Pirates non-tender Pedro Alvarez after failing to work out a trade
After being unable to unload him in a trade, the Pirates non-tendered first baseman Pedro Alvarez Wednesday. He is now a free agent.
By
Mike Axisa
•
1 min read
The Pirates non-tendered
Alvarez, 28, was projected to earn $8.1 million through arbitration in 2016 according to MLB Trade Rumors. It would have been his final season of team control before free agency. The Pirates had reportedly been looking to trade Alvarez but obviously were unable to do so.
Pirates GM Neal Huntington on trade offers for Alvarez: "Nothing. ... It was surprisingly quiet."
— Bill Brink (@BrinkPG) December 3, 2015
Two years ago Alvarez led the NL with 36 home runs. He hit .243/.318/.469 (114 OPS+) with 27 home runs in 2015. Alvarez has averaged 28 homers and a 111 OPS+ the past three seasons, making him a legitimate power threat in this low offense era.
Defensively, Alvarez is a butcher at third base and merely very bad at first base. The team moved him to first full-time this past season and the result was a league-leading 23 errors. To be fair, inexperience was certainly a factor. Either way, Alvarez earns his money at the plate.
Alvarez was the second overall pick in the 2008 draft -- the Rays took shortstop Tim Beckham first overall -- and the first draft pick of the GM Neal Huntington era. Fair or not, he represented a new era of Pirates baseball and was a big part of the team's recent resurgence, often hitting cleanup behind Andrew McCutchen.
Teams looking at free-agent masher Chris Davis may now turn to Alvarez as a much cheaper alternative. He provides big left-handed power but could use a platoon partner, and probably shouldn't see many innings in the field. Power pays and I wouldn't expect Alvarez to have much trouble finding a new team.
