Pittsburgh Pirates Offseason Simulation: Two Signings and a Trade

The last few days have been relatively busy between negotiating with free agents and other General Managers.  This very well could be the case for new Pittsburgh Pirates General Manager Ben Cherington as he looks to reconstruct the organization.  While it has been a complete fire sale thus far, I feel like I have done a good job of bringing in MLB ready talent along with some rising talent in the lower minors.

While the Chris Archer trade will always be a tough pill to swallow, it was important to get as much talent back as possible and clear his salary for other moves.  While the Pittsburgh Pirates would not be getting the talent that they gave up, they still would be a couple of top 20 type prospects and a relief prospect with back of the bullpen type stuff.

Meanwhile, both free agent signings have a lot of upside for a good price.  Sipp will not make a huge difference on this team in terms of making them a contender, but for the right price he could be a valuable lefty asset.  Calhoun, on the other hand, could make a big impact on this team.  He would bring a much needed home run threat to protect Josh Bell.

While these deals are all simulations, it is still interesting to see how other team’s fans are thinking.  Coming into the offseason I would not have guessed that multiple teams would be trying to acquire Chris Archer.  It will be interesting to see how Ben Cherington’s offseason will play out and how much change he actually will make to the team.