Ken Rosenthal has an interesting update about the Pirates and their willingness to deal Josh Harrison. Rosenthal cites sources saying the Pirates tried to re-sign Sean Rodriguez, with the plan of trading Harrison and reallocating his dollars to other players.
Harrison is guaranteed $18.5 M over the next two years, with part of that being his option buyout in 2019. Rodriguez just agreed to a two-year, $11.5 M deal with Atlanta. That swap would have saved the Pirates $7 M over two years if they could have pulled it off.
Rosenthal notes that the Pirates are still open to dealing Harrison, although other clubs prefer Brian Dozier and Ian Kinsler. The current replacements for Harrison would be Adam Frazier and Alen Hanson. Frazier isn’t good defensively, although he should provide an upgrade offensively over Harrison. Meanwhile, Hanson could be good defensively, but hasn’t really had a shot in the majors, so it’s hard to say what he could do in the big leagues, without even considering what he could do as a starter.
The Pirates could also use those two as a stop-gap until Kevin Newman is ready for the majors, and then have Jordy Mercer move over to second base when Newman is ready, which could be as soon as the middle of the 2017 season.
At the start of the off-season, I noted that Harrison gives the Pirates exactly what they need, excelling on defense and with his base running. Rosenthal pointed this out, noting that he ranked fifth last year among second basemen in defensive runs saved. The Pirates don’t have to trade Harrison from a production standpoint. But it seems they’re looking for ways to save money, and by that standard, it makes sense that they’re shopping him and looking for cheaper replacements. I just don’t think they should go cheap if it means sacrificing defense at the position.
