8:04PM: The Pirates will send around $1.3MM to the Padres in salary relief, Dejan Kovacevic of DK Pittsburgh Sports writes (X link). The Bucs were willing to pay because they “coveted” landing Jimenez in return.
4:59PM: The Padres have landed left-hander Martin Perez in a trade with the Pirates, according to reporter Francys Romero (links to X). Left-handed pitching prospect Ronaldys Jimenez will head to Pittsburgh in exchange.
There were some pre-deadline rumblings that the Bucs could deal from their relative pitching surplus, and Pittsburgh ended up moving Quinn Priester to the Red Sox and now Perez to San Diego, albeit for more projectionable players than players that could help the Pirates win immediately. There is also a financial element to the Perez trade, as the Padres will receive some money from the Pirates to cover a portion of the roughly $2.5MM remaining of Perez’s $8MM salary for the season.
After signing that one-year, $8MM pact last offseason, there was always an expectation that the Pirates would look to flip Perez at the deadline in some fashion. The veteran southpaw didn’t help his market by posting a 5.20 ERA in 83 innings, and he also spent a month on the injured list recovering from a groin strain. Perez’s Statcast page has a troubling amount of blue ink, with a set of below-average metrics in every category except grounder rate.
The 33-year-old Perez does bring plenty of experience and an ability to eat innings, which is no small matter for a San Diego rotation that is currently relying heavily on a lot of younger arms behind ace Dylan Cease. With Joe Musgrove still on the IL and Yu Darvish away from the team dealing with a family matter, the trio of Michael King, Randy Vasquez, and Matt Waldron have all been logging a lot of innings, leading the Padres to explore for some rotation help. The bulk of San Diego’s deadline moves focused on the bullpen, so while bolstering the relief corps does aid the rotation in a more indirect fashion, the Perez trade brings on a veteran arm to cover some starts down the stretch.
The 18-year-old Jimenez was an international signing for the Padres in 2023, and he has started his pro career this year with three starts for the Padres’ Dominican Summer League squad, delivering a 1.50 ERA in six innings of work. Jimenez is a lottery ticket-type of prospect for the Pirates to develop over the long term, which the club probably counts as a good result from its investment in Perez.
lol what
It’s the Penzance Base Ball Team.
Nutting only said trade him, didn’t say to another team!
Good salary dump! Pays for IKF
Padres are taking on $1.2 million for Perez.. Pirates taking on $1.3 million
Ummm…type-o
Is it legal to trade with yourself?
Not in the southern states, but they are a bit more liberal up north, so it’s allowed.
In the South, you can trade cuzzins an’ other brethren an’ cistern.
bob – You can do anything with yourself, as long as it’s not in a public parking lot during spring training.
Not in public.
Like hitting a tennis ball against a wall. It’s practice. And it can be fun. But it’s not a game.
It’s called mastertrading – just ask Nutting!
I know it’s an error but the pirates trading a pitcher to themselves would be one way to drum up business
big – In the stock market it’s called “Cross Trading” ….. commonly done to inflate that day’s volume.
The Pirates have landed left-hander Martin Perez in a trade with…themselves. Gratz!!
Pirates trade Perez to themselves?
Please correct Mark
Hmmmmm……. For who? We’ve got nobody left…..
Doesn’t seem like it! lol
How do you trade with yourself?
This is a family site.
Not the starter I wanted for the padres but writing was on the wall after the Tanner trade.
The good news is the Padres line up (especially once Tatis is healthy) is VERY good. And our bullpen is very strong as well now. Amazing what Preller has added to the major league club this season while under severe spending constraints. He’s been a magician.
He’s emptied the farm system over the last 2-3 years. There’s no magic.
None of the prospects he traded, including Gore and Abrams, would have made the Padres W.S. winners in 2024. What Preller has just done with other prospect, may get the Padres into the playoffs, to have a CHANCE at the W.S..
Your priorities are different than mine, most other fans, the the Padres franchise.
