Pittsburgh Pirates: Corey Dickerson and Kyle Crick to the Injured List

The Pittsburgh Pirates have had a lot of injuries already this season.  However, the team is now once again making roster moves

The Pittsburgh Pirates knew at the start of the year that Gregory Polanco would be on the Injured List.  This took away one of the team’s middle of the lineup bats.  Then, the team brought in outfielder Lonnie Chisenhall to be the main right fielder until Polanco came back.  From there he was expected to fill in as a strong fourth outfield option.  Instead, Chisenhall broke his hand late in Spring Training and will not be back until May.

So this left the team short-handed with outfielders.  The Pittsburgh Pirates had brought in veteran Melky Cabrera, but also brought up minor league veteran J.B. Shuck.  The thought was that those two could do a good enough job in right field with Starling Marte and Corey Dickerson still manning center and left field.

Well, that did not last long.  The Pirates had to place outfielder Corey Dickerson on the Injured List yesterday with a strained right shoulder.  This seemed probable Wednesday night when he was scratched from the lineup.  Dickerson is arguably the team’s best all-around hitter, so this is another big blow to the Bucs already struggling offense.

The team will not fill Dickerson’s shoes with a mediocre, veteran free agent, however.  Instead, the team will call up one of their breakout prospects from last year in outfielder Jason Martin.  The team actually brought Jordan Lyles off the Injured List in place of Dickerson on Thursday, but have now placed reliever Kyle Crick on the Injured List as well.  Crick’s move is the one that is technically opening up Martin’s spot.  This is all according to the Pittsburgh Pirates twitter.

Martin was the fourth piece in the Gerrit Cole trade with Houston.  Last year, Martin played in 68 games for the Curve and put up impressive numbers.  He had a slash line of .325/.392/.522 with 27 extra base hits.  His power was the most impressive part as he had nine home runs and a wRC+ of 152 and an ISO of .196.

Martin was promoted to Triple-A midseason and struggled some, hitting just 211/.270/.319 with 12 extra base hits.  However, he had a good Spring Training this year.  The 23-year-old hit .303 with a .739 OPS with two triples and two home runs in 12 games.  So he could be making his major league début with a hot bat after a hot Spring.

This is good news.  Martin realistically should have been up with the team instead of journeyman J.B Shuck.  Now, at least the team has the chance to have an impact bat with upside in the form of Jason Martin.