Pirates Still Rudderless After McClouth Trade

The Pirates traded their best position player in Nate McClouth on Wednesday and didn’t get nearly enough in return. 

In fact, the only way I can see the deal making sense is if the Pirates traded McClouth mainly as a salary dump, so that like the Marlins, they could turn a profit on revenue sharing no matter how badly they play.

The thing is, the Pirates are only six and a half games out of first in their division only 52 games into the season.

Also, seeing what they got for McClouth, one has to wonder whether the Pirates couldn’t have gotten more around the trade deadline when there might have been more (and more lustful) suitors.

About the only good thing I can say about the deal is that the Pirates got three players for McClouth.

McClouth is not the greatest player in the world, but as an adequate defensive centerfielder with a career .801 OPS and only 27 this year, he has real value, and the Pirates should have gotten more.

He won the Gold Glove last year, but this seems to be the result of over-valuing his fielding percentage as a proxy for all-around defensive performance. McClouth led NL centerfielders in fielding percentage last year, but was fifth in range factor and ninth in assists. 

McClouth is only hitting .256 this year, but with an .819 OPS, he provides a lot of offense for a centerfielder.

Baseball America ranks 21-year-old Gorkys Hernandez, one of the Minor Leaguers the Pirates received in the trade with Atlanta, as the fourth best prospect in the Braves’ organization this year, but he doesn’t look like a sure thing to me. 

Hernandez is hitting .316 at Double-A Mississippi this year, which is great, but he has yet to hit with any power and his stolen base numbers have fallen off dramatically as he has advanced through the Minors. 

He has a career Minor League OPS of .750 and has hit only 14 home runs in 1304 at-bats. He’s definitely promising, but he’s no sure thing.

The two pitching prospects who came over in the deal—Charlie Morton and Jeff Locke—don’t overwhelm me either. 

Morton is 25 this year and has pitched extremely well in 22 starts at Triple-A Richmond in ‘08 and ‘09, but he got his brains beaten out (6.15 ERA, 74 2/3 IP) with the Braves last year. 

Also, his Minor League numbers, until last year, were consistently poor. Again, he may develop into a good Major League pitcher, but he’s no sure thing.

I definitely think Locke has more upside than Morton. Locke is only 21 years old and is a former second round draft pick (51st player taken in 2006 draft).

The downside is that he is currently getting his brains beaten out at Myrtle Beach in the Class A Carolina League. In 10 starts, he has a 5.52 ERA with 26 walks and 43 strikeouts in 45 2/3 innings. 

His lack of control this year is a worrisome sign, because his control was outstanding in the lower Minors the three previous seasons. Sometimes, sudden wildness is a precurser to an arm problem.

McClouth signed a very reasonable three-year, $15.75 million contract extension before the season started, with a team option for $10.65 million in 2012 with a $1.25 million buyout. 

For the best player on your team who has nearly three years left at a relatively reasonable price, it seems to me that the Pirates should have gotten at least one can’t-miss prospect.