Did the Pirates choose wisely between their three outfield options last spring?

Last spring training, the Pirates brought in veteran outfielder Michael A. Taylor on a one-year contract and it did not work out at all, leading to his release before the conclusion of the season. When he signed with Pittsburgh towards the end of spring training, Taylor was not the only free agent remaining in the outfield and the Pirates showed interest in two other choices.

Robert Murray of FanSided reported that the Pirates had also showed interest in Tommy Pham and Adam Duvall prior to signing Taylor. Both of those two signed to similar one-year deals.

Although Taylor was not exactly the productive center fielder the Pirates were looking to get, they may have actually chose the correct one out of the three that they were interested in. Let's take a look at these three veterans and decide whether the Pirates made the correct choice between them.

Did the Pirates choose correctly amongst the three veteran outfielders they had interest in last spring?

Taylor was not exactly a steal of a signing at $4 million, but he did do enough to generate a positive fWAR of 0.4. Both Pham and Duvall produced negative fWARs of -0.1 and -1.0, respectively. The only reason Taylor was the highest-graded player was because his defense was the best in center, posting an impressive 11 outs above average. Duvall and Pham both were significantly worse on defense.

Offensively is where Taylor struggled tremendously, but so did Duvall, and that side of the ball was his supposed strength. Pham led the three in wRC+ at 91, while Duvall posted a 58 and Taylor generated a 50. Their OPS marks ranked in that order as well, respectively coming in at .674, .569, and .543. Duvall led the group in home runs at 11, while Pham slugged nine and Taylor belted just five.

Taylor was the worst of the three at the plate, but he was the most productive defensively. For that reason, he would have been best as a fourth outfielder, but the regression of Jack Suwinski sort of forced him into an everyday starter job for a while.

If the Pirates would have signed Pham, they would have had a slightly better offense, as his bat was better than Taylor's, but it was not a significant enough gap to change the outcome of the season. Defensively, Pham and Duvall are poor, which brings a lot of value to what Taylor brought to Pittsburgh.

Overall, the Pirates' choice of Taylor over Pham and Duvall was not the worst decision they made last offseason. Waiting as long as they did to try make an effort for any of them was the far poorer choice, which resulted in these three being the best available on the market at the time. Not signing anyone until the middle of March set up a lose-lose situation, but the Pirates were not wrong by taking Taylor over the others they were interested in.