Pittsburgh Pirates: It’s Time to Give Anthony Alford Another Chance

Following a poor start to the season the Pittsburgh Pirates optioned outfielder Anthony Alford to Triple-A earlier this season. But after playing well at Triple-A, is it time to give him another shot? 

The short answer is yes, Anthony Alford does deserve to get promoted back to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Alford had a very bad start at the plate this season, one that would make you think it was a pitcher’s hitting stat if you took a look at them.

He started the season with only two hits in his twenty-four at-bats, with sixteen strikeouts and only four walks. This means that he had an abysmal .083 batting average and a strikeout percentage of 67%. This strikeout percentage is over two and a half times the average strikeout percentage of 24%. Now one may ask if Alford was this bad, why should he get another shot in the big leagues, but that is all due to his red-hot performance in Triple-A Indianapolis this season.

Alford finding his stride in Triple-A

Through his first 99 at-bats so far this season in Indy Alford and has tripled his OPS and batting average from what it was. His batting average is just over the Mendoza line at .303 and his OPS is up to .996. His strikeout percentage fell from 67% down to 32.8%, which is still high but not as bad especially when you take into account the improvement he has had with drawing walks. Alford was drawing walks 17% of the time, but now it is up to 21.1%.

How to make room for Alford 

The easiest way for the Pittsburgh Pirates to make room in the Major League level would be to designate Ka’ai Tom for assignment. With Tom not performing well this season it may be time to give his at-bats back to Alford.

Tom is only batting .134 on the season with a 54 wRC+, which shows that he has been playing at a very poor level even though he has had some bright moments this season.

If Tom is DFA’d, he would not only have to clear waivers, but he would also have to be offered back to Cleveland due to the fact that the Athletics got him in the Rule 5 draft before the Pirates got him off of waivers from Oakland.

While there certainly has been no indication of Alford getting called up again soon, it is definitely something that Ben Cherington should look into doing in the near future especially if Alford continues to be as hot as he has been lately.