In August 2016, Freese signed a two-year, $11 million extension to stay in Pittsburgh. He spoke his mind, filled in capably at third base and also platooned at first base once it was clear Jason Rogers and Michael Morse were non-factors. He came cheap and brought a veteran presence to the clubhouse.
#Pirates transactions series
Freese was in the back half of a career in which he had won a World Series ring and been NLCS and World Series MVP. Jung Ho Kang was expected to miss at least the first month of the season as he rehabbed from a serious knee injury. The Pirates signing Freese - one year, $3 million - during spring training was a surprise.
#Pirates transactions free
(It went poorly.) March 11, 2016: Free agent David Freese signs one-year deal And without Burnett, Happ and Morton, the Pirates pinned their rotation hopes on Vogelsong, Nicasio and prospects in 2016. They were unable to unlock the hard-throwing, top-of-the-rotation starter who has come to life in Houston and Tampa.
Still, the Pirates’ mistake was not realizing what they had in Morton. He also missed almost the entire 2016 season with a hamstring injury. Morton was somewhat expensive and mostly ineffective, so the trade made sense at the time. 12, 2015: Morton dealt to Phillies for David Whitehead
Niese was later kicked back to the Mets for reliever Antonio Bastardo at the trade deadline. Meanwhile, Niese, for the same price, posted a 4.91 ERA for the Pirates and couldn’t hold down a rotation spot. 823 OPS and 23 homers for the Mets in 2016. Walker had averaged 2.7 WAR per season with the Pirates, and he had 2.2 WAR, an. This was neither a popular move nor a smart one. Huntington called it “a good baseball trade.” The salaries were similar, but Niese had two club options left. So, Huntington pulled the trigger on a trade that sent Walker to the Mets for Niese. The Pirates and the Pittsburgh kid, entering his last year of arbitration, were not close to a contract extension. Alvarez hit 22 home runs as Baltimore’s part-time DH in 2016 but would not have saved the Pirates. Josh Bell was on track to take over at first base by 2017. Homers are sexy, but Huntington saved money and found equal value by platooning John Jaso, David Freese and Sean Rodriguez at first base the following season. You may recall Alvarez, a defensive liability, wasn’t even in the starting lineup in the 2015 wild-card game. Unable to find a trade partner, Huntington cut ties with Alvarez - whose 111 home runs from 2012 to 2015 were second to Giancarlo Stanton’s 125 among NL hitters - rather than pay the projected $8 million Alvarez would have earned in arbitration. But, in the end, the mistakes outweighed the rest. Hindsight being what it is, it’s tempting to cherry-pick transactions and unspool cause and effect, but the truth is that a number of moves graded as inconsequential or mixed. Let’s rewind to the 2015-16 offseason, before the Pirates fell apart, and analyze 17 major moves since then and their long-term impact. Consider this list of every Pirates player who had an above-replacement-level season in 2015 and played again for the Pirates in 2016. In 2016, with all five still on the roster, they had only one 3-WAR player ( Starling Marte). In 2015, the Pirates had five 3-WAR players. And then there’s this dirty word: regression. The prospects weren’t ready for prime time. The patchwork rotation - including Ryan Vogelsong, Jon Niese and Juan Nicasio at times - was weak. The Pirates plummeted from 98 wins to 78 wins in one year.
To this day, the 2015-16 offseason is a flash point for Pirates fans. And that approach - trying to build a perennial playoff team while operating with a small payroll - went up in flames. This was the Pirates’ plan for perpetual contention. The Pirates had a sizable core growing more expensive by the year, and the front office would choose to supplement it with discount free agents and an incoming wave of prospects.
Happ, Pedro Alvarez, Charlie Morton, Joakim Soria, Joe Blanton and Aramis Ramirez. Walker wouldn’t play another game for the Pirates, and neither would a handful of other veterans around the room: A.J. “I’d be lying if I told you no,” Walker answered quietly.
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