And between drafts and ifa spending he will have it rebuilt in a year or two from now. He’s tore it down like 3 or 4 times and just keeps rebuilding.
Abrams would have made the team, but he would not be the starting SS. Both Kim and Bogaerts would be ahead of him on the depth chart at the position, Probably would have slotted in as the LF or CF which means that Profar or Merrill would not be starting.
Idk, if they didn’t trade Abrams there is a decent chance they never would have signed Xander. Abrams is more designed to play second because his arm is all the great. He could be an amazing second baseman though.
what???
“The Pirates have landed left-hander Martin Perez in a trade with the Pirates, according to reporter Francys Romero”
I am somehow skeptical of Francys’ reporting here.
What Rich Hill not available?
oldie
Ok now I’m confused. Hopefully the return is decent, because why give one of the teams you are chasing SP help?
Because the Bucs are very high on Ronaldys Jimenez. Martin Perez is about to lose his spot in the rotation and possibly the roster.
Jimenez is an 18-year-old that is still playing in the DR. He is the definition of a lottery ticket. He has been throwing 91-93 in his 6 IP in the DSL so far, but he is just 18 so as he fills out some muscle that should increase a tick or two. He is not a tall kid, just 5′ 11″, so I don’t expect it to increase much. He won’t be that kid throwing triple digits.
Perez is giving up 11.4 hits per 9 and looks done. The FIP near 5 is generous. Even the Rockies might have a replacement in AAA who’ll do better, while the Buccos surely do, so why not add a prospect with a shot?
Trading him to the Padres is more like tossing them a lit Molotov cocktail than it is giving them a helping hand.
for who
the headline says the Padres so I wonder who’s coming back to Pittsburgh
Shame on the Pirates for selling. They have a legitimate shot if they just add offense
Got 7 starters. He was the worst
Keller Skenes Perez Gonzales Falter Ortiz.
What they need Perez for? Dump salary. They have better pen options.
I get the move but I think I’d rather have the safety net of another starter just in case things get hairy. I’d prefer him to Gonzalez who can barely pitch 5 innings.
Agree. He was owed probably 3 times as much as Marco. Not taking starts from Ortiz or Falter. Should have traded with Astros yesterday for what they gave up
Plus German actually pitching decent in AAA
You’re contradicting yourself here
Again
Does anyone else keep track of the A+ signings?
Perez and Marco were placeholders. Nothing more. Marco still is
Now you’re jumping on the Ortiz train
Sheesh
Tired-Yes,in answer to your question there have been 2021 sightings of A+ deals.
This one actually is one though.
I was skeptical of the first A+ rating on Perez when he was signed though as that one has come out to about a D+/C- in actuality.
Clowns. A better team wants Perez in their rotation as they go for a world series but not good enough for the Pirates to eat innings until Skenes Ortiz was ready lol
Nobody wants Perez in their rotation. He is simply holding down the number 5 slot until Musgrove or possibly Darvish can come back.
The rest of us use A+ sparingly instead of all of the time when it really does not mean anything.
Yes he served a purpose for a month but that hardly means a stellar signing.
Well I didn’t know he would get hurt. He was a weak 4 before injury. He’s bad now after injury but Padres still traded for him. That says something. They could have traded for anyone. If AJ wants you he gets you. Padres fans hope he gets replaced but if he does well he can go to pen or spot start. Every single game is important for them. They just can’t trade for anyone even if it’s just for a few weeks or months.
As bad as he has been, Perez is still a 2+ run improvement over the guys the Padres have had to run out as the #5 starter.
With the Pirates picking up most of his salary, the Padres just need him to pick up a couple of starts until Musgrove is back and then he is expendable.
Musgrove Darvish back yet? They release this Perez bum yet?
Starting depth not too bad
What are the Pirates doing?
Dumping the salary of a player that can’t make their rotation moving forward.
Secretly sabotaging a team ahead of them in the WC race? You figure the Pirates will see Perez at least once in the next two weeks, plus now we don’t have to hold our breath as to whether we’ll get the Perez from the last outing or the Perez from the two outings before that.
