What Goes Around Comes Around

The Pirates depth has taken a huge hit the last few weeks with the loss of Josh Harrison and Jordy Mercer. Jung Ho Kang has been great this year and was filling in just fine for Harrison.  The loss of Mercer is what started an unfortunate chain of events that caused the Pirates to be more proactive at the deadline.

As a whole the Pirates farm system is pretty deep, but if it has one flaw it is void of high end upper level infielders. Alen Hanson could have possibly been called up, but he was moved from shortstop to second last year because of defense. The Pirates were left with the likes of Brett Morel and Pedro Florimon.  The writing was on the wall.

The Pirates had options at the deadline because of the versatility of Kang. You could either explore a shortstop and move Kang back to third, or find a third baseman so Kang can stay at his natural position. I'm sure the need for more offense made it easier to explore third base options. Sure enough the Pirates acquired Aramis Ramirez yesterday.

The Brewers received minor league pitcher Yhonathan Barrios, but it was more about getting some salary relief. Barrios was going to be a Rule 5 player next year and the Pirates weren't going to protect him. Ramierez was owed almost 6 million in salary and the Pirates agreed to pick up 3 million.

While not the player he once was, he will be an obvious upgrade over the likes of Morel and Sean Rodriguez who are both replacement level players. I'm sure if he can just give league average performance at third the Pirates would be ecstatic. He should fit right in batting 5th or 6th in the lineup.

I'm hoping this is some kind of cosmic justice and that Aramis will play well down the stretch and lead us to the World Series. His trade from the Pirates was the worst in team history and one of the root causes of the 20 years of consecutive losing. Feels odd that he is ending his career with the Buccos, but I'll take it. 

Thanks for reading!