Pirates Backup Infielder Battle Waging at Pirate City

We spent the entire day in Pirate City yesterday

and saw some great Pittsburgh Pirates action.   After the players got their work in and signed autographs, the four fields at Pirate City were nearly clear of Pirates players.

The grounds crew was quickly getting back to work on three of the fields, but on the fourth some men had some work to do.

Josh Harrison and Chase d’Arnaud had taken their places at shortstop and the work began.  It continued with ground balls and throws for over twenty minutes.  Both players looked comfortable with the basic drills, but the more we thought about the possibility, the less we wanted to watch.

When looking at the Pirates roster, there isn’t an easy answer to the question of what player will serve as the backup infielder.  It could come easily down to Josh Harrison or Chase d’Arnaud getting the call as it would appear that will need to play only sparingly at shortstop.

It appears to my untrained eye that Yamaico Navarro is out of the competition and won’t be going north with the ballclub.  So, the choices for the shortstop position are very limited.  Harrison and d’Arnaud need some more time to improve their hitting and that should be done at the AAA level.  In our eyes, it’s an absolute waste to watch them pine riding this season.

Being a major league bench bat is a very tough job and just the thought of d’Arnaud, who was awful at the plate last season, or Harrison who wasn’t far behind, making the Pirates opening day roster is difficult to take.