In our daily Pittsburgh Pirates Wake-Up Call, one of our writers gives his or her thoughts on all things Pirates, whether it be the game from the day before, off-the-field news, or anything at all going on in the world of the Pirates.
As excited as we all were yesterday to have Opening Day finally arrive, the Pirates moved immediately to an off day as the rest of the league kicked off its schedule. Off days never hurt no matter where they are in the season. The Pirates even have another one on Thursday after the final two games of the Cardinals series, but only have one more after that the rest of the month of April.
While it was great to get an Opening Day win, the real test for the Pirates will be these next two games. A lot of the criticism directed towards the Pirates this off-season was due to not adding quality starting pitching behind Gerrit Cole and Francisco Liriano. Thus, while Liriano had a fantastic outing on Sunday, it’s arguably more important for the Pirates to get quality starts from Jon Niese, Juan Nicasio, and Jeff Locke. We’ll get to see Niese on face off against Michael Wacha tonight and then Juan Nicasio battle Mike Leake on Wednesday. Just as David Freese and John Jaso got off to good starts on Sunday, we’ll all want to see if Niese and Nicasio can do the same with their new team this week.
Since yesterday, we’ve gotten some more details on the Gregory Polanco extension. Most notably, we have a good idea of the financials of the contract:
Can confirm @JonHeyman's figures: Polanco deal is 5 years, $35 million, w/ club options could push to a 7-year $58m deal. $2m in escalators
— Travis Sawchik (@Travis_Sawchik) April 4, 2016
The annual average value of $7 million for the first five years of the deal looks like a bargain on the surface, even if last year was the best Polanco ever plays. Going purely off of what I’ve seen around baseball, each win above replacement is generally thought to be worth anywhere from $4 million to $7 million. Polanco was worth 2.3 WAR last season, according to Fangraphs. If he puts out about two WAR per season and we value one win at $5 million, he’ll be worth about $10 million per season. Thus, he’d produce $70 million worth of value for a contract that maxes out at $60 million, giving the team $10 million of surplus value. This is, of course, a rough mathematical breakdown, and there’s no official dollar-per-win rate that dictates how player’s get paid. But it goes to show that, even with a very conservative estimate of Polanco’s future production, the contract would still be a good one for the Pirates. And I’m sure many people, including Polanco and the Pirates, expect and hope he can develop into a future star. At this point in time, there’s no reason to find fault with this contract.
In other news, Tommy Pham, who left the game against the Pirates on Sunday, was placed on the 15-day DL:
#STLCards have placed OF Tommy Pham on the disabled list; Aledmys Diaz to join big-league team.
— Jenifer Langosch (@LangoschMLB) April 4, 2016
Bryce Harper picked up where he left off in 2015, homering in his first at-bat of the season against the Julio Teheran of the Braves:
Bryce Harper homers on opening day again; his fourth career opening day shot. His first at-bat of the season. Nats up 1-0.
— James Wagner (@ByJamesWagner) April 4, 2016
And, as always, we leave you with news, stories, and other fun stuff from around the web. Enjoy!
Buster Olney of ESPN ranked the Pirates eighth in his first rankings of the season. Check out the full rankings here (ESPN Insider required for full article).
Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports wonders if Polanco took too much of a discount with his new contract.
And Dejan Kovacevic of DK Pittsburgh Sports offers that it may have been a good idea for the Pirates to hang onto Mark Melancon (subscription required for full article).
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