Pittsburgh Pirates: Welcome To The 2018 MLB Winter Meetings

Welcome to the 2018 Major League Baseball Winter Meetings, Pittsburgh Pirates!

After general manager and team executives arrived in Las Vegas last night, the 2018 Major League Baseball Winter Meetings will kick into high gear today. While much of the attention of the Winter Meetings will be focused on superstar free agents Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, the Pittsburgh Pirates could quietly be a big player as well.

Although the team has addressed some needs this offseason, the team still has holes. The Bucs need to address the shortstop position, the bullpen needs a left-handed pitcher, and the starting rotation could use a boost as well.

Yesterday, our newest writer Jacob Oberdorf, everyone make sure to welcome him, did a preview of the Winter Meetings from the Pirates’ point of view. You can read that here. As he lays out, the avenues are there for the Pirates to be active this week.

Last year at the Winter Meetings the lone move the Pirates made was selecting reliever Nick Burdi in the minor league section of the rule 5 Draft. However, conversations that were had that week between Neal Huntington and his counterparts laid the groundwork for the trades of Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole that came later in the offseason.

The Pirates enter these Winter Meetings in a much different position than last year, though. Even though the team was in postseason contention deep into September last season, they did not intend to compete. That is not the case entering 2019.

After going all in at the trade deadline this past summer and adding Chris Archer and Keone Kela, the Bucs are ready to win now. Due to this, it would not come as a surprise if Huntington was more aggressive at this year’s Winter Meetings.

As things begin to rev up this week, make sure to stay tuned here at Rum Bunter. We will have you covered throughout the week for all and any news/rumors pertaining to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Buckle up, everyone, because it could be a crazy week around baseball!