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MLB Trade Rumors: Pirates Have 'Asked Around' About Outfielders

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 CubsCarlos 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.

Photographs by dizfunk used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.