Eduardo Escobar
Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2018 8:21 pm
4959586F7979751A0 wrote: His numbers for this year look good, but most of the rest of his career offensive numbers have been pretty mediocre. Less than 5 WAR in 5+ years before this season.
I like the idea of adding to the offense, but Escobar may not be the best target. Also, I an not that sold on Moustakas.
After taking a gander at pending FAs at 3B, the options suck absent the ones that are above out pay grade (Donaldson, Beltre, Escobar). Unless Mark Reynolds is the answer, you take Moustakas and run. I'm not convinced Milwaukee will let him walk based on the options here. I'm sold on Moustakas because he is better than Moran. Kang won't do anything.
Something to consider concerning the Pirates ability to spend in free agency this off season is their possible payroll status. Right now the Pirates total payroll stands at approximately $99.5M. They have $16.7M in retained salary that will be coming off the books at the end of the season for players like SRod, McCutchen, Freese, Hechavarria, Hudson, etc. If they let Harrison and Mercer walk that will take another $17M off of the books. If they trade Nova for a package of prospects payroll is reduced by another $9.1M. So theoretically the Pirates could be looking at a base payroll going into free agency of about $57M. Adding $35M in free agents would still only raise payroll to $92M which would place the Pirates comfortably in the bottom 20% of teams for MLB payroll. Other than maybe Bryce Harper there wouldn't be any free agent above the Pirates affordable pay grade.
Source: https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/payroll/
I like the idea of adding to the offense, but Escobar may not be the best target. Also, I an not that sold on Moustakas.
After taking a gander at pending FAs at 3B, the options suck absent the ones that are above out pay grade (Donaldson, Beltre, Escobar). Unless Mark Reynolds is the answer, you take Moustakas and run. I'm not convinced Milwaukee will let him walk based on the options here. I'm sold on Moustakas because he is better than Moran. Kang won't do anything.
Something to consider concerning the Pirates ability to spend in free agency this off season is their possible payroll status. Right now the Pirates total payroll stands at approximately $99.5M. They have $16.7M in retained salary that will be coming off the books at the end of the season for players like SRod, McCutchen, Freese, Hechavarria, Hudson, etc. If they let Harrison and Mercer walk that will take another $17M off of the books. If they trade Nova for a package of prospects payroll is reduced by another $9.1M. So theoretically the Pirates could be looking at a base payroll going into free agency of about $57M. Adding $35M in free agents would still only raise payroll to $92M which would place the Pirates comfortably in the bottom 20% of teams for MLB payroll. Other than maybe Bryce Harper there wouldn't be any free agent above the Pirates affordable pay grade.
Source: https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/payroll/