Perhaps though Musgrove maybe back by the time the padres play the pirates. Almost certainly barring a setback before the second series.
Perhaps Perez stays in the rotation and Vasquez gets the boot. We shall see.
Rich Hill 2.0?
Rich Hill wasn’t available.
Pretty much, though Hill was putting up better numbers when he was in his 40s. The Padres AAA staff must be horrible for them to add Perez instead of reaching down.
IKF money. Not a huge loss either.
The Pirates made a trade with themselves?
“The Pirates have landed left-hander Martin Perez in a trade with the Pirates”
yes Logjammer, everyone knows
I’m just pointing out the typo
The Pirates traded with themselves…lol
I like it! Who’s going back?
Damn those Pirates…trading within the organization!
Anyway to grab headlines and create fanbuzz and I’m all for it.
They’re so crafty…
Love it. Logjam at starting pitcher and he might have raised a fuss about moving to the bullpen now that Falter’s back.
I’m not sold on Falter either but several of Perez’ recent outings were questionable
Falter is fine as the 5th starter, and he’s definitely better than Perez.
Falter is probably heading to the bullpen when Jones is back anyways.
Buc-Woodford is coming up as he has averaged 5 innings per start at AAA for 5 starts and may piggyback with Marco as the long man.Aaa era is 2.20.
German has pitched better since his release but still somewhat shaky.
Ryder Ryan was released to make room for Woodford.
They could also go to a six man rotation whenever Jones comes back.
Falter has kind of fallen to earth since he claimed he was exhausted. That was troubling enough but he’s digressed
The Pirates didn’t make any of the moves they needed to and I laugh at some of the comments that say hey, at least they did something
They always do something
It just never amounts to much
They make trades that make the team better (added about 3.5 WAR), but I’m sure that doesn’t matter. They added salary for this year and next, but I bet that doesn’t count.
Just admit that you’ll never be happy. Let the rest of us enjoy this fun time to be a fan.
Grumpy Old Men reboot.
Tired-I think that BC probably did the best that he could.
Long term this does not move the needle but short term shows improvement.
They did not trade anyone who could provide strong current. help so at least it shows that they are going for it.
I think that it will be tough to beat out the Mets and Padres but the Braves could easily go downhill with all of their injuries.Then it would be the Dbacks and Cardinals in their competition for the last wild card.
They didn’t lose any prospects in the grand scheme. We get a lil worked up about Maca doddle doo because we only hit on a later round draft pick once a decade. Real teams find a couple in every draft. Love to stockpile arms but didn’t lose our best ones. Gumps a no power 1b nuff said.
No reason to hate giving the team a chance.
Just like the off season and last 5 off seasons. Pirates fans named all the huge in the headlines names and they do what I told you. Wait until the big dogs eat and take what scraps are left. The cycle will repeat again this Fall in free agency. You guys never learn excluding you Mendoza. I remember naming Perez Ryu Gonzales Wood and Mendoza was like hopefully. Vasquez Hill might be our big moves.
Hey, don’t lump me into that group lol.
I was pumped when they traded for Marco because I thought he could be had for peanuts. Chapman is the only one I didn’t see coming this offseason. I have no problems with the Pirates being patient EVER because it’s what they have to do.
That is because I am not negative and try to be realistic.
I know a fair amount about existing ML players but nothing about the young players.I can see the important stats and understand them but also have a sense of their limitations.
I think that these moves have been beneficial on a short term basis and it shows that the Pirates are trying to win after years of doing the opposite.
I am cautiously optimistic but they are vying against a number of teams with much more money and it will be difficult to make the playoffs.
I think that we know that the Pirates still have some real deficiencies that these trades did not address.
Dream I think that you are pleased also with BC as you would have turned on him if he stood pat.
If they continue on with a winning season I think that that is all that could be expected..Anything more is a bonus.
