership on drugs?
Simple Bob Nutting
i think there’s an argument to be made that the Cole return was good and that he may not have broken out had he not joined Houston. The package they got back for him wasnt terrible, all things considered.
Being a small market and their history of not competing with larger market Teams for their impending free agents puts them at a competitive disadvantage when looking to trade assets. Without a salary cap and an owner truly committed to winning a Word a Series the Pirates and most small market Teams will just be talent feeders to bigger markets or owners willing to spend cash. Baseball writers will taught the occasional Kanas City or Tampa Bay. But, look at a World Series winners over the last 20 years. Answer the question… Why doesn’t MLB of all the major sports NOT have a salary cap? Follow the money for the truth!!!
Cole will leave the Astros in FA, this making the trade not so bad. 2 years of star level pitching vs potentially many years of solid starting by Musgrove, solid 3B by Moran, & who knows with Felix & Martin; but depending on how you look at it, in the long run might not be too bad.
I was thoroughly impressed by Glasnow & Meadows in the ALDS, especially with the series costing performance by Glasnow in game 5. While I do think TB got the better end of that deal, not as much of a fleecing as most people think. Reynolds cancels out Meadows & Glasnow pitched 1/2 a season & arguably is the best 4 inning starter in baseball, if that’s what you want; oh, except for game 5 of the ALDS.
Chris-Cervelli for Wilson.Reynolds and Crick for McCutcheon.Dickerson for Hudson.Burnett for no one.Nova for no one.Morton and Locke for McLouth.Byrd for no one.Harrison for Grabow.Melancon for Handrahan.Vasquez for Melancon.Signings of Martin,Liriano,Freese.
One mediocre and one bad trade does not erase all of these gems.
Those who do not know should not post.
Fortunately the owner remembers these steals.
Mr. Mendoza – Line: one question, where did the Pirates end up at the end of the season
Mr esask-so what?
Do you think that Hurdles mismanagement and the most injuries that the Pirates ever had had anything to do with it?
NH had a fairly bad year or two,and some of this year falls at his feet,but anyone who criticizes one or two trades out of numerous great ones already has their agenda set.
Certain things come back to him but there are many many GMs who are worse and work under much better financial conditions than NH.
This is a clear case of piling on after a bad year by posters who do not know past deals and signings made by the Pirates.
They say that marte is probably going to be traded,well that’s just dumb as they should be getting rid of Polanco.He has never done anything for the Pirates and he is always hurt.He really is not that good anyway,he plays with no heart
Polanco plays with heart but he is young and needs to step it up.
He tried to come back too soon and the Pirates doctors are the ones who should pay for it.Polanco showed much heart by doing so.
He needs to mature some and I think that he will.
If they would trade him at the current lowest point and he has a fine year next year then NH will get the same bs that he gets for trading Cole.
Marte should get several quality players back and that is a big reason why many think that he will be traded.
And again trade away players for cost savings and end up where…. the bottom of the division
Esask-They are not the only team to do that.How many of these GM’s have to trade their numerous mistakes for other gm’s numerous mistakes?
It is common amongst a number of teams.The only one that NH had to do that with was Liriano and he got three very good years from him.
What is your next failed retort?
The main reason for having a team is to win. The pirates are not in any place to win when they only have a for profit first and everything after second.
Esask-you entered into my thread with another poster wherein I was listing NH trades.
What you are saying has nothing to do with that thread.
You are entitled to your opinion but don’t address it to someone else just so you can belittle them or make them feel bad.It failed in that respect.
You clearly though do not have the knowledge to address my thread in the first place so you have to resort to something else.
Mr Mendoza, you may want to read this article
The Pirates are one of just three MLB teams to generate a cumulatively negative WAR rating from the pitchers they have drafted and developed over the past eight seasons–a fact that Rob Biertempfel turns a sour eye to in his piece for The Athletic (link). While poor trades, signing, and development have all played a role in the recently thin state of Pittsburgh pitching, the amateur draft, in Biertempfel’s estimation, is the fountainhead of GM Neal Huntington’s trouble. As the writer points out, the Rule IV draft is of critical importance to “small market” clubs like the Pirates, but the team has struggled to locate impact talent there in the last several years. Biertempfel, in a ten-year overview of Pirate drafts from 2008 to 2017, illustrates that Huntington has made some regrettable missteps in his time in the Pittsburgh war room. Notably, the club selected pitcher Brooks Pounders of the second round of the 2009 draft while Dallas Keuchel and Patrick Corbin were still available, and in 2012 the club failed to draft a single pitcher who would ultimately app
Esask-Not sure why you continue to retort with responses totally off the subject of the original thread.I do not want to read what you suggest because I am not interested in it.
You continue to ignore my response to the original post regarding the fine trades that NH has made.and I failed to mention the Kela trade as a steal as he will become the Pirates closer.
It seems to me that you are ignoring this as it fails to fit your agenda.
What is your opinion of the trades that I have listed?To continue to get crickets from you tells me that you agree with my point but will not admit it as it does not support your agenda.
Did any of those trades get the attendance up or the Pirates out of the basement. I understand that some moves were brilliant, but overall the decision to save money has cost the Pirates a chance to create a team that could compete within the central division
Esask-You bore me.
Your agenda is a common one and is your opinion.
Would you have stated this just one year ago when the Pirates had a winning record?
It is clear that Nutting does not want to put the money back into the team unless they are very competitive and that NH did not sign free agent pitching this past off season to provide depth.I severely criticized him at the time and they paid dearly for it this year.
Your arguement is with Nutting,not NH.Name every other team and very few do not have several free agents that they grossly overpaid for.
I could care less about your agenda and refuse to no longer let you use my stupidity in taking you seriously enough to respond to your monotonous parasitic rants.You can be on your own from now on and good luck with that.
Does 82 – 79 and 13 games out of first place a winning season. Was this a playoff team in the making? This was a poor showing in a very weak division. Let’s not forget the great trades NH made to make the team so competitive in 2017 and 2018.
NL Central is one of the most competitive divisions in baseball.Check out the records from this year with the AL and the other NL divisions.
NH now has six competitive ML players,including a potential all star,for a pitcher who he would no longer have and an aging former superstar.
And don’t bring up the Archer trade because it’was one bad one among many many great ones.
You are never going to change what I know and you are relentless in keeping to your agenda so let’s just agree to disagree.