Pittsburgh Pirates Rumor Mill – Jaso, Mercer, & more

Welcome to the weekly Pittsburgh Pirates Rumor Mill, where we update you on all of the latest Pirates trades, signings, rumors, injury news, promotions, demotions, and the like from the past week.

As we watch the Cleveland Indians take on the Chicago Cubs in the World Series, it is intriguing that we have two true small market teams competing for the championship in back-to-back seasons (Indians this year, Royals last year). We can only hope that the Pirates look at those two teams and how they’ve been able to compete at the highest level with a payroll level similar to the themselves.

However, both have still spent more than the Pirates. The Indians spent $114 million this season to the Pirates $105 million, while the Royals spent $132 million to the Pirates $105 million in 2015. It’s obviously tougher to compete with a lower payroll, but the Royals and Indians have managed to get to the World Series, while the Pirates haven’t.

Part of what the Pirates have to do is maximize value. That means using players in every role they can. They’re trying to do that this off-season with John Jaso, as he’ll be working out at multiple positions this winter, including in the outfield and at third base. The question is whether they’re doing this because they want to keep Jaso, or because they want to increase his appeal to other teams. We’ll discuss that in a bit.

An outside the box idea I had and one that we’ve talked about here at Pirates Breakdown before is shopping Jordy Mercer. The Pirates need a starter this off-season, and with the free agent market both low in quality and likely expensive, trading for a pitcher might be the Pirates best option. Their farm system isn’t as great as it’s been in past years with the graduation of many prospects to the majors last season, so including a major league player or two in a deal wouldn’t be a bad idea.

Mercer could be attractive to other teams as he’s above average both defensively and offensively for his position, and the Pirates wouldn’t suffer much by losing him. We’ll discuss this more later as well.

First, let’s get to the injury updates.

Injury Updates

There are no meaningful updates on any of the Pirates’ players that ended the season on the disabled list.

Minor Moves

The Pirates made no signings or trades over the past week.

John Jaso’s future with team

So we know that the Pirates want John Jaso to work out at third base and the corner outfield positions this winter and next spring. But is it because the team wants to keep Jaso and values his contributions to the team, or because they want to increase his value to other teams? I’d wager the Pirates want to keep Jaso next season and want to increase his versatility. Last year, Jaso was brought in to be the starting first baseman until Josh Bell was ready. Once Bell took over and Jung Ho Kang was healthy, Jaso was a man without a role. He had 354 at-bats as a first baseman and just one at any other position (right field).

Next season, Bell will be the starter at first, Kang will start at third, and the outfield is clearly taken. Jaso will be relegated to the bench, occasionally spelling Bell at first. If the Pirates lose Sean Rodriguez to free agency, Jaso could get more time in the outfield as well. But David Freese is the first option off the bench to get a spot start at first or third. In an ideal world, the Pirates would trade Jaso, but I don’t think they’ll do that.

Jordy Mercer – trade chip?

We’ve talked about this in the past, but would Jordy Mercer make a good trade chip? It’s highly unlikely they trade him, just because the Pirates don’t trade players on cheap contracts often at all. But if they pursue a starter, Mercer may be one of the more valuable players to other teams, and one they can replace.

Teams always need good shortstops. The Pirates could move Kang to short, start Freese at third, and use Jaso, Adam Frazier, and Alen Hanson off the bench, and not a miss a beat. The bench may suffer, but offensively they’d be better with Kang and Freese in the lineup instead of Kang and Mercer. And Kang isn’t much worse than Mercer defensively. In fact, Kang has always been pretty darn good defensively, despite what some may think.

The Pirates don’t have many high-end prospects left in their farm system to offer for a quality starter. This may force the Pirates to move some major leaguers, even if they don’t want to. Why not move Mercer?

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