Double Platoon?

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It’s the week of Opening Day and the Pirates still haven’t made their final decisions on who will be on the bench come Opening Day. There are two spots available for Josh Harrison, Yamaico Navarro, and Matt Hague to fight for. I didn’t really think Matt Hague had a chance until recently, but now I might be able to see it working out.

The Pirates could pull off the double platoon (IT’S A DOUBLE PLATOON! OHH MY GODD! IT’S A DOUBLE PLATOON ALL THE WAY! WOAH THAT’S SO INTENSE – seriously scroll down and watch the video now). Matt Hague and Garrett Jones could platoon at first while Casey McGehee and Pedro Alvarez do the same at third. Right now Alvarez doesn’t look like he can hit a little league right handed pitcher, but the Pirates are sticking with him anyway. There is little doubt that Alvarez should be held out of the lineup against left handed pitching, and the same is true with Garrett Jones. The Pirates could plug McGehee in at first and Harrison/Navarro in at third if Hague doesn’t make the team, but Hague has been hitting so well that it has to be hard to send him to AAA at this point.

National League teams face left handed pitchers only about 25-30% of the time, so Hague and McGehe wouldn’t be getting a ton of starts, but it would definitely make the lineup better having those two in there instead of Jones and Alvarez.

I think the club could be seriously considering doing something like this. The club wouldn’t have kept Hague up so long if they weren’t seriously considering taking him to the Majors after spring ball ends. Hague has been mashing the ball all spring and could help the Pirates with his bat.

The decision will be coming in the next day or two, as rosters are due by Wednesday. Keep an eye out.

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