Pittsburgh Pirates: Looking at The Athletics Free Agent Targets

Two Hitters

Of the three free agents listed, Jeimer Candelario would be a great fit, and maybe the best fit. Although he has spent most of his career at third base, he has over 600 innings at first base, and split his time between third base and first base down the stretch with the Chicago Cubs. Candelario is coming off a nice rebound season with the Washington Nationals and the Cubs, slashing .251/.336/.471 with a .346 wOBA, and 117 wRC+. 

Both of Candelario’s 9.2% walk rate and 22% strikeout rate were slightly better than league average. He also hit for career bests in the power department. He hit 20+ home runs for the first time in his career, topping out at 22 in 576 plate appearances, while having a quality .220 isolated slugging percentage. He’s also not a bad defender, with +2 DRS and only -2 OAA at first base throughout his career.

The second free agent is recent Gold Glove recipient Kevin Kiermaier. Kiermaier isn’t just one of the best defensive players in the game today, he may be one of the best defensive center fielders of all time. Last year, he had +18 defensive runs saved with +14 outs above average. He has one of the best outfield arms in the game, and averaged out at 92.8 MPH on his throws. Even though he’s getting older, he was in the 87th percentile of sprint speed.

While Kiermaier’s glove is his strong suit and calling card, he’s able to hold his own with the bat. He slashed .265/.322/.419 with a .320 wOBA, and 104 wRC+, making him a slightly above league average hitter. Kiermaier’s 7.1% walk rate and 21.9% strikeout rate are both average for him. The only thing is, Kiermaier is not very durable. He has never played even 130 games in a single season. 

Relief Pitcher Aroldis Chapman

The third player is veteran left-hander Aroldis Chapman. After struggling in New York the last few seasons, Chapman rebounded to a 3.09 ERA, 2.52 FIP, and 1.25 WHIP. While Chapman walked 14.5% of the batters he faced, he also had a strikeout rate a shade over 40% at 41.4%, as well as a home run rate of just 0.62-per-nine innings. Chapman had a ground ball rate of 47.7% while ranking in the 91st percentile of exit velocity at 86.5 MPH.

Chapman averaged 99+ MPH on his fastball for the first time since 2017, and regained a whopping 1.6 MPH from last season. Chapman also had a sub-3.00 xFIP and SIERA. But it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. The lefty was also pretty decent throughout the Postseason for the Texas Rangers.

All three would fill holes the Pirates need to fix. Candelario would be a good way to solve the lack of a regular first baseman, and signing Kiermaier would push Jack Suwinski to an outfield corner. With the Pirates losing Angel Perdomo to Tommy John surgery, they could definitely use another quality left-handed reliever behind Borucki after his breakout campaign.

However, there are a few thoughts I want to share on this. One is that this would basically mean the Pirates would be getting all their starting pitching from the trade market. You can call me biased or overly optimistic, but I don’t see the Pirates going the entire off-season not signing one of the better free agent starting pitchers. The second is I do not know if Chapman is the best fit. He got a bit wild down the line, and allowed 11 earned runs on a dozen walks, and three home runs in the final 13 innings of his regular season. 

Still, I don’t think these are unrealistic free agent targets for the Pirates to pursue. Of course, they need to go after some starting pitching, but I definitely would not complain if the Pirates signed Candelario, Kiermaier, and Chapman. They’re all decent players who would improve the Pirates’ current roster.