Pirates Rumors: Team Predicted to Sign Two Free Agents

The website MLB Trade Rumors put out their yearly offseason free agent predictions.  The site has the Pittsburgh Pirates inking two notable ones this offseason.

While the Pittsburgh Pirates continue to search for a new General Manager and manager, the offseason keeps moving.  Teams are starting to put together their offseason agenda, who they would like to acquire, who they want/need to trade, and other personnel moves.  Still, there is plenty of time before the action really starts.

The Pittsburgh Pirates currently have interim General Manager Kevan Graves helping make some early offseason roster decisions, most of these decisions will not have much of an impact on the Bucs offseason.  Meanwhile, it has been reported that the team has an outside firm leading the search for a new General Manager.  This will likely result in a hire sooner than later, which means the new hire should have plenty of time to get their offseason agenda ready.

Even though the team does not have a General Manager, this has not stopped writers, reporters, and bloggers from trying to forecast the Bucs offseason moves.  Here at Rum Bunter we have posted multiple articles about catchers the team should pursue and so on.

The website MLB Trade Rumors is one of the best baseball websites around.  It is a site that has been around for years and does a great job of tracking all player movement in the league as well as rumors.  Over the years, MLBTR has grown into a popular website for fans to check out, especially during the offseason with their free agent predictions.  The team at MLBTR tries to look at each team’s situation and determine who they could try and sign in the offseason.

MLB Trade Rumors projects the Bucs to sign two notable free agents (top 50).  Obviously, the Pittsburgh Pirates are never predicted to sign one of the big fish free agents.  Even with a change in the front office, the Bucs are still going to operate like a small market team.  So, MLBTR is projecting the Pittsburgh Pirates to sign corner outfielder Kole Calhoun and left-handed pitcher Drew Smyly.

Both make sense as potential targets.  Smyly would give the team a potential left-handed starter in a right-handed heavy rotation.  He also fits the mold of the classic bounce back starter candidate that the previous regime always looked for on the market.  Smyly was expected to breakout in 2018 after an impressive World Baseball Classic, but he had to undergo Tommy-John surgery early that year.  He has bounced around over the last year and has yet to regain form.  Still, he could be a low-risk, high reward free agent.

Calhoun’s place on the roster would not be as clear.  He is a corner outfielder who bats left-handed and the team has switch hitter Bryan Reynolds in left and left-hander Gregory Polanco in right field, so there is no spot.  This is unless the team does in fact trade Starling Marte, something that will likely occur.  The team then could slide Reynolds to center and allow Calhoun to man a corner spot.  Calhoun was solid last year, batting .232/.325/.467 with 33 home runs, 29 doubles, and one triple.  Obviously, the batting average is a little low, but with his left-handed power he could be a real threat at PNC Park.

This cannot be the Pittsburgh Pirates only moves this offseason.  Obviously, there is a lot that has to go on and will go on, but this would be a solid start to the team’s offseason.  Both players could be very intriguing fits for the team in 2020.