The Pirates had a breakthrough season last year, actually leading the division for a couple days midsummer. This was a huge improvement over 16 straight losing seasons, and way better than their 57 win season the year before. They crash and burned for the remaining games after taking the division lead. This offseason they have improved their team, adding A.J. Burnett yesterday and by adding mediocre free agents. The one place that they lost the most talent though, is catcher. They didn't exercise the option on Ryan Doumit, and didn't resign Chris Snyder. The free agent market didn't have many good catchers, but they didn't exactly pick up a game changing catcher in Rod Barajas. I think that they shouldn't be content with a 35 year old journeyman catcher behind the plate.
The White Sox had a pretty bad season this year. They were consistently out of first place by a few games, and the fans had to suffer through Alex Rios and Adam Dunn's horrible season. It will be almost impossible for Dunn to repeat his performance, and no one knows how good Rios is going to be. This offseason, the Sox had not added many players, the big pickup being Kosuke Fukudome. The Sox have been unloading some talent for salary relief rather than prospects, which does not make much sense considering the state of the team and its farm system. The Sox are not going to the playoffs this year and maybe for the next couple of years also. One of the players that is in his contract year, and probably not going to get resigned in the upcoming offseason, is AJ Pierzynski.
Pierzynski would be a good fit for the Pirates because he is a solid left handed bat and very rarely is unhealthy enough to take the field. He hasn't batted below .270 the last 4 years and has consistently been cutting down on his strikeout totals. He would be a good fit on the team that needs a good left handed bat and a good catcher. I don't think that with what the Sox have been doing in trades, that the Pirates would have to give up much, but I think if the Sox had the potential to get a decent prospect, they might eat a large portion of the $6 Million owed to him.
Here is my trade proposal....
AJ Pierzynski and cash($4 M) to the Pirates for Tony Sanchez and Kyle McPherson
Might be a little much, but if the Pirates are able to get a division title and Pierzynski bats .300 again, it might seem like an OK deal. Sanchez and McPherson are both 23, so this might be a move for a the Sox if they are able to compete in 4 years, which should not be out of the realm of possibility with their payroll.
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