Pittsburgh Pirates: Chris Owings is Serving No Purpose

Providing no vlaue to the team, veteran infielder Chris Owings has no place on the active roster of the Pittsburgh Pirates

When the Pittsburgh Pirates promoted Chris Owings to the majors in May it mad sense. The team was in dire need of defensive stablization at shortstop, and the career plus defender could provide that for a team searching for answers.

Well, since Owings was promoted Tucupita Marcano has seized the shortstop job. Combine this with extremely poor play from Owings, and the veteran is not providing any sort of purpose on the Pirate active roster.

After going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in Wednseday's victory over the San Francisco Giants, Owings is hitting a woeful .160/.160/.160 this season with a -19 wRC+. Owings has not drawn a walk, all four of his hits have been singles, and he's struck out at an alarming 48.0% clip in 25 plate appearacnes.

Obviously, 25 PAs is a very small sample size but this just builds on the career struggles of Owings. In 2485 career PAs Owings owns a .239/.286/.365 slash line to go with a wRC+ of 68 and a 25% strikeout rate.

At this point Owings is serving no purpose for the Pirates. Due to this, he should be taken off the team's roster. With Marcano seizing the shortstop job there is no need for the glove of Owings. Combine this with his inexcusably poor offense and he needs to go.

The easy move would be to give his roster spot to Henry Davis. Even if the Pirates want to continue to play the Super 2 game with Davis, there are plenty of other options to replace Owings. Liover Peguero, Jared Triolo, Aaron Shackelford, or even Cal Mitchell could all take that roster spot.

Hell, Owings can't even get a bunt down. Wednesday afternoon he screwed up a sacrifice bunt attempt leading to a double play. He also screwed one up in the Seattle series, and, also on Wednesday, pulled back a bunt attempt with the runners on the move leading to lead runner being thrown out at third base.

When a player can't even lay down a bunt, it's time.

Honestly, the most vlauable thing Owings has done this season is pitch. Yes, you read that correctly, the most valuable thing a veteran infielder has done for a MLB club this season is pitch.

Helping to clean up an absolute mess in a 14-4 loss against the Giants this past Monday, Owings spent his Memorial Day holiday by participating in position players pitching. Owings would go on to pitch a scoreless 8th inning against the Giants. Pitching that scoreless 8th inning while saving a bullpen arm in a blowout a loss, especially since the bullpen was the catalyst behind a Pirate victory the following day, is the most valuable thing Owings has done for the Pirates this season.