The Pirates have made yet another trade, this time sending starting first baseman Adam LaRoche to the Boston Red Sox for two prospects.  In return, Boston sends SS Argenis Diaz and RHP Hunter Strickland.  Diaz is a 22 year old defense first shortstop who was playing at AA Portland for Boston and will be assigned to AAA Indianapolis.  Strickland is a 20 year old who throws strikes, compiling only 13 walks in 83.1 IP this year.  I don’t really have a ton of time right now, certainly not enough to do a deep analysis of these two, but it would seem neither is impact level.  Diaz plays “plus-plus” defense, but the bat leaves a lot to be desired.  Strickland throws strikes, but his stuff isn’t going to overwhelm anyone.  It’s nothing special, but when you consider the slump LaRoche has been in lately, his current salary, and that we weren’t going to resign him at years end, its not a bad return I suppose.

I will say this about LaRoche though, despite his streakiness, his bat will be sorely missed in a lineup starving for power.  There are a lot of Pirates fans who are way down on LaRoche, and I think they are slightly mistaken.  I don’t necessarily think this is a bad trade, but its worth noting that the popular reaction to this is going to be “good riddance to LaRoche” and I don’t agree.

In a related move, Steve Pearce has been recalled from AAA to be the everyday first baseman.  While it can’t hurt to give Pearce a good long look as an everyday player, I would have preferred to see Garrett Jones play first and Lastings Milledge recalled for the outfield.  I don’t personally believe Pearce will ever hit enough in the biggs to be an everyday first baseman.  If he could hit off the bench he could be a decent pinch hitter and fill in player, but he proved in his cup of coffee earlier in the season that he can’t do that.  Although, thinking about it some more, this probably isn’t long term.  Sooner or later, Lastings Milledge play at AAA is going to force Neal Huntington’s hand.  At that point, the Pirates out field gets really crowded, and either Delwyn Young or Garrett Jones would need to more to the infield to get everyone enough playing time.  Until that time, I’m just going to hope I’m wrong about Steve Pearce.