Sean Rodriguez is officially no longer a Pirate. How do the Pittsburgh Pirates fill his role on the bench in 2017?
Yesterday, utility man Sean Rodriguez signed a two-year, $11-million-plus deal with the Atlanta Braves after posting a career year this past season.
Sources: #Braves in agreement with free-agent infielder Sean Rodriguez on two-year deal for more than $11M, pending physical.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 24, 2016
Many were hoping that the Pirates would make a quality pitch to try to re-sign Rodriguez, but in the end, whatever efforts there might have been didn’t work. Maybe the Pirates pursued Rodriguez hard, or maybe they didn’t. We may never know.
Now the Pirates have to turn their efforts elsewhere. Many had just assumed Rodriguez would return to Pittsburgh. Now there’s a hole to fill. The team doesn’t have a current bench player that played as many different positions as Rodriguez did last season. Adam Frazier likely has a bench spot next year, but he doesn’t play first base like Rodriguez could. David Freese and John Jaso will both return, and both of them can play first, but that’s essentially the extent of where those two play.
Basically the Pirates lost a quality middle infielder, and one that had a pretty good bat last season as well. They need to add another bench player now, but who do they turn to?
Stephen J. Nesbitt notes that the team will likely turn to internal options to fill Rodriguez’s role. Who are these internal options?
Frazier obviously comes to mind, and he’ll likely be the do-all utility player off the bench now. He hasn’t played first base or left field in the majors, but if he can just cover right field and second base, they can use other players to cover the other spots.
Alan Hanson is mentioned by Nesbitt as well, and one benefit of Rodriguez leaving is that it opens a hole for the former top prospect. Hanson has never been given a shot at a major league spot, and 2017 may be his opportunity. His speed at the very least would of use for the Pirates.
Jason Rogers could earn a spot on the bench, but he’s strictly a corner infielder, and the Pirates have Jaso and Freese in those depth roles.
Any other options would have to come from Indianapolis, where the remaining options have seen little to no time in the bigs.
So I could see Hanson being the most logical option to replace Rodriguez, but there are still spots to fill on the bench. Maybe the Pirates will ramp up their efforts to re-sign Matt Joyce, who probably won’t get paid as much as Rodriguez did. There are also numerous veteran options out there that could be signed to a one-year or short-term deal.
Chase Utley had a very nice season last year and would bring a veteran presence to a younger team. Stephen Drew, while falling off dramatically since his time with the Diamondbacks, did turn it around last year and could be had for cheap. Kelly Johnson turned his season around after being traded to the Mets last year, and he has always been a quality super-utility player. I also like Darwin Barney, a guy we all know from his time with the Cubs, but who played well for the Blue Jays last season.
We’ll find out if the Pirates choose to allocate money to another bench player. I think they should, or else they’d be going with a few inexperienced players in those roles next season.
Image Credit – Daniel Decker Photography
Thanks for checking us out here at Pirates Breakdown. Please make sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram and like us on Facebook for the best Pirates coverage all year long!
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
