Pittsburgh Pirates Wake-Up Call – What path should Pirates follow?

In our daily Wake-Up Call, we get you ready for the day with a complete look at all things Pittsburgh Pirates.

ESPN had an interesting article recently about how the Giants and the Royals should go for it all next season. This makes sense for the Giants because they’re a big market team and are competitive almost every year. The Royals are a playoff contender, but they’re a mid-market team at best, and breaking the bank and farm system could backfire.

This got me to wondering: should the Pirates go for it in 2017? Or should they decide one year just to go for it all, like the A’s did in 2014? Or would they be better off trading away Andrew McCutchen, Tony Watson, and other expiring contracts and veteran players to try to rebuild their farm system?

I think there can be some sort of middle road here. I’m all for shopping Watson, as the Pirates have shown the ability to be able to create a good bullpen with little-known players and by not spending a lot in that area. I’m personally for keeping McCutchen, as I think the Pirates may sacrifice next season by trading him. It may help them in the long run, but I think the team can compete next season.

I also think the Pirates rely on their farm system too much to ever attempt to “go for it” by trading prospects for players on short-term deals that could help them win now. And rebuilding could help the farm system, but it’s not necessary for a team that still has the talent to win now.

In other news, we’ve covered the loss of Sean Rodriguez and replacing him extensively over the past few days here at Pirates Breakdown, but I’m interested to know if this lights a fire in the front office of the Pirates in terms of their off-season plans. Do they start to target free agents more aggressively, or will they wait until after the Winter Meetings to do that? I think it might be smart to try to sign a bullpen arm or bench piece sooner rather than later, before the prices for free agents start to climb.

Baseball Talk Around the Web

• Buster Olney of ESPN has a very cool article about a lot of random, yet useful stats from the 2016 season. Did any Pirates make their way onto this list?
• Matt Snyder of CBS Sports thinks that next year’s free agent class will be even better than this year’s. Are any big name Pirates free agents next year, or are there any 2017 free agents that could interest the Pirates?

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