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Pittsburgh Pirates News: Team Acquires Adeiny Hechavarria

By Nicholas Caporoso

(Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
(Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) /
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With the Pittsburgh Pirates utility infielder Sean Rodriguez struggling this season, the team looks like they have finally decided to replace him.  The team has acquired a new infielder.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have made another trade.  Yes, the trade deadline has passed, but teams are still eligible to make moves via the waiver wire.  How does it work?  If a team in the American League puts a player on waivers, he is offered to American League teams first, then the National League.

The player is able to be claimed by teams in reverse order of the standings (worst to best).  If a team claims the player then they have multiple options within the 48.5-hour negotiating window.

They can either work out a trade with the claiming team, allow him to outright go to the claiming team (likely looking to dump a salary), or can pull him back on to their team.  If a player completely clears waivers, the player can be dealt to any team.

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This has become a more popular trend lately in baseball.  More and more teams are making post-trade deadline deals.  Of course, this was highlighted last year when the Houston Astros acquired Justin Verlander.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been on both ends of this before also.  The team acquired Marlon Byrd and Justin Morneau back in 2013 via waiver trades.  Also, the team traded Arquimedes Caminero a few years ago using this method.  

Well, the Pittsburgh Pirates have made another post-trade deadline deal today.  The team has acquired former Miami Marlin and more recently Tampa Bay Ray shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria.  Hechavarria was placed on waivers five days ago.  The Rays were looking to open up room for top prospect Willy Adames.

Being Hechavarria was placed on waivers five days ago, it is likely that he went unclaimed throughout the whole league.

According to the Pittsburgh Pirates twitter release, the team is sending relief prospect Matt Seelinger in return for the Cuban shortstop and cash considerations. Hechavarria is making $5.9 million in his final year of arbitration, which prorates to about $1.9 million the rest of the year.

What did the Pittsburgh Pirates give up in Seelinger?

Seelinger was a 2017 draft pick.  He was taken in the 28th round out of a college in New York called Suny Farmingdale.  He has strictly been used as a reliever and has had some good success in his short minor league career.  This year he has thrown 28 games for the West Virginia Power (A-), going 7-7 in save opportunities along with a 3.03 ERA.

Furthermore, he has struck out an eye-popping 52 batters in  32.2 innings.  So obviously he has some intrigue to him as a reliever.  The one negative note is that he is doing this at the age of 23 in Low-A.  So it will be interesting to see how he does against older competition in the upper minors.

Coming back to the Pittsburgh Pirates, Hech is likely a nice bench piece.  Hechavarria is a defense-first shortstop who has a positive UZR/150 of 1.0 this season.  He also has posted 4.0 defensive runs saved this season.  For comparison, Jordy Mercer as a -3.4 UZR/150 and -12 defensive runs saved. Hechavarria does not provide much more on offense than Mercer does.

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This year, the now former Ray is slashing .258/.289/.332 and has a career OPS of .635.  So he is pretty light hitting.  It is unlikely that Hechavarria will be replacing Jordy Mercer at shortstop.  It is more likely that the team will be sending Sean Rodriguez on his way.  Even if he is a pure singles hitter, he is a strong defensive replacement in the infield and will be more valuable to this team than Rodriguez.

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