They really do need to add a big bopper via trade or free agency this winter.Nutting will need to pony up more to get them into the $100-120M salary range sooner rather than later.
Sooner or later BC will need to extend on a trade as you have to give up something good to get something good.He has probably earned some leeway along those lines.
I think that once they saw the unreasonable prices being paid for starters they got Perez and Marco at reasonable prices.
I agreed with that rationale.
They had extra money and knew that Chapman was experienced and had been on WS winners.They had to overpay to get him but it was essentially the money that they would have had to pay for a decent starter.
What I cannot understand is how they are so very fine with developing pitching but so poor at developing hitters.
Regarding fielders,I see that Gonzalez is the highest rated fielding second baseman in baseball.Believe it or not,Rowdy has the highest fielding average among qualified first basemen.And Hayes has been his usual brilliant self at third base with just five errors.
I’m not worried about the Pirates increasing payroll when it’s needed because they increased it last time up to about $113 million, and that was almost a decade ago. Most professional baseball teams operate on multi-year budgets (most do five year rolling budgets). So it’s not a true year-to-year like most people view it as.
What I mean by that is that Cherington was able to sell off Perez after acquiring IKF, Beeks, and DLC, which essentially offset the money for this season. That pushes about $2.6 million into future years when the Pirates will need it more. This was very savvy IMO and something that a lot of GM’s do that goes unnoticed. It doesn’t seem like that much, but it can be the difference in acquiring a player that would help or outbidding another team for a supplemental player in free-agency.
I’m with you though, I think the time to pull the trigger on a good bat in a trade is this offseason. It doesn’t have to be a headline grabbing/sexy move, but they need hitting. It just needs to be a smart acquisition of a multi-year controlled hitter. I think the centerpiece will come from the pitching depth. You evaluate what you have and what you expect the “depth chart” to look like next season and moving forward, and then identify a really good pitching prospect or two you think you can afford to lose.
Not how you spell Jake Arrieta. But same result.
What’s a TDL without a Preller-Texas nexus?
I am a big fan of proofreading but we all must admit there has been a lot of activity to spew out in a very short time.
Hopefully,the Padres did in fact want Perez,and it not only opens up a 25 and a 40 man roster space,it saves about $2.5M too.
I doubt that the Pirates got anything of value in return other than the salary saving.
A+ trade.
Perez was a weak 4 before injury. Command has been awful since return. If he shakes off the rust he could be that again or at least a 5.
They must be sending cash to San Diego as well. No way they want that 8million to hit the cap when they’re so close to the luxury tax and are trying to stay under.
Since season is 2/3 over, he will likely cost Pads a little less than $3M.
Understand they don’t have to pay the full 8 million, however the 8 million as a whole goes towards that luxury tax number.
After going to extreme measures reset/stay under the CBT, I’m sure they won’t exceed it slightly with this move. But it does look like it’s going to close. They might have Yu Darvish salary relief?
Most of the Darvish relief will go to pay for Profar’s incentive bonuses.
I think maybe that’s part of the reason they traded Enyel to the Yankees. It clears up a roster spot and maybe gives them a little more breathing room for CBT. I imagine they got some salary relief with Darvish being on the restricted list so maybe like you said that’s where that comes into play.
Send cash? You must not be familiar with the Pirates owner. He ain’t sending them Nutting.
But gee, Dream, there is a clown here who claims Nutting reinvests every nickel he makes back into the team
He did send some cash. It was just a joke. Nutting steps up when needed.
@Bill. I think you’re right about DSL deal.
Bill, this can’t be correct. Last year at the end of the year, Angles unexplainably dfa’d a group of higher cost players for the express reason of trying to get under the penalty.
Conversely, a team that hasn’t been paying a player all season to this point is not going to be charged with his salary thst they didn’t pay.
That is why they make the final calculation after the end of the season.
