Buster Olney tweets that the Pirates are looking for outfielders as potential acquisitions at the upcoming 2011 MLB trade deadline.
The Pirates have asked around about veteran outfielders; looking for somebody who can be a stable presence in their offense.
By extension, I think we have to assume that the Pirates would be fine with a first baseman as well. When everyone’s healthy, the Pirates have four perfectly capable outfielders in Andrew McCutchen, Jose Tabata, Garrett Jones and now Alex Presley. A righty outfielder to replace Matt Diaz would be nice, but a first baseman would be too – Lyle Overbay has taken up many more at bats that Diaz has, and has been much more damaging.
The Bucs could therefore acquire a first baseman like the Cubs’ Carlos Pena. Another possibility would be to move Jones to first base and have him take most of the at-bats there, then acquire a righty outfielder like Ryan Ludwick of the Padres and have him share time in an outfield corner with Presley.
In any case, while I think the idea of a “stable presence” is a little bit silly – as one commenter at Bucs Dugout pointed out, the need to have veterans to provide “stability” is how you wind up with has-beens like Overbay and Diaz in the first place. But I agree that the outfield (and first base) are areas where the Pirates could use an upgrade.