Pirates cut Alvarez loose
Pedro Alvarez is no longer a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Major league teams had until Wednesday to offer contracts to their arbitration-eligible players and the Pirates decided to pass on the slugging first baseman, enabling him to become a free agent.
Even though Alvarez led the team with 27 home runs in 2015 as the Pirates made it to the postseason for a third straight season, they decided to move on without him rather than risk having to pay the slugger as much as $8 million next season if he went through the arbitration process.
Instead, the Pirates will likely will go with right-handed hitting Michael Morse and a left-handed hitter to be determined in a first base platoon next season. Considering the Pirates are paying $4.67 million of Morse’s $8.5-million salary in 2016 after acquiring him from the Los Angeles Dodgers in a trade in July, the other side of the platoon isn’t likely to make nearly as much money.
One possibility could be Jake Goebbert, a minor league free agent who was signed to a major league contract last week and would likely make just a little more than the minimum salary of $507,500.
Furthermore, with the progress top prospect Josh Bell showed after being promoted to Class AAA Indianapolis from Class AA Altoona for the final month of last season, he could be in the major league lineup sooner rather than later in 2016.
With opening day a little less than four months away, the first base situation has plenty of time to sort out.
Meanwhile, Alvarez’s departure closes one of the more fascinating chapters in recent Pirates’ history.
The Pirates were widely lauded for using the second overall pick in the 2008 amateur draft to select Alvarez from Vanderbilt. His left-handed power stroke seemed a perfect fit for PNC Park.
And Alvarez had his moments. His 36 home runs in 2013 tied for the National League lead with the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Paul Goldschmidt and Alvarez added three more bombs in the Pirates’ five-game loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in the Division Series.
However, injuries and inconsistency have prevented him from reaching that peak again.
Then there was his defensive shortcomings.
Alvarez averaged 25 errors a season at third base over a three-year span from 2012-14 and developed such a severe case of the throwing yips that he was moved to first base late in the ’14 season. He was even worse on the other side of the diamond as his 23 errors this year were twice as many as any other major league first baseman.
Alvarez is still just 28 years old and should have his share of suitors, especially now that he won’t be able to go through the arbitration process and can presumably be signed at a potential bargain rate.
It had become increasing clear with each passing season that neither Alvarez nor the Pirates felt it was ever truly going to work out for him in Pittsburgh.
Alvarez is a sensitive sort and never seemed to embrace playing in Pittsburgh. General manager Neal Huntington and manager Clint Hurdle privately grew weary of having to continually coddle him.
So now Alvarez moves on, ending an interesting — and often frustrating — seven years.