The Pittsburgh Pirates have made some room on their 40-man roster by parting ways with Travis Snider and Travis Ishikawa, while also sending Deolis Guerra outright to Indianapolis. Snider and Ishikawa elected free agency rather than accepting the outright assignment to Indianapolis. The 40-man roster is currently at 42, though it still includes upcoming free agents, as well as A.J. Burnett and Aramis Ramirez, who are both retiring.
Snider was traded to Baltimore prior to the 2015 season in exchange for minor league prospects Steven Brault and Stephen Tarpley. While they both had excellent seasons, further establishing their prospect status, Snider had a good first ten days of the season, then really struggled. He ended up coming back to the Pirates as a minor league free agent after being let go by the Orioles in mid-August. With Pittsburgh, he hit .192/.276/.423 in 18 games, mostly off the bench.
Ishikawa was the other Travis who returned to Pittsburgh after playing for the team in 2014. He hit .224/.318/.328 in 38 games, seeing most of his time off the bench as well. Ishikawa was picked up off waivers from the Giants in early July.
Guerra was lost during the season to the Indians on waivers, returning without playing a game for Cleveland after a pre-existing knee injury landed him on the disabled list. He didn’t pitch the rest of the season. Guerra pitched ten times out of the bullpen for the Pirates, posting a 6.48 ERA in 16.2 innings.
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
Wow 62 post so far! A lot of pent up Bucco Baseball and not even Hot Stove season. I’m glad the man crush for Snider is over. Let’s please move on.
A guy I would look at via trade is Yonder Alonso, SD is rumored to be in on Davis. He is a good fielding 1stbasemen and I’m sure his left handed stroke would play better in PNC and with a better lineup around him. Even Lind would be a decent fit, alothough his defense is not good. Enough of the Logan Morrison’s of the world we need an upgrade, not a lateral move.
Just looked at the trade that brought Alonso to the Padres…dear lord, the Reds got gave up a lot for Latos. Him, plus Grandal, Boxberger, and Volquez.
He was a former high 1st rd draft pick.
I like Yonder too. He does lack power. Not sure he’d be an upgrade tho.
His WAR is significantly better than Pedro, especially and obviously his dWAR. Like I said, his offense would be sure to pick up in Pittsburgh with a much better supporting cast…His issues have been injury related. I’ve been reading that Preller will be looking to trade him this off season and his value is pretty low. Could be had rather cheap.
Yonder over someone like a Loney for sure.
Really, two similar guys production-wise with Snider being a little better. Snider’s low-average, medium walks, high k, and always fluctuating power will always make him a 24-25th man type. He’s a good dude and is comfortable pinch hitting so he will probably bounce around forever. Same with Ishikawa but with him being older and having less power potential you have to wonder how many more MLB ABs he will get. I don’t think anyone would mind having Snider back as a 4-5 OF but I think everyone also would like to see the Pirates with a true #4 that is consistent.
I think Will Venable would be a really nice fit for the Pirates. Probably can be had cheap with only a 1.2 WAR the last two years but has more in the tank at 32…he was 2.5 WAR/y guy 2010-2013. He plays nice corner defense and his bat should play at PNC, decent power & speed from the left side. I’d rather have him than a Chris Young or a Rajai Davis who had solid years in 2015 and will cost more for possibly less production.
I like Venable alot
I think in Venable and Pennington you get two guys that do everything pretty well. Sound players that consistently help you win. I really do like Pennington. I know a lot of people aren’t that into him but he is one of those guys a good team needs on the bench.
Makes sense, cause I think NH has been on him before.
Neil will love Pennington and Morrow because they were high picks and top prospects. Pennington was a number one pick. He loves those types. See Travis Snider and Matt Clement.
As for the infield, I wouldn’t mind seeing them bring in Cliff Pennington to compete for a spot. He’s a Clint Barmes type which they always like. He takes a lot of pitches and gets on base at an ok rate despite low batting average. His defense is nice wherever you put him. To me, he’s better than Sean Rodriguez…and Pennington even has played a little OF so he is making the transition to UTIL.
Sean is a little more versatile than Pennington. I don’t recall Cliff being a late inning D replacement at 1st base, nor have I remember seeing him play OF. I guess he would come in handy in a blowout as a pitcher. Thanks, but no thanks. I do like the Venable option, though as a 4th OF’er, who can play all 3 spots. I think the 4th OF spot depends if they are comfortable with in house solutions (Broxton-Decker) or want someone who is a bit more proven. I personally would rather them go the proven route with a Venable type. Maybe a 2 yr deal, low base, with incentives.
