Pittsburgh Pirates: Six Position Changes You Forgot About

David Freese - Third Base to First Base

The Pittsburgh Pirates signed David Freese in the 2015-2016 offseason to serve as a hold-over until Jung-Ho Kang was activated off the injured list and then move over to first base, where he would platoon with the left-handed hitting John Jaso. Despite having very little playing time at first base before arriving in Pittsburgh, Freese had no issues moving across the diamond.

The former St. Louis Cardinal batted .270/.355/.403. Freese may not have hit for much power with just 32 home runs in 1260 plate appearances and a .113 isolated slugging percentage, but he hit for a solid average and drew walks at a 9.6% rate. This helped him produce a .331 wOBA and 106 wRC+.

Freese had logged just 18 innings at first base at the major league level before the Pirates picked him up. Although he continued to play a decent amount of third base, he also logged 462 innings across the diamond for the Pirates. He posted solid defensive numbers over at first with +4 Defensive Runs Saved and +2 Outs Above Average.

While Freese didn't make the full-time transition, he took on a position that was new to him. While the move from third base to first base isn't an extreme move, it's still a move that some Major Leaguers might find challenging.

Honus Wagner - Outfield to Shortstop

Honus Wagner is one of the greatest players in Major League Baseball history. He's also arguably the best shortstop to ever play the game, but it took three Major League seasons until Wagner saw a single inning at the middle infield position. He was primarily an outfielder but also saw time at third base, first base, and second base. Technically that makes him a utility man, but it took Wagner a handful of years until he became a full-on regular shortstop.

Across 21 Major League seasons, Wagner logged 16786 innings at shortstop. He also had 3217 innings between all three outfield spots, 2107 innings at first base, 1725 innings at the hot corner, and 447 innings at the keystone. In 1900, his third major league season, Wagner played 118 games in the outfield, and it wouldn't be until 1903 that he would play more than 100 contests at shortstop.

Wagner, of course, was one of the greatest hitters of all time, batting .328/.391/.467. Once you adjust for the Deadball era and the rest of the offensive environment of Wagner's time, he posted a 151 OPS+ and 147 wRC+.

Technically speaking, you could classify Wagner as a utility man. While shortstop was his primary position, there were plenty of instances where he moved around the diamond, playing other infield spots and the outfield. However, it's also hard to classify him as a utility guy, as this was before there was more specialization in baseball.

Bobby Bonilla - Outfield to Third Base

Bobby Bonilla mostly played the outfield and first base coming up through the minor leagues. Heck, he had even got down on his haunches and caught more games than he did line up at third base. But after bouncing around from the Pirates, then to the Chicago White Sox in the Rule 5 draft, and then back to the Pirates, the Bucs decided to move him over to the hot corner in the late-80s. Bonilla was so new to the position the Pirates put together a Rocky IV-Esque/inspired montage video of Bonilla working out and training for third base (or at least what I assume was a production made by the Pirates themselves).

NO ONE remembers how hard Bobby Bonilla trained in 1988 to learn how to play 3B for the #Pittsburgh #Pirates, but I remember! #BobbyBo #LetsGoBucs #HeartsOnFire pic.twitter.com/Ztlq1pdrf3

— 1986-92 Pittsburgh Pirates (@1992Pirates) November 14, 2021

Bonilla was a big hitter for the Pirates. In the 3485 plate appearances he received, he batted .284/.357/.481 with a .365 wOBA and 132 wRC+. Bonilla won three Silver Sluggers during his time with the Bucs and finished top three in MVP voting twice in back-to-back seasons during 1990 and 1991. He also racked up 114 home runs.

Bonilla was not a very good defensive third baseman, though, with -17 total zone runs at the hot corner. He still played a decent amount of right field, as he was the team's primary right field in 1990 and played over 100 games in the grass in 1991. But he also started over 150 games at third base in 1988 and 1989.

After leaving the Pittsburgh Pirates, Bonilla would bounce around between third base, corner outfield, and first base. He spent over 50% of his innings in the field at third base but still saw over 7000 innings between left and right field and over 800 innings at first base. However, when the Pirates made him the primary third baseman in 1987, he had less than ten professional games at the position.

Maury Wills - Shortstop to Third Base

Maury Wills' stint in Pittsburgh is somewhat forgotten. The seven-time All-Star and 1962 MVP only spent two seasons in Pittsburgh. He's mostly known for his dozen years with the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he played shortstop. When the Pirates acquired Wills for Bob Bailey and Gene Michael in the 1966-1967 offseason, they already had a good shortstop in Gene Alley, so in order to get Wills playing time, they moved him over to third base.

Wills was an on-the-dot league average batter with a 100 wRC+ with the team. Overall, he was a .290/.330/.340 hitter with a 305 wOBA. Wills had a 5.6% walk rate and a 7.5% strikeout rate. The infielder was mostly known for his base running ability, and he stole 81 bags in just 302 games.

Now, granted, Wills wasn't completely unfamiliar with third base. He had 310.1 innings there during his time with the Dodgers. However, that's dwarfed by the 9424 innings he had at shortstop before landing with the Pirates. Wills was about an average defender at third base with zero total zone runs.

After the Montreal Expos selected Wills in the expansion draft, he would only see 80.1 more innings at third base. He was mostly moved back to shortstop, where he logged 3864.1 innings before retiring after the 1972 season. Although his position change wasn't permanent, it was a change the Pittbsurgh Pirates made to accommodate another All-Star shortstop.

Neil Walker - Catcher to Third Base to Second Base

Neil Walker actually made two position changes before ending up at second base. In 2004, the Pittsburgh Pirates drafted Walker as a backstop, and this is where he spent the first three years of his minor league career before moving to third base full-time in 2006.

Walker had defensive issues behind the dish, and the move out from behind the plate was debated on before. But by 2009, the Pirates moved Walker again, this time to accommodate for Pedro Alvarez, who was their 2008 first-round selection and one of the best prospects in the minors at the time.

Walker ended up being the best offensive Pirate second baseman in the franchise's history. In 3426 plate appearances, Walker slashed .272/.338/.431 with a .336 wOBA and 114 wRC+. Among Pirate second basemen with at least 800 plate appearances, Walker has the highest wRC+, wOBA, OPS, slugging percentage, and second-highest home run total at 98.

But Walker wasn't much of a defender at second base. He had -22 Defensive Runs Saved and a -5.8 UZR/150 across 6890 innings at the middle infield position. He averaged about -3 DRS a season, but he made do and was good enough as he made up for with his bat.

Later on in Walker's career he would make yet another position change, this time moving back to third base and seeing time at first base. In 2018 and 2019, Walker played more first base than second or third. He even played a handful of games in left field for the Yankees in 2018. But he never made an appearance as a catcher, not even in emergency duty (though you'd have to imagine that he was the last-resort emergency backstop option in the event of multiple injuries for the Pittsburgh Pirates and the other teams he played for).