So, Preller pretty much bought a new bullpen, or a least half of one. I wonder if THESE moves sends Kolek back to Seattle, or weather the Pads will be able to keep hiding him in the front end of the bullpen. That’s 3 new bullpen arms (did I count right?), though maybe Hoeing is destined to go to AAA to stretch out as a starter. Kolek seems like a keeper to me, even if he needs more seasoning.
There certainly be …umm…. some “roster movement” in the next 24 hours.
Pretty deep into season to let him go now. Wandy can go instead maybe even DFA and hope someone claims for a little salary relief.
Austin Davis, Gillespie, Jacob all go down before Kolek if necessary.
You might be correct on Hoeing at least for the “right now”.
I don’t think they’re going to DFA Peralta in year 1 of a 4 year contract. When he’s healthy they’re going to have to roster him
The contract might come into play but technically it’s 1 year and 3 player options based on BR anyway.
Long- You are correct or else these teams would not try to get under the different tax tiers at the end of the year.
Bill, When a player is traded, just the amount owed goes to the CBT calculation for the team he is traded to.
In this case the Pirates are paying $1.3 million of the $2.5 million he is owed. The Padres are on the hook for $1.2 million.
But yet he did. Pirates sent $1.3 million
Kolek will stick around at least until Wandy Peralta is ready to return. Preller already said that they see Hoeing as a reliever.
Padres pen as of day after tomorrow is Suarez, Scott, Adam, Estrada, Morejon, Matsui, Hoeing, Kolek.
Gillaspie, Davis, and Jakob will be sent down as the trades become official.
When Peralta comes back, he will be added to the pen. He has an ERA under 3.00 from 2021-2023 so the Padres are certainly expecting that level of production from him, but I think it will be mostly because he is under contract for 3 more years. They certainly don’t want to DFA him when there are so many pitching poor teams that they are competing for a spot in the playoffs with that would snatch him up.
It will be interesting to see what happens with Kolek then.
I know this, I won’t be buying my 13 year old daughter a Hoeing jersey, just saying.
Imagine 2 of the new additions standing side by side – Adam (A dam) and Hoeing (Ho).
Didn’t Dewey, Cheatem & Howe play for the Astros in 2017?
That was maybe the game of the year last night LT. I missed it but will be there tonight!
Never go wrong with a Stooge reference and applying it to Astros is pretty good!
Yes it was awesome. Due to time zones and work I can’t stay up for all of the late games. I was pleasantly surprised at 4 am CST when I saw the score. I have seen the clips.
2nd inning Dodgers came out swinging at 1st pitches like “hey we got this won so let’s hurry up”). Gotta love sticking it to Roberts!
Enjoy the game – it’s an hour earlier tonight so I might see 5 innings!
Ah, the other option for Kolek – 15 day IL due to foreman tendinitis! How could we forget that one?
Perez can be not bad. 5/6th type guy. Throw a good game here or there but mostly just hanging on trying to eat innings.
addition by subtraction move.
Perez replaces Mazur. All he has to be is better than Mazur, and the Padres are good.
(Well, maybe he has to be A LOT better than Mazur. )
Yes, they need a MLB #5, not Mazur
That is what Perez is, a MLB #5. He is also a guy that can spin a plus curveball. Slotting him between Cease and King where Mazur was starting will give the Padres a change of pace. Especially with all those guys in the pen throwing close to 100 behind him. If they can get him to eat 5 innings while giving up just 3 runs, I think the Padres will win more than they lose of his starts.
I heard on one of the telecasts that he needs to locate his fastball.If he does he is actually a decent pitcher.If he is not make sure that you have a long man ready in the bullpen.
I wonder why we made this move
So Cronenworth doesn’t have to slot into the #5 SP.
Lol that was a pretty good comment there Brew
Have to say I actually laughed out loud at that one Brew.
Not a lot of good choices for SP left considering what’s left in Padres system and spending constraints. Perez doesn’t need to be great. A 4.50 ERA would be fine considering how good the bullpen is likely to be now.
“Mom, can we get Jack Flaherty?”
“No, we have Jack Flaherty at home!”
