It Takes a Pillage: Pirates Can't Be Stripped To the Core and Remain Relevant

For reasons that are hard to understand, Jason Bay wasn't considered part of the Pirates' core. Neither was Nate McLouth. Nor Nyjer Morgan.

Forget about Xavier Nady. Compared to the others, he was a Johnny-Come-Lately. And he had hired Scott Boras as his agent to maximize his value when he gained free agent status.

But the Pirates had (finally!) drawn a line at trading Jack Wilson and Freddy Sanchez by offering them contract extensions. Add this pair to their new center fielder, Andy MCCutcheon, and their star catcher, Ryan Doumit, and the Pirates at least would have strength up the middle.

Their pitching is decent, and has a shot at getting better. Which means that the corner positions carry the main concern for the time being.

And that was largely a self-inflicted wound. Reliable Nyjer Morgan was traded for the question mark called Lastings Milledge.

From the left side of the field, Jason Bay was traded for admittedly a third base upgrade (after the decision to dump Bautista), and an outfielder downgrade in Brandon Moss, a bad deal "straight up."  Busted pitching prospect Craig Hansen and far-from-league ready Bryan Morris don't make up for this.

We did have surplus outfielders to trade for the pitchers we needed. Nady for two pitching prospects, one advanced and one raw, plus a probable replacement in three years was a good deal. 

And given how well Charlie Morton is performing (lights out recently against San Francisco) the McLouth trade for similar consideration is also starting to look worthwhile.

Most fans would understand this much trading. But that should have been all. We should have traded only two of the four above-mentioned outfielders, not all four.

Any organism, including a body or a baseball team, needs a core to keep functioning. An animal can lose fat, muscle, and even a limb and still live. Threaten an organism's "core" (a critical mass of vital organs), however, and you endanger life itself.

Four major trades in the past year (plus smaller ones involving relief pitchers and others), took the Pirates dangerously close to the core. Below a certain "critical mass" of veterans, an army (or a baseball team) tends to fall apart. But management's (late) awakening indicates that this might not happen.

I have always opposed trading Jason Bay, because I considered him part of the core (he should have first been given the option of "stay or trade" that was presented to Freddy Sanchez and Jack Wilson). The fact that the offers were rejected  now reflects on the players, not managment.

But if management's argument is more like Jason Bay was "non-core," we are are not as far apart as we otherwise were. That would be much less scary than what management was saying before, that the Pirates could trade away even core players and still continue to function.