One thing that everyone, myself included, is guilty of during the off-season is considering moves in a vacuum. Kevin Correia may be an underwhelming signing or Kenshin Kawakami (who the Pirates are still interested in) may seem like a boring, low-upside trade target, but if their presence on the roster allows the Pirates to make a good deal for Paul Maholm, that’s better for the club in the long-term as well as the short term. If Neal Huntington feels more comfortable with the thought of using Matt Diaz as an everyday player in the event that John Bowker can’t replicate his Triple-A success against righties than he did with Lastings Milledge and that makes him more likely to deal Ryan Doumit, that could be beneficial for the Pirates, too.
I’m not saying that’s how things will end up playing out, just that the whole offseason is a long process and viewing moves individually rather than as a whole can be a flawed way to look at things. The winter meetings are just three days of a long offseason and the Pirates haven’t done anything that I think can be described as radically stupid or egregiously harmful. and I think there’s something to be said for letting things play out in total before making any real judgments here.
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