Morning Rundown Week in Review: Winter Meetings, NL Central trades, Elvis Alvarado feature
A look back at the past week in baseball which included the Winter Meetings and trades, plus the latest premium feature
The Winter Meetings were this past week, with front office personnel and coaching staff from the entire league getting together in Texas. Among the agenda are the draft lottery, Rule 5 draft, and plenty of free agent signings and trades.
The most notable move for the Pirates was trading Luis Ortiz and two prospects in exchange for Spencer Horwitz.
The Pirates didn’t select or lose anyone from the major league portion of the Rule 5 draft. They did, however, select five in the minor league phase while having another five players taken by other teams.
The NL Central was busy after the Winter Meetings, as the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs made significant trades that altered their rosters.
Chicago sent Isaac Paredes, Hayden Wesneski, and prospect Cam Smith in exchange for pending free-agent outfielder Kyle Tucker.
For Milwaukee, they shipped out former All-Star closer Devin Williams, who is also in his last year before free agency and added Nester Cortes and Caleb Durbin from the Yankees.
Cortes will add starting pitching depth, and Durbin is an intriguing prospect who led the AFL in stolen bases this year.
The first free agent signing that impacts the 40-man roster, Elvis Alvarado spent the 2024 season at the Triple-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins. He features an explosive fastball with a 40% whiff rate but struggles to throw strikes.
I take a deeper look at the new Pirate.
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How about Austin Hays for RF. .260 hitter with 30 plus doubles. See if 8 million a year for 2 yrs= 16-17 million total would work. He is still 28-29 yrs old.
The Pirates made a move they had to make in getting a "youngish" LH hitting bat with just less than a full year of MLB Service - lots of player control. He played 1B and 2B for Toronto and did well both offensively and defensively. Maintain his playing of both 1B and 2B, and hope he continues to hit for average and 15-20 HR power. And can Hague wake up IKF?
How close are the Pirates to having the Players Union file a Grievance against them for failure to properly use Revenue Sharing Dollars to stay competitive. Nutting is too busy pocketing revenue sharing dollars rather than using those dollars for the purposes they were designated - to BUY talent and try to remain competitive. I would rather see the Pirates step up to a player salary level of $100 - $110 mil, and join at least the next higher two teams in the Central - Milwaukee, and Cincy, because that is where they are heading. The Cubs are just starting to flex their financial muscles to build a playoff team, and St Louis will get back in after they clear some veteran dollars. We need to make that commitment to a higher salary level NOW!