Jack Flaherty at home:
Yankees backed out of Flaherty trade because of his medicals. The Dodgers just don’t care. They have like 12 starting pitchers, so if one goes down, they just roll another out to the mound.
And it has forever been that way.
A+ for Pirates. They would have traded Perez for anything and they got slightly better than anything.
Dear God. It gets increasingly hard to appreciate these types of posts.
A+. A team that is in world series or bust just traded for him and sent a prospect. Even a pitching prospect. Pirates no longer had a need or even a roster spot for Perez. Easy A+
They’re sending $1.3M in this deal. They just bought a teenage prospect in the DSL that they could have signed last year for basically nothing.
Not how signings work.
C-They woukd have lost Perez on waivers and would have had to eat all $2.5M.Perez is basically worthless in that regard and at least BC got some salary relief and a young player.
Jimenez signed with the Padres for $10k as an IFA. Pirates just spent $1.3 million to get him.
Or the Padres just spent $1.2 M for a pitcher who may or may not add anything to the team.
2 years in a row padres trading for worn down limping to the finish struggling Pirates backend veteran LHP.
At least those trades attempted to fill an actual need, albeit with worn down way-BOR SP. In 2021 when at the time they desperately needed a SP, or to add some slug, they instead traded for the Pirates Adam Frazier, the incredibly light-hitting MI blocked from playing MI on the Padres and forced instead to become the most incredibly light-hitting RF.
At the time Frazier was hitting about 315 and was third in the NL in hitting,He could also play a fairly good 2nd base and a decent left field.
Peller always has decent minor leaguers that he can trade because they are extras and the Pirates were rebuilding.
Padres didn’t need Frazier though was the point.
And the Pirates did not really need any of the players that they got at this trade deadline.
Preller wanted Frazier for his versatility and his hitting prowess that year.He quickly reverted to the norm after the trade and fell out of favor and has bounced around since then.
Hindsight is always 20-20.
Pirates desperately needed everyone of these players. Needed IKF to replace Triolo. Now he replaces Gonzales. Needed Winker to start in rf, now they have Cruz a lesser version but for future years. Joe now becomes a bench piece. What if Rowdy went down no rf. What if Joe went down no rf. Now if Cruz or Rowdy goes down you have Joe. Or Reynolds, you got Joe.
The Pirates got these players so that they could improve the team.
That is the same thing that Preller thought about Frazier.
They still may have been a winning team as they are now without them.Their acquisition just improved the chances for making the playoffs.
It also gave hope to Pirate fans and also the Pirate players since it showed a GM who clearly wanted to improve the team.
Adam Frazier was hitting .324/.388/.448/.836 at the time of the trade with a 126 OPS+ and 3.0 WAR. He was a solid all-around leadoff hitter, For the Padres he played 46 games at 2B and not a single game in RF.
The reason the Padres traded for Frazier was that their leadoff hitter most of the season to that point had been Grisham and he had a 90 OPS+ and an OBP around .300.
The problem is that the Padres were expecting the tablesetter he had been in Pittsburgh, and Frazier never delivered.
Frazier hit .267 for Pads in 2021, right about at his career average. His 300+ ave earlier that year was a stark aberration to the rest of his career so no surprised that he regressed. As a table setter, his OBP was slightly lower than Grish, so no gain there. He played LF not RF, my bad. At a time when SP was an overwhelming need, along with slug, the Pads went for light hitting MI who didn’t hit HRs (ok, he hit 1). In my opinion it was perhaps the worst TDL trade Preller has made.
It wasn’t bad for what Preller did, it’s what he didn’t do. They needed SP depth and he ignored that need. The August collapse ensued. They really did not give up much for Frazier, but did not go after what they really needed to stay in the race. As I recall they added Hudson and Marisnick too. Truly a head scratcher deadline.
One thing about Preller,he is never boring.
And they didn’t trade Chapman
Which is a very good thing in that Bednar has been somewhat shaky and Chapman serves as a capable if not inspiring backup.
