Pittsburgh Pirates: Team Should Send Down Kevin Newman

The Pittsburgh Pirates recently called up top shortstop prospect Kevin Newman.  However, he has been used sparingly thus far.

When the Pittsburgh Pirates acquired shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria from the Tampa Bay Rays, the thought was he could potentially battle Jordy Mercer for the starting shortstop job.  While Mercer was locked in as the team’s starter over the last half-decade, Mercer has been in the midst of one of his worst seasons as a pro.  However, even before the acquisition of Hechavarria, many fans were clamoring for top shortstop prospect Kevin Newman to be called up and replace Mercer as the starter.

Well, in a way that happened.  First off, Hechavarria was barely used over his first week with the Pittsburgh Pirates.  So it was evident that the team did not view him as much of if at all an upgrade over Mercer.  Nonetheless, he fell into the starting role when Jordy Mercer was put on the disabled list.  So obviously, Hechavarria would become the team’s starting shortstop, right?  Well, then the Pittsburgh Pirates called up former first-round pick Kevin Newman.

So, the team finally calls up top prospect Kevin Newman.  It was well warranted, the Arizona product batted over .300 most of the season and earned a Triple-A All-Star game election.  So the thought was what the thought would be with any top prospect called up, he will play.  Normally, when the team calls up top prospects they get them in the game right away.  The Pittsburgh Pirates did this with Meadows earlier this season.  However, that has not been the case with Kevin Newman.

The Pittsburgh Pirates and Clint Hurdle have yet to even allow Newman to gain an at-bat.  Newman has been up for three games thus far and has appeared as a pinch-runner and defensive replacement in the ninth innings of the first two games of the Cub’s series. So why is Kevin Newman up?

Now, Hechavarria has warranted some playing time.  The former Ray has six hits in 16 at-bats giving him a .375 batting average along with 170 wRC+.  He has driven the ball well even when making outs, like last night when he lined out hard to left field and drove one to deep center.  Of course, everyone knows that he is a strong defensive shortstop also.

That is not the point here.  Why is Kevin Newman up if he is not playing?  If the goal was to bring up a backup middle infielder for Hechavarria, then the team should have called up Max Moroff instead.  Moroff is capable to play shortstop if need be and has played off the bench at the big league level already.   Meanwhile, this, in a way, is not helping Newman.  While he is doing work with the team and coaching staff before games and is getting the experience of being part of the big league club, he is not doing the most important thing in baseball, playing!

We have always heard that the Pittsburgh Pirates keep top prospects down because they rather them play every day and continue to develop.  If that is the case, then the team should send Kevin Newman back down to Triple-A so he can finish the season playing every day.  Him riding the pine at the big league level is just going to get him out of sync. Send him back to Indianapolis where he can continue to develop and call him back up in September for the “big league experience”.