Pittsburgh Pirates Rumor Mill – Sean Rod & the Off-Season Bench Plans

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.

In our last Pittsburgh Pirates Rumor Mill, we started to look ahead to the off-season as the Pirates slowly slipped out of contention. However, the Pirates were able to make it interesting over the past week. Therefore, we here at the Rumor Mill will continue to keep an eye on both the goings-on with the current team as well as what might happen in the upcoming off-season.

Right now, the hot topic of discussion is how great of a season Sean Rodriguez has had, and whether the Pirates can afford to bring him back. He is having a career year offensively, setting career-highs in both home runs and RBIs, and I’m sure the Pirates would love to have him back. However, this may be the perfect opportunity for Rodriguez to cash in. We’ll see if he and the team can find a middle ground this off-season, or if he leaves for more money elsewhere.

We’ll talk Rodriguez, as well as what holes the Pirates have to fill on their bench this off-season. But first, here’s the latest on the Pirates’ current injured players.

Injury Updates

The Pirates haven’t had any injury news since last week. Starling Marte continues to battle back issues, and we likely won’t know how serious this is until the season ends.

Starling Marte leaving the game here in the third after a fouling off a ball … Marte appears to have another issue with his back

— Travis Sawchik (@Travis_Sawchik) September 23, 2016

Gerrit Cole, Josh Harrison, and Chris Stewart are all done for the season, so this makes competing in the playoffs if the Pirates even managed to get there an even taller order.

Minor Moves

The Pirates made no moves over the past week of much significance.

Sean Rod Contract Guesses

We mentioned before that Sean Rodriguez is having a career year offensively. He’s also a free agent at the end of the year, and he’s coming off making just $2.5 million this season. He’s set to get a serious raise, whether it’s with Pittsburgh or elsewhere.

If the Pirates decide to bring back Rodriguez, it’d be as a utility player. Josh Harrison is still the starting second baseman, even after a down season. I also don’t think another team will bring in Rodriguez to be a starter. He’s had good years as a utility player, but he’s never played more than 139 games in a season. He’s best utilized off the bench.

I don’t think Rodriguez would get more than $5 million a year from the Pirates. As a comparison, David Freese got two years, $11 million, and he posts similar production, but has the ability to start full-time. If the Pirates offered him two years, $10 million, I’d be fine with that. But much more than that and I don’t think it’s worth it. I also don’t think he’d get more than six million per year elsewhere. But with new TV contracts everywhere and teams willing to spend money, who knows?

Off-Season Bench Plans

The Pirates usually operate with a five-man bench, so this off-season, the team may have a couple of holes that need to be filled. Chris Stewart will return as the back-up catcher and take up one of those spots, and David Freese is back as well. I’d say that a third spot could (and should) go to Adam Frazier, as he looks like a cheap option that deserves a shot over a full season to prove that be belongs in the bigs. That leaves two spots that should go to a fourth outfielder and another infielder. The Pirates could bring back Sean Rodriguez and John Jaso, although I’d prefer to see Jaso traded or released. Jason Rogers could take Jaso’s spot, but he’s a bit of an unknown at the moment. Matt Joyce would be a nice re-signing, but he, like Rodriguez, could try to cash in on a quality season. And there are always options out of Triple-A Indianapolis, such as Alen Hanson, Max Moroff, and Willy Garcia.

My ideal five-man bench for next season would be Stewart, Freese, Frazier, Rodriguez, and Hanson. Rodriguez could be the primary fourth outfielder, and I’d like to see Frazier and Hanson both given a shot next season.

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