The Pirates announced this afternoon that they signed Corey Hart to a one year/$2.5 million deal and DFA’d Preston Guilmet, who I can tell you with 70% certainty was a guy that they claimed from, I think, the Orioles at some point since the season ended.
I suppose the assumption here is that he’ll be the right-handed platoon partner with Pedro Alvarez at first base, but he’d have to be healthy in order to do that. Hart missed all of 2013 with microfracture surgery on his right knee, then missed a bunch of time last year with a hamstring problem in addition to more knee issues later in the year (it’s not clear to me how related last year’s knee problems were to his previous ones, though that article kind of implies they were at least slightly). The plate appearances Hart did get were not good: he hit .203/.271/.319 with the Mariners last year.
Of course, before all the health issues, Hart was a productive member of the Brewers’ outfield. He hit .277/.335/.495 between 2007 and 2012 in Milwaukee. His career numbers against lefties are quite good, and in his best years he was good enough to be an every day player (his does have a career platoon split, but it’s not huge). I suppose that makes this a worthy gamble: Hart might not be healthy enough to make a big impact, but then if he is healthy he might be able to pick up the slack at first base in the not-at-all-unlikely-event that Pedro Alvarez struggles. While Gaby Sanchez (who signed in Japan today) might have been a safer bet to hit decently against righties, he’s also very obviously not an every day player. Hart at least has been one in the past, though I have no idea if there’s any chance he could be one now, should the Pirates need him to be.
Hart’s recent injury history obviously makes this move a gamble and I suppose you could argue that he’s not worth more than an NRI, but the Pirates don’t lose much by dropping Guilmet off the 40-man roster and the $2.5 million price tag is obviously a pretty low one, so I suppose this is a gamble worth taking for the Pirates.
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