Pittsburgh Pirates Rumors: Mercer Contract Talks Confirmed

Earlier today Rum Bunter received information that the Pittsburgh Pirates reached out to Jordy Mercer about a contract extension.  The “rumor” was confirmed by a Pittsburgh Sports Writer.

Early this morning Rum Bunter received an email with several notes about what the Pittsburgh Pirates have been up to.  One of the pieces of information was regarding a possible contract extension with Jordy Mercer.  Here is what our source said regarding the contract talks:

"Pirates have talked to Jordy Mercer regarding a possible contract extension. Nothing imminent and no real numbers involved, but they have checked in to see if there is mutual interest. Could work on something during Spring Training like they did in years prior with Polanco and Josh Harrison."

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Rum Bunter co-editor Marty Leap was all over this.  He quickly put together an article to share the information that Rum Bunter received today. At first, the idea of extending Mercer did not make a lot of sense.  He has two years on control left, the Bucs have his replacement in Kevin Newman, and he is replaceable.  However, with talks about trading Kevin Newman for Jose Quintana it could make sense.

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Also, there has been talks about trading Josh Harrison.  This could allow them to move Jordy Mercer to second base down the road when Kevin Newman makes his debut.  When looking at it that way extending him could make sense.  Plus the Bucs might be able to save some money on his final year of arbitration by guaranteeing him money in the extended years.

With that, some people were not sure how reliable the information was.  However, tonight Rum Bunter’s information was confirmed by a report coming out of the Tribune-Review.  Rob Biertempfel wrote in an article tonight that the Pittsburgh Pirates have had talks with Jordy Mercer and his agency.  Biertemfel writes:

"The Pirates and shortstop Jordy Mercer had preliminary discussions about a contract extension, but no deal seems imminent, a source told the Tribune-Review.According to the source there was “a little, but not a lot of talk” about a multi-year contract."

Next: Source Says Bucs Working to Extend Mercer

So it seems the Pittsburgh Pirates are definitely working to extend Jordy Mercer.  They have not had major talks obviously, but likely are setting the ground work up for discussions during Spring Training. This could give the Pittsburgh Pirates an idea if they can part with Kevin Newman for another starting pitcher or replace Josh Harrison down the road.  The Pittsburgh Pirates usually try and extend players before the season.  It looks like Mercer is their first target.