Pittsburgh Pirates weighing options as Winter Meetings near – MLB News
The Pittsburgh Pirates are weighing their options as the Winter Meetings approach. Scheduled from upcoming Monday to Thursday, the Winter Meetings will see the completion of offseason trades and transactions.
However, indications are that the Pirates will not go for expensive buying. Their focus is on ‘low-buy’ if and only they decide to add few more players to the roster. Neal Huntington, the team’s general manager, thinks looking into alternatives is a better choice at this moment.
"We take a look at what the alternatives are," Huntington said. "Can we get better by going cheaper? Is the player value proportionate with what we can expect in arbitration?"
For now, the Pirates need a catcher and probably a pitcher for the rotation. There is no doubt that their roster already includes some of the capable players; resultantly helping them not to have their attention divided.
Allocation of resources, nonetheless, will be a crucial factor in determining and allocating the resources as Huntington puts it. "We have some decisions to make about how we allocate our resources and what our options are," Huntington said.
That which the Pirates are cognizant and careful about is the aspect of rotation. There are currently three pitchers who are in arbitration group. From Jeff Karstens to Charlie Morton and James McDonald.
Charlie Morton is yet to fully recover from Tommy John surgery for elbow construction. While McDonald had an excellent season, Jeff Karstens did not probably have the consistency expected of him.
In short, this area has to be duly addressed as the Pirates make the next move. Since they are among the veterans, losing them will complicate problems for the Pirates. Thus caution is being exhibited here.
He had once spoken about the limited options that the team had. “We’re very aware of what our weakness has been so far this season. However, our options are limited when it comes to helping the lineup. There isn’t a whole lot we can do.”
However, with the Winter Meeting around the corner, there is a lot that is on the offing for the Pirates now.
Tags: