The Pittsburgh Pirates have announced that second baseman Josh Harrison will miss 4-6 weeks with a right groin strain. Harrison suffered the injury while running the bases on a double on Saturday night.
Obviously this puts him out for the remainder of the season, unless you think the Pirates are somehow making the playoffs, and making a nice run in the playoffs.
This would be a great time for the Pirates to give additional playing time to Adam Frazier and Alen Hanson. Frazier is getting the start tonight in left field for the injured Starling Marte, but Sean Rodriguez is starting at second base. Clint Hurdle said on Sunday that he’s still playing for this year, and isn’t ready to start thinking ahead to preparing for the 2017 season. That’s a clear mistake.
Aside from the fact that the Pirates are three games under .500 right now, they’re also six games back from the second spot in the NL Wild Card, with three teams to pass to get in the race. The season is clearly over. They would need a massive week, combined with poor performances from three other teams, just to even climb back in the race.
This would be a great time to get Alen Hanson some MLB playing time to get him prepared for the 2017 season. He’s out of options, and either needs to be on the bench next year in the majors, or the Pirates risk losing him through waivers. They could try to trade him over the off-season if he’s not in the plans, but why not use the next three weeks to see if he actually could be in the plans? He has six plate appearances so far, and two of those came earlier in the season. He has yet to start a game.
Hanson is also a guy who has started slow at each level he’s played in. By getting him time now, when the games aren’t important, you can potentially avoid a slow start next year.
Starting Sean Rodriguez in place of Harrison is a good move if you want to contend in 2016. But the Pirates shouldn’t be trying to contend in 2016. They should be getting ready for the 2017 season, and the best way to do that would be to give Hanson some playing time to get him adjusted to the majors.
UPDATE 4:31 PM: I don’t feel like creating a new post for this expected news, but Gerrit Cole was officially activated from the disabled list for his start tonight in Philadelphia.
