Pittsburgh Pirates Trade Deadline Countdown: The Wild Card

The Pittsburgh Pirates

trade deadline has brought a great deal of speculation as the Bucs are contenders in the NL Central. We have looked through numerous scenarios of available power bats.

Nothing really stands out. Nobody blows us away.

As expected nobody that is rumored to be available is flawless. One player that makes sense, Carlos Pena, has weaknesses.

So we started looking at how Steve Pearce was performing on his rehab assignment. Pearce could offset the weaknesses that Pena would bring to the club. But look closely at the boxscore last night….seeing shortstop in the boxscore floored us. Pearce is very athletic, but surely not. Right?

We actually expected to see him spending some more time at first base. But a game after Pearce was the first baseman (had an error) and Pedro was at third, Alvarez was the DH last night with Pearce starting at third. Pearce was the DH in his first AAA game of the rehab.

But as long as Pearce continues to rip at his short AAA sample size, we will be thrilled. A 1.214OPS is a beautiful thing. It’s not like Pearce has put up those strong numbers against a poor team, he has done it against the Columbus Clippers. They have 60 wins already and are a perennial contender.

Pearce is a wildcard in the trade deadline countdown. Keep an eye on him over the next 13 days.

Now if he can only stay healthy, with his recent production including at the ML level going back to last season, Pearce could be a big answer for the Pirates, especially against left handers.

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