Pittsburgh Pirates make three deals at the deadline

The Pittsburgh Pirates were on the outside of the wild card chase,but the distance was not so remarkable (four games) that it could not be made up.

Instead,the Pirates made what looks to be their most blatant salary dump in years and was dismaying to their fan base among three trades at the trade deadline.

The worst trade and most obvious salary dump came in a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays as the Pirates traded struggling veteran pitcher Francisco Liriano and two players from the AA Altoona Curve for Drew Hutchison.
To begin,let's look at Hutchison,who did win 13 games for the Blue Jays last season,but did it with an ERA of five and half and a WHIP of 1.48 (not good),so clearly you don't to be Brian Kenny (who hates the win stat) to see that Hutchison was simply the by-product of a good hitting ball club.
The 25 year old has spent most of this season with AAA Buffalo and was a highly thought of prospect just a few years ago.
Hutchison has not had arm woes that I know of,so the Pirates are hoping to work that rehab magic one more time..

Francisco Liriano has been bad this season.
Really bad, with his ERA being almost as bad as Drew Hutchison's 2015 without the offense to make up for it hence Liriano's record being 6-11.
Liriano's velocity is down,his strikeouts are down and he was still owed 13 million for 2017,so I get why the Pirates wanted to move him,but they could have released him and kept two nice prospects.
Was a guy with a 5+ ERA last year that couldn't even make the team for much of this season that valuable to add?
In my opinion-a resounding no.
Reese McGuire hasn't hit for power (1 homer at AA Altoona),but has been outstanding defensively and leaves the Pirates farm system lacking any kind of a catching prospect...
Harold Ramirez hasn't hit for power either,but has hit over .300 at each of his last three stops in the system and at minimum could be a 4th outfielder type.
I know the Pirates are set in the outfield for a while with Austin Meadows on the way,but giving away possible players for the simple cost of saving money makes me think of the Dave Littlefield years-Never a good parallel!
Not happy with this deal at all...

Pittsburgh then continued a bizarre circle with the New York Mets as the team brought back reliever Antonio Bastardo,who left the team after last season to sign with the Mets in exchange for Jon Niese,who had been added from the Mets over the winter for Neil Walker.
Bastardo's ERA is over 4,but he's still striking out a batter an inning from the bullpen and should help a team that lost bullpen depth after dealing Mark Melancon to Washington.
Bastardo is signed for 2017 at six million.
Niese had struggled as well in Pittsburgh leaving at town with a record of 8-6,but an ERA of 4.91.
Niese had a club option for ten million for 2017 with a 500,000 buyout,so I can see this one a little.
If you didn't want to pick up the option for Niese,you saved the buyout cost and added a productive reliever in Bastardo,but doesn't that make the trade of Neil Walker look awful now?
The Pirates in the end lost Walker and got back a guy that they could have re-signed over the winter.
Hmmm.....

The final trade is the one that scares me as Pittsburgh added pitcher Ivan Nova from the Yankees for two players to be named later.
There has to be more on the surface that we know as Nova is 29,has an ERA around five for the second year in a row and is a free agent at the end of the year.
I would hope that the Pirates have a proviso of some type that the level of prospect or even number of prospects is subject to change if Nova would not re-sign with Pittsburgh,but I haven't read anything of that type.
I'm not against taking flyers on players,but this seems downright weird to me...

All and all,I'm just confused.
Salary dumping players,losing prospects just to say you are receiving something instead of nothing,bringing back players that you could have re-signed?
Making trades that make zero baseball sense because you need to shred salary?
These don't seem like the Neal Huntington Pirates-they seem like the Bonifay/Littlefield Buccos and I don't like that.
I don't like that at all.

Back later with a recap of the final team and their trades-the San Francisco Giants.

Pittsburgh trades Neil Walker for Jon Niese

The Pittsburgh Pirates made their first major move of the off-season as the Pirates traded long time second baseman Neil Walker to the New York Mets for lefthanded pitcher Jon Niese.

Niese,a former Hagerstown Sun, went 9-10 with an ERA slightly above four and is a nice fit in the back of the Pittsburgh rotation after being the odd man out with the Mets,who have an abundance of young power arms to start.

In Pittsburgh,where the Pirates have two openings among their starters after the retirement of A.J. Burnett and the loss of J.A.Happ to free agency,Niese slots in nicely in the middle to back of the rotation.
The lefty isn't overpowering (113 SO's in 176 innings),but he is durable and at worst,will be able to be an inning eater as a Pirate.
Niese is under contract for 2016 (9 million) and has team options (10 and 11 million) for the following two seasons,so the Pirates could conceivably have Niese for three years,if they desire and if the production is of value.

The loss of Neil Walker is yet another reason on how the cost of doing business in small markets tends to make teams constantly cull the herd,no matter the reason and no matter the popularity.
Walker hit .269 with 16 homers last season,but was likely to get a raise from his eight million salary with arbitration more than not as the end result before he hit free agency.
With Walker being 30 now,signing him to a long term deal did not make sense for the Pirates and moving him now enables the Bucs in getting the best possible value in Niese for the return.
Walker was the backup choice for the Mets after the team failed in getting their top identified target in free agency as Ben Zobrist signed with the Cubs and allows their best second base prospect Dilson Herrera (also obtained from the Pirates) an additional year to mature at AAA Las Vegas.
The Pirates will likely (barring no further moves) move Josh Harrison to second and hope that Jung Ko Kang is healthy enough to start the season at third.
I suppose Alen Hanson and Max Moroff have chances to win the job,but Hanson was just average at AAA Indianapolis last year and Moroff had a nice year at AA Altoona,but has yet to test International League waters,let alone the bigs...

Neil Walker had a special spot with Pirate fans because of his Pittsburgh background,but it was more than just that.
Neil Walker was drafted in the Dave Littlefield years and his selection followed by Andrew McCutchen in the next draft were about all that Littlefield did right,so fans that waited for Walker and McCutchen to wind their way through the system and hopefully turn things around developed a special bond with them.
Neil Walker took a little longer than normal as he was drafted as a catcher,spent a few years behind the plate,moved to third,but after the drafting of Pedro Alvarez,wasn't needed as the eventual third baseman and then worked hard to become a decent enough second baseman and most of that transition was done at the major league level.

This one hurts a little,but the team addressed a need and in a business that comes down to making the best out of what you have to spend,the Pirates made a prudent decision.
Less than popular with the fans perhaps,but smart and prudent......