Yesterday, the Pittsburgh Pirates traded pitching prospect Zack Thornton and a player to be named later to the New York Mets in exchange for first baseman Ike Davis.
The Pirates’ current starting first basemen are Travis Ishikawa and Gaby Sanchez. Ishikawa starts once or twice every few days when the Pirates are facing a right-handed starting pitcher, but every time the Pirates face a left-handed pitcher Gaby Sanchez starts. Sanchez hits lefties very well but struggles against righties, so during the offseason the Pirates tried to sign someone to start against righties, but they ended up having to settle for Travis Ishikawa. Ishikawa is not very good; he’s pretty much your average Triple-A starting first baseman. So the Pirates continued their search during the season, and eventually acquired the left-handed first baseman that they were looking for – Ike Davis.
Ike Davis is a 27-year old first baseman with a lot of power and potential. In 2012, Davis’ second full season in the MLB, he hit .227/.308/.462 with 32 home runs and 90 runs batted in. He may not get on base a lot, but as his numbers proved, he’s certainly capable of being a run producer. But in 2013, Davis seemingly lost all confidence and only hit nine home runs, and he struck out 26.8% of the time. Fans in New York gave him a hard time when he was struggling, and that didn’t help. So, I think a change of scenery is what he needed. Well, he got it, as he’s now a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Pirates will platoon Davis with Gaby Sanchez, and I think that that will work well. Sanchez is an established big leaguer who has proved his ability to crush left-handed pitchers and Davis is someone who has power potential, and I think that being in Pittsburgh will help him a lot. But if it doesn’t, and he continues to play poorly like he did in his last couple of years in New York, no harm will be done. The Pirates can just send Davis down to Triple-A or put him on the bench, and use Ishikawa again, if they want. This is an extremely low risk, high reward move by the Pirates.
The Pirates gave up pitching prospect Zach Thornton and a PTBNL in this deal. Thornton was not even one of their top 20 prospects and even if he was, they didn’t have any room for him in the MLB. Their starting rotation and bullpen are already filled with young players who will likely be their for a long time. I’m not saying Thornton is nothing, but it seems like the Pirates got something for nothing in this deal. Basically, what I’m saying is, even if Davis plays poorly, the Pirates will only be very slightly negatively affected, but that’s how it is with every trade.
This was another great move by the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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