No Pennington hasn’t played 1B. Pennington has played OF and looked good in a small amount of games. Pennington has put up a 6 WAR career on defense and I’ll take his consistent approach over S-Rod’s horrific k:bb ratio. I do like the Logan Morrison idea. He’s a bit of a flake but like his left-handed power in PNC. He is another tomato can at 1B (Morrison has gotten extremely immobile as he has filled out and has terrible range in the OF) but at least he catches what comes to him. Plus he was an OF before so that helps the gap off the bench out there if you need him to go stand out there once and awhile. Morrison is still only 28 too. He’s been around forever it seems. I think Morrison gives you what Pedro gives you at the plate without so many strikeouts. Everything else doesn’t wow me but he’s probably 4-5 mil cheaper than Alvarez.
Morrison has the same BS attitude as Tony Sanchez, I wouldn’t want him anywhere near the Pirates 25 man.
Agree
Who cares? Dude can play first, and probably gets a bump in power moving from Safeco to PNC.
Morrison sucks and if we commit to him as our 1stbasemen it won’t be good.
Who’s talking about commitment? Platoon him with Morse, slide Bell in towards the end of the year.
Platoon idea makes sense, but Morrison doesnt have the numbers that make him a good fit as the short side of the platoon.
Only 1 year where he was decent against LHP, the rest he struggled in similar SSS. If we go platoon, might as well just find a guy who only hits LHP well and release him when Bell is ready.
He also had a -.01 overall WAR and a -1.5 dWAR….He sucks
Yeah the “attitude” thing seems overplayed. If Sanchez didnt just suck, he’s be quirky and lovable for some. But since he sucks, his attitude isnt okay. Morrison would be fine so long as he does the job.
Yeah, getting into bar fights and acting like an ass on twitter is always considered “quirky”
Its the Twitter part that makes me laugh. Who cares? I honestly dont get why any fan gives a hoot what the player Tweets. Twitter is inherently full of knee jerk posts and random thoughts. Acting like an ass on Twitter is 75% of what Twitter is.
Bar fight is unfortunate and not okay, but until he does that as a Pirate im all for not hanging him for it. If he produces, stays out of legal trouble, and isnt hurling racial slurs on Twitter im content.
Yeah, bar fights are over blown. I’ve probably been in 10 in my life and never had one incident at work with temper or arguing with a coworker. Fighting with other dudes is something young guys do.
Is your profession a MLB player? Tabata never had problems on the field, but his womaninzing and other bad off the field habits contributed to him rotting in INDY before he was ultimately dealt for Morse.
Tabata got womanized by some crazy b!tch I think. Then he got married. I remember a special on Root or something. What he did since then I have no idea. Womanizing is a bad example because we would all be shocked if we saw the percentage and the how many guys we think of as model citizens that cheat on a road.
I never said I was smart for getting in scuffles.
Tabata had the on the field problem of getting slow, lacking power, and not playing good defense. Those traits had a wee bit to do with him not seeing MLB much.
SS, 2B, 3B guy who has stood in the OF in recent years in a few games.
Ideally the notion that our infield backup needs to be a late inning 1B replacement becomes a non issue when we stop fielding a 1Bmen that is so bad he’s gotta come out.
Exactly Luke…that situation was a joke for an entire season…it was what it was but it is time to end. Morrison is not a rangy 1B but he’s gonna make 15-20 less errors than Pedro. While not a ringing endorsement it is a defensive upgrade at least by a little. I don’t know…it doesn’t get me excited but you have to have another guy to go with Morse to start the year right? Steve Pearce is out there but then you have two right handed 1B. I’d almost rather see them deal Morse and go with Morrison/Pearce! It’s not good to think about…I start thinking things like maybe they should just keep Pedro for a few months to start 2016. Ah man, I gotta stop.
I can see Pedro being with the Bucs till June or July. Gives time to get Bell ready and is there any team who would want Pedro? One way or another he’ll be a giveaway.
I can too I guess. I couldn’t before but then I saw what was out there.
I don’t feel that our backup infielder needs to plays 1st. I guess my point is, I value Sean’s D over Cliff’s as he can play more positions at a higher rate, except SS. Neither can hit much…For the record, I don’t want Sean back, I hope my last image is him beating the shit out of the water cooler on National TV. He can take his temper elsewhere. Pennington wouldn’t even be an option in my mind, I would rather have Florimon.
Gotta start balancing offense and defense with bench players. It hamstrings a coach to roster a guy like Florimon, because he’s a terrible option to PH. If we keep Walker, we have decent depth at 3B and 2B. We need a non poor fielding SS who can play some 2B to spell Walker. Cliff seems a fit, once Kang is healthy we’d have good depth 3B-SS-2B that isnt one all defense option.
