Evaluating the Buccos' Trades

Major League Baseball’s trade deadline came and went on Saturday and there were a number of deals made as the contenders tried to beef up their rosters for the stretch run. In Pittsburgh, the end of July usually marks the purge of the Pirates’ roster, as the team is usually out of contention and looks to move its veteran assets for younger talent. This year was no different, though not to the extreme it has been the past couple of years, but the Pirates made three deadline deals all with the future in mind.

Neal Huntington and his staff, all-in-all, did a pretty nice job this deadline, moving veteran relief pitchers for some pieces that could potentially help the Pirates down the line. The one deadline deal, however, that is quite possibly the biggest black mark on Huntington’s resume to date did not involve the Pirates at all. We will get to that in a second, but first, let’s take a look at the three trades the Pirates were involved with.

· The Pirates traded veteran reliever D.J. Carrasco and veterans Bobby Crosby and Ryan Church to Arizona for catcher Chris Snyder and minor league shortstop Pedro Ciriaco, as well as $3 million in cash to help offset Snyder’s total of $8.2 million due through the end of 2011. In short, I love this move by the Pirates. Between the $1.2 million remaining in cost on the three players moved, the Pirates essentially picked up a solid major league catcher for the 2011 season for approximately $4 million and received a throw-in shortstop prospect to boot.

There is really nothing to be said of the three departed players. Church and Crosby were busts as free agent acquisitions and offered no value to the Pirates this year or in the future and Carrasco, while being quite effective this year out of the bullpen, is easily replaceable. In return, the Pirates picked up a potential starting catcher in Chris Snyder who is much better than his .231 average would indicate. For proof, Snyder’s three year average .OPS of .770 would rank 6th among National League catchers this year and he is known as a solid defensive catcher, something Pirates’ fans have not seen in some time. Snyder will also give the Pirates some flexibility in moving Ryan Doumit to either right field or first base, or even the option of moving him in another trade this offseason.

Ciriaco is known as a good defensive shortstop prospect with not much of a stick, as his career .659 OPS in the minors would indicate. Even still, with the Pirates glaring hole at the shortstop position throughout the organization, taking flyers on guys like this is a smart approach.

· The Pirates then sent closer Octavio Dotel to the Los Angeles Dodgers for pitcher James McDonald and minor league outfielder Andrew Lambo. Those around Pittsburgh were calling this a salary dump, while those nationally were calling this a nice trade by the Pirates. I fall in the second camp on this one, as a veteran closer makes no sense on a young team that is going to be lucky to win 60 games. McDonald is a 25-year-old pitcher with nice raw stuff and the ability to start while Lambo was once thought of as a high-end prospect until a drug suspension earlier this season derailed his progress some. Both are great examples of buy-low candidates who could become a significant part of the Pirates future. For more, check out Keith Law’s take on this trade here: Dodgers give up too much for Dotel.

· The third and final trade made by the Pirates was giving up another veteran reliever in Javier Lopez to the San Francisco Giants for a pair of 27-year-olds, pitcher Joe Martinez and outfielder John Bowker. Lopez, while very effective as a left-handed arm out of the bullpen, is once again an unneeded commodity on a young, losing team. I like that the Pirates sold him at peak value for a couple of players, while not being top prospects, could potentially help them somewhere in the future. Martinez and Bowker have both shown some success in the minors and, who knows, maybe one or even both could become late bloomers in the big leagues.

As I said before, all-in-all, I like the three moves that the Pirates made at the deadline. I was not the only one who approved either, as Dan Szymborski of the Baseball Think Factory, gave the Pirates an A minus on all three of their deals. You can read more of Szymborski’s thoughts here: Grading the deadline deals.

There was one trade, however, that may have been off the radar of Pirates’ fans that certainly got my attention. The Washington Nationals traded closer Matt Capps to the Minnesota Twins for top catching prospect Wilson Ramos and left-hander Joe Testa. Despite having a bit of a down year, Ramos is still one of the top catching prospects in all of baseball. Prior to this season, Ramos was a consensus top 100 prospect throughout baseball. Capps, as everyone will recall, was not tendered by the Pirates for arbitration, and indications were that the sides were only roughly $500 thousand apart. Huntington’s hard-line stance has now cost the Pirates a chance to acquire a top prospect such as Ramos.

This criticism should not come as a surprise to any of my readers as I went on numerous times in the preseason on why this was a terrible move on Huntington’s part. For all of the criticism Huntington has received, most of it undeserving at this point, this line of events should be getting more attention. There was no excuse at the time to let Capps walk, and the Nationals ability to spin Capps into such a valuable commodity only heightens the poor decision. So while I believe the actual moves made by the Pirates were a positive, I cannot help but think of the Capps’ events as the defining moment of this trade deadline.

Just like the past 17, soon to be 18 seasons, the Pirates have come out a loser.