My baseball “career” was pretty limited. I played in little league, and played briefly when I reached middle school, until the point where two things happened — I started losing interest in the game of baseball briefly due to the strike, and started playing tennis tournaments year round, resulting in dropping every other sport.
There was one moment I remember from my “playing days”. It came on the first game of the season, and I was playing first base. With a runner on first, a line drive was hit right over my head. I reactively threw my glove up, caught the ball, then jogged to first base to double off the runner. I was probably in third grade at the time, and I’m not sure if that play was advanced for the level. I followed it up with a big double in the bottom half of the inning.
Aside from my time focusing on the business side of the game — tracking trades and player movement — that’s pretty much my lone memory of my baseball career. A first baseman who made a great double play and followed up with a big hit, then gave up the sport to play tennis through high school and into college.
With the way the current winter meetings are going, now that this story is out there I’d expect a call from the Pirates at some point tomorrow, expressing interest in signing me to play first base for them next year.
Or at least that’s how it seems.
The Pirates have been connected to a lot of first base options so far, mostly in the “expressing interest” category. There was the rumor about Mitch Moreland as a trade candidate on Monday. Today there were rumors about Mark Reynolds and Mike Napoli. There was also speculation that they could go after Korean first baseman Dae Ho Lee. It seems like if you’ve ever played first base, and if you’re available this off-season, the Pirates will be taking a look.
None of the options seem that good, although this is probably by design. They’ve got Josh Bell ready to come up at some point during the 2016 season, at which point he will take over as the starter of the future. They’ve got Michael Morse as an internal option for now. So they need someone who could start for half a year, or pair with Morse for half a year, without blocking Bell in future seasons.
The best option right now looks to be Moreland, with strong defense at first and a gamble that he might be able to repeat his offensive success from last season. If the latter happened, he’d be a huge upgrade over Pedro Alvarez. But even without the offensive boost, he should be at least equal to Alvarez in value thanks to the defense. The downside is that there are indications the Rangers might be asking a lot for him, with their interest in Elias Diaz being well-publicized.
As far as a trade value, and considering the alternatives, Diaz might not be far off in value. However, in terms of what makes sense for the Pirates, Diaz has a lot more value. He’s slated to be the starter behind the plate after the 2016 season, and is the top depth option out of Triple-A in 2016. Francisco Cervelli stayed healthy in 2015, but hasn’t had the same track record in the past, making Diaz a guy who could very likely arrive at some point in 2016. And the upgrade there would be improving the first base position for half a season. The upgrade to Moreland from guys like Reynolds, Napoli, Lee, or anyone else not mentioned wouldn’t justify trading Diaz.
From the early signs of things, I would expect the Pirates to add some first base help. We’ll have to see how that plays out the rest of the meetings, and maybe even beyond the meetings. Diaz certainly isn’t untouchable, especially if the Pirates extend Cervelli (while gambling on his continued good health). But if the Pirates were to use him in a trade, it wouldn’t make sense to use him for a short-term rental who is only needed for half a season.
**Other than Monday’s minor league signings, there haven’t been any moves by the Pirates. I wouldn’t be concerned about that. For one, they’re projected for a very active off-season, and haven’t been afraid in the past to carry their moves into January. A bigger thing is that the market is just starting to pick up, with the first big offensive signings and trades taking place Tuesday evening. We’ll see tomorrow the ripple effect that those moves have on the rest of the market. For now, here are the Tuesday rumors:
**Pirates Have Shown Interest in Mike Napoli
