Just a week out from Opening Day, the Pittsburgh Pirates still have a lot of questions surrounding who will receive the last two bench spots on the Opening Day roster.
With the announcement, yesterday, that Jung Ho Kang may not be available to the Pittsburgh Pirates for the entirety of the 2017 season, the club has a big decision to make regarding the final bench positions, and the candidates have not made it easy for management to decide.
This offseason, the MLB player’s association and the league had a tentative agreement to expand the everyday roster to 26 players fall through at the 11th hour. Even if rosters had been expanded, the Pirates would have four players who deserve a spot on this roster with three available spots. Instead, half will end up in Indianapolis or with another team by April 3. We review each of the leading candidates below.
Phil Gosselin
The Case for a Roster Spot:
Over four partial MLB seasons, Phil Gosselin has been relatively consistent at the plate. His career 19.7% strikeout rate is just a fraction above average, but his real value is found out in the field. Gosselin has played six positions, including all four infield positions and both corner outfield spots, at the major league level. Gosselin has had a rather impressive output during spring training, batting .353 with a home run and 12 RBIs, which is just two shy of his career high for spring set last year. In 767 innings, Gosselin has committed just six total errors, most of which came at third base.
[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]2017 Spring Training Stats:At-bats: 51
AVG: .353
RBI: 12
BB: 0[/perfectpullquote]
The Case against a Roster Spot:
The Pirates already have a surprisingly superb utility player in Adam Frazier, making Gosselin an unnecessary luxury. Gosselin has hit a total of six home runs for his career and has a 3:1 strikeout to walk ratio. In 2014 and 2016 for Atlanta and Arizona respectively, Gosselin had a pair of solid performances in spring training, but it didn’t translate to the regular season, where he was simply average at the plate. Average is fine for a utility player, but it helps if said player can show patience to be a table setter with a high on-base percentage. Gosselin has yet to develop patience at the plate, and the zero walks he has this spring have done little to ease concern he can be an asset somewhere other than wherever he is needed that day.
The Breakdown:
Phil Gosselin provides little unique value to the PIttsburgh Pirates. His utility is his sole value among all of his other dime-a-dozen qualities. If he makes the roster, it will be because the Pirates don’t trust Adam Frazier to repeat his success in the second half of 2016. With two minor league option years remaining, Gosselin seems most likely to be bound for Indianapolis, unless something drastic happens in the next week.
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