Matt Kemp, Shane Victorino, And Jair Jurrjens: A Look At 'Non-Trades'

Grant Brisbee latest article at Baseball Nation, a look at prominent "non-trades" from 2007, is, as usual, a lot of fun. One set of rumors focuses on Shane Victorino for one of a number of mediocre starters (Joe Kennedy, Kyle Lohse and Steve Trachsel). The Phillies, though, weren't having any of that.

The Pirates figure heavily in one of these five non-trades, which makes sense if you remember that former Bucs GM Dave Littlefield was the guy who turned down Ryan Howard for Kris Benson. This one involves the possibility of dealing Ian Snell for Matt Kemp. I'm not sure whether this deal would have been possible for the Pirates, but I do know that around this time and in 2008, there were clear rumblings coming out of Los Angeles that the Dodgers didn't like Kemp very much, and on my Pirates blog, Bucs Dugout, I was ranting and raving practically on a daily basis about how the Pirates should try to swing a deal for Kemp. Maybe the Dodgers liked him more than they let on, because they never traded him.

One 2007 "non-trade" I'm pretty sure the Pirates could have done and didn't was Jair Jurrjens for Jack Wilson. Jurrjens was a prospect in the Detroit Tigers system, and there were reports at the time that the Tigers had offered him and another prospect for Wilson, and Littlefield said no, perhaps because he also needed to have the immortal Craig Monroe. Instead, they dealt Jurrjens and Gorkys Hernandez (yes, the current Pirates prospect) to the Atlanta Braves for Edgar Renteria. Whoops. Jurrjens currently has a 2.26 ERA for the Braves.