I get your point but that is why I like Pennington. He can play SS & 3B at a high level so I will take my chances with his OF defense in those hopefully rare times he needs to go out there. I just don’t see the beauty in S-Rod. He throws away way too many AB and just doesn’t get on base at all. Pennington’s .313 doesn’t set the world on fire but S-Rod the last two years: 15 walks and 129 K. This is in around 450 AB. I just don’t get having that type of player around.
Pennington seems like a semi-typical NH move. Hurdle gets a more veteran bench guy, he plays multiple spots and is a defense first.
He also had a really bad offensive year, so that may help drive down the price.
He was hurt to start. He was starting to find his swing late in the year and even showed a little pop. He’s a sound player. How about injured wreck Brandon Morrow being brough in as a Searage project? 3.91 career FIP. Electric stuff when right. One of the cheapest decent options out there.
How long would it take to build him as a starter? The last 3 years he has about as many innings as Tailon.
Early in a season it wouldn’t really matter much. ST and the first 2 weeks is plenty of time to get him ready if he is right.
Plus, he can pair with Harrison for bullpen help!
Harrison seems to have much better commend of the zone.
Can this officially be called a Travis-ty?
Damn it, I came to post the same horrible pun! *shakes fist*
Only to Smizik.
I like Bob, but he DID go on about how trading Travis lost the division.
Sometimes the needle gets stuck in our brains….. 🙂
Every blog you go to anymore:
What about player A? Oh, your crazy! Too much money! Too much prospects! No! No! No! Thats not how the Pirates do business. Gayo is God!!! Value!!! Searage!!!
Ok, what about player B? Oh, he stinks! You dont know anything about baseball !!! His ERAWAR+RC was E=MC2!!!! Dont you know anything!!!
jesus….
So they are officially in the market for a LH bat off the bench? Play a little OF and 1B?
Garrett Jones?
GI JOE H— NO!!!!
He stinks. Everybody else is too expensive or sucks though. So I have no clue.
A $4 MM answer…Logan Morrison.
Much better idea than Jones. But more expensive to pry loose.
Morton, cash and a prospect? Maybe a pitcher coming back to us if our prospect is decent enough?
Logan Morrison will most likely non-tendered by the Mariners, so my guess is that he’d be free (beside what it takes to sign him). This is not an endorsement of Logan Morrison. NH will keep Pedro before he relies on Morrison.
Really? 4 errors in 140 games with 17 Hrs? I think he stays in Seattle but NH would take him all day and twice on Sunday over Pedro, given the chance.
Not even close.
Idk, thats a pretty close situation. Neither was all that valuable overall. Morrison better on defense but not really where Pedro was at on offense.
I think he gets DFA’d, but idk if Morrison is the guy NH goes “We gotta get him and that’ll solve the Pedro issue”. NH is likely gonna want something more of a clear improvement.
Wilhelmson was who I have had in mind, for setup. But they have more than 1 if we could balance it out.
I can see them as a viable partner with a new FO. I have to look at what they got again.
Lambo seems like a better option than Jones. Which isnt a deep endorsement from me on Lambo, but a realization that Jones has not been all that good for 2-3 years. Jones’s bat regressed and age wont help his defensive not greatness at 1B.
Lambo seems like a pretty easy guy to keep. No one is thinking about him helping them right now.
He needs to make the 25-man roster I believe. Which is why they might release him. Plus, I haven’t heard if he has yet recovered from his injury
My guess is that Lambo will be removed off the disabled list and then released to add some younger players. Lambo would only return as a minor league free agent and invited to spring training.
I dont get that logic. He’s slipping into release territory, but they have no reason to release him. We dont have a ton of depth at 1B and he’s not so old that he’s beyond useable.
The younger guys that would take his spot in our system would not be clearly better options.
Your against spending money and trades so I’m not sure what your thinking.
First of all, thats a rather wild accusation off of i assume me arguing against ideas about trading for big name guys just to do it (otherwise, it makes no sense). I’ve argued for the logic of trading Melancon, etc. So no, im not against spending money or trading and thats pretty bad logic used to get there.
Im thinking that if the idea is we need a LH bat, and we bring up Jones, its fair to point out that Jones is bad and Lambo is likely a better option. We could spend money on Jones to fill that role, but it’d waste money on a bad player. Lambo isnt great (as i insinuated) but he’s a good bet to be better than Garret Jones. Im thinking if we wanna fill the role, do it as best we can.
no! 🙂