I was proud that the Pirates did not trade him just to save $4M.
Sometimes the best trades are the ones that are not made.
The Pirates have added decently at the trade deadline and filled some holes to try to compete this year.
That is a good thing.
I think that the real show stoppers were just too expensive to add.Maybe they are waiting for the off season when the times are not as frenetic.
I hate to lose Priester and McAdoo but you have to give up something to get something.
I give Cheington credit for trying but I think that some of the other teams made real progress
At least this is not the old days when the better players were being shipped for almost no return to save money.
And I give him credit for not way overpaying for these players or trading for players who are clearly overrated.
Prices were painful. Pirates traded the best prospects they could afford to do so without hating themselves. 1b no power. Corner guy without elite power no speed. Pitcher coming off injury. Reliever that needs finishing. They kept their tier 1 2 and 3 guys.
Random
This is the salary dump ordered by Nutting to make up for acquiring the two outfielders. Now they have to use bullpen days.
No they don’t!
Skenes, Falter, Gonzales, Keller, Ortiz and Woodford. A very solid six man rotation with Jones set to return soon.
woodford?
woodford will be gone in a week
He will if Cruz plays SS in all his pitching appearances.
He MUST be moved to 1B in the offseason with IKF or Triolo taking over at SS.
ik cruz struggling at short especcialy today but hes shown he can play there
Cruz is 3rd from bottom in DRS for all shortstops, 2nd in MLB in errors and ranks in the bottom third of UZR/150.
I think he’s very convincingly showing he can’t play there.
sure i think first would be a waste id say outfield. he has the arm obv
I’m open to him playing CF – he has the speed and arm for it – but this charade of him being a SS has to stop.
I had originally thought right field with that cannon.
Now I think that Henry should be taught to play there.
With his cannon.
Others said Cruz to first,but that would waste his arm.But think about that stretch that he could do!
I had never thought CF since I hoped Bae could play there with his great speed.But Cruz would be fast too,and have the best CF arm maybe in history.
One of the serious problems with the Pirates though is they cater to him and hype how hard he hits the ball as a sort of marketing ploy.
All the pitchers have to do is throw him low curveballs.He cannot pick up the spin.
I have been saying this for three years because shortstop is the most important fielding position on the diamond.
But BC does not have the guts to make that change.
I just looked at the box score.
If Jed Clampett were alive he would once again say “pitiful,pitiful”.
I have been saying for three years that they cannot win anything with him at shortstop.
He lost the game for them.I usually do not pin that on anyone making an error but I do for three.They cannot afford to give away games.
I said this a few weeks ago- the only way out of this dilemma is to trade him.He is much too blasé out there and likes to chat with everyone coming into second base.He cannot concentrate well enough to be rigorous in the field.
Trade him while they can get something for him.
I would say make him the DH but he strikes out way too much and does not walk enough.
If he does that in CF it could even be much worse.
We will see if they really want to become a championship contender this winter.They will have to make some hard decisions then and I am not sure that BC can do that.
Ever seen him throw from the outfield? A lot of his ss errors are throwing. So what if throws hard. Put him at 1b so he doesn’t have to throw much. Waste his arm at 1b I say was his height in outfield!
yesterday against the astros
oniel cruz: 5
Pirates: 4
That cannon would play in right field.
Yes,he would have to learn to be more accurate.
He would have to practice,but there is a good reason why they put the outfielder with the best arm in right field.
Best day as Pirates GM for Ben Cherington? He noticeably improved the lineup, swing overpay for bigger names, and dealt from depth in the minors while replenishing other positions of need. We’ll see how much these moves help this season, but in the big picture, this was a solid deadline. And oh, by the way, the team is getting hot, warts and all.
That guy Schildt seems to be a damn good Manager.
I think that he is a plus for any team as a manager.
He would tell it like it is and not coddle anyone.
IMO: The Pirates had the best trade deadline in MLB. They didn’t win the media’s trophy for sensationalism but winning that usually spells doom for the actual team.