With only eight days left until the July 31st Trade Deadline, things have finally started to heat up as the first major move was made yesterday with Matt Garza being traded to the Rangers from the Cubs in exchange for three high-end prospects. That also eliminates one name from possible targets for the Pirates. Here are some other names that could be in Black and Gold by the end of the month.
Alex Rios / Alexei Ramirez (White Sox):
Alex Rios – This is a name that the Pirates have been looking at to fill the lack of power in right field. Rios has continued to build off of a solid season from last year by hitting at a .277 clip in 94 games this season. He has a .331 on base percentage and a .774 slugging percentage while hitting 12 home runs and knocking in 48. His speed would also be a welcome sight as he has stolen 20 bases in 26 attempts.
Alexei Ramirez – Ramirez would be a big upgrade to what the Pirates have at Shortstop right now. The Bucs would lose some range on defense, but they will make up for it and more on the offensive side as Ramirez is batting .284 with an OBP of .310. He doesn’t have the power like most shortstops, but he does have 23 RBI (1 less than Mercer/Barmes combined) while scoring 40 runs (9 more than Mercer/Barmes combined). He also has 20 bases which would add to the speed game that the Pirates have played this season.
The bad side of these two would be the return needed to get them. The Pirates would most likely have to give up at least three of these guys: Kingham, Pimentel, Hanson, Glasnow and Heredia.
Nick Schierholtz (Cubs) – Schierholtz is a solid left handed, power bat that could help in right field. Even though his average is .267, he still is boasting a .821 OPS which could help ramp up the lower half of the batting order.
Not much talk has been about Schierholtz, though, since the Garza trade because teams were looking at him in a package deal with the pitcher.
Tom Loxas of ChicagoNow.com has told me that he doesn’t think interest was lost in Schierholtz once Garza left.
Marlon Byrd (Mets) – Byrd has been in the background due to the Garza/Schierholtz and Rios/Ramirez talks, but he would be a perfect fit to play in front of the Clemente wall at PNC. The 35 year old is batting .276 with an on base percentage of .321 and an OPS of .843. He has hit 17 home runs with 56 RBI in 83 games with the Mets, who sit 11 games out of the Wild Card and are in fourth place in the NL East.
Byrd has a .287 avg. against left handed pitching in 142 plate appearances this season with six homers and 23 RBI which would put him in a great situation to platoon with Jose Tabata, who has only 42 plate appearances against lefty’s.
Byrd is only owed $700,000 this year in a 1yr deal with the Mets which means the return for him wouldn’t be costly to the Pirates, although, it doesn’t seem like the Mets are interested in moving him at this time.
We will have more updates throughout the week leading up to the July 31st 4pm trade deadline.
Follow Travis for Pirates news and in-game updates on Twitter @TBerardi_OVA or @OVAthletics
(Photo Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports)
