On the morning of the trade deadline, when it was reported that the Pirates had recalled Jeff Clement from Triple-A without any context, a whisper hatched in my head: “The Pirates should trade Garrett Jones.” It seemed possible that they might trade Jones for some time, but I hadn’t given it much thought. When it suddenly became a real possibility, I started considering it and it made some sense to me. But they didn’t trade Jones and I forgot about it again until they did trade for John Bowker later in the day. That prompted my post about the ridiculous overcrowding on the right side of the field, plus Tim’s excellent take on the huge roster crunch the club faces coming in 2011. And now that I’ve put a lot of thought into it I’m even more certain: the Pirates should have traded Garrett Jones on Saturday.
I actually floated the idea out there the other day on Twitter and both Cory of Titletahn and Nate of Stealing First Base disagreed with me, pointing out that because Jones is struggling right now he might not be worth a lot and if he goes on a tear to end the season he could potentially be worth more in the off-season or at next year’s trade deadline. They both have a point; Jones isn’t exactly at a high-water value for the Pirates right now thanks to his recent slump and there’s a chance that the team would be selling him at something of a low-water mark.
There is a flip-side to that reservation, though. Jones has obviously struggled a bit this year and of late, but anyone that is trading for him would be trading for the possibility that he’s going to bounce back a bit as the summer ends and provide them with some pop from the left side for a playoff run. If he finishes out the year without getting hot (a distinct possibility), teams are going to assume he’s a .770-.800 OPS first baseman who probably needs platooned against lefties. That player’s not worth much at all in a trade, and keeping him creates a situation where someone like Bowker or Pearce or Moss will be DFA in the spring with no return whatsoever while the Pirates keep playing Jones, even though he’s probably not a long-term answer at any position for the Pirates.
I hope I’m wrong about this, of course. I hope that Jones starts mashing and either earns a regular spot in the lineup or makes himself valuable for a trade in the near future. His perseverance is a great, inspirational story and he seems like a legitimately good guy that’s a lot of fun to root for. But the Pirates have a lot of hard decisions to make in the coming months and keeping Jones on the roster may complicate things even further.
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