The Pittsburgh Pirates Should Sign Shortstop Jose Iglesias

With the first full squad workout in Bradenton less than a month away, the Pittsburgh Pirates are still searching for a shortstop

Three weeks form today, pitchers and catchers will report to Bradenton for the Pittsburgh Pirates. A few days later, the rest of the team will show up for the first full squad workout. With this, Spring Training 2019 will be underway for the Bucs.

With the start of Spring Training looming, the team still needs a new shortstop. In house options Erik Gonzalez and Kevin Newman remain not good enough to play every day for a team looking to compete for a postseason spot. This makes shortstop a position general manager Neal Huntington needs to address.

Looking at the free agent market, the best shortstop not named Manny Machado that is available is Jose Iglesias. Even when the offseason began Iglesias was the best shortstop, other than Machado, on the market. So, Iglesias remaining unsigned this late in the offseason is a surprise.

Iglesias is the shortstop that the Pirates need to target. He would be an upgrade for the Pirates at the shortstop position, while bringing them the best shortstop defense that the team has had since Clint Barmes was a Pirate.

During his eight-year MLB career, the now 29-year-old Iglesias owns a .270/.315/.363 slash line with a wRC+ of 83. While, yes, Iglesias is a below average hitter, his defense more than makes up for it.

Iglesias owns a 66.1 dWAR in his MLB career. This includes being responsible for +12 defensive runs saved at SS. His defense is why he has been at least a 1.5 fWAR player each of the last five seasons, while being over 2.0 in three of those five seasons.

For comparisons sake, ex-Pirate shortstop Jordy Mercer has just one season with a fWAR of at least 2.0 (2013) and just two others of at least 1.5. The last three seasons Iglesias has been worth 6.3 wins, while Mercer has been worth just 4.0 wins. Ironically enough, the Tigers signed Mercer to a one-year contract earlier this offseason to replace Iglesias. However, this is a downgrade for the Tigers.

If the Pirates were to have interest in Iglesias, it would come as no surprise. When the Bucs traded Joel Hanrahan to the Boston Red Sox following the 2012 season the first player they targeted was Iglesias. In the end, the Bucs landed Mark Melancon making it a trade that worked out pretty darn well.

The Pittsburgh Pirates still need a shortstop. To fix this problem, the team should sign Jose Iglesias. He would give the team one of the best defensive shortstops in the National League, while helping to stabilize the team’s infield defense.