The Pirates designated Brandon Moss for assignment to make room for waiver claim Hayden Penn, reports MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch.
Moss, 26, hit .236/.304/.364 in 424 plate appearances for the Pirates last year, playing both outfield corners. Moss is out of options, so he'll have to clear waivers if he's to be sent to the minors. He joined the Pirates at the '08 trade deadline along with Craig Hansen, Bryan Morris, and Andy LaRoche, with the Pirates giving up Jason Bay.
Pirates GM Neal Huntington recently admitted to WEEI's Alex Speier that in hindsight, there was a better deal on the table for Bay. Moss and Hansen have not panned out, and as Speier says, "the value of the deal for Pittsburgh will be determined largely by what happens with LaRoche and Morris."
Now all the Pirates have to do is get rid of Ramon Vazquez, then the roster should be pretty much set.
Assuming some team will claim Moss…can’t say I’m all that sad to see him go. Raynor will be a lot more useful off the bench.
When you go 1 for spring training, this is what happens. The Bay trade is looking pretty sad from the Pirates point of view. Doubtless some team will claim him & go about “fixing him”.
yeah, it does… i still think andy can develop into a pretty solid big leaguer… obviously brian morris is the wildcard here, craig hansen i guess too… but with that weird injury/condition he might never be back. whatre you gonna do though? im happy with every other trade, win some you lose some
I was in Bradenton for 10 days & you could just see him pressing. He hits like a monster in b.p. but once the game starts he can’t get it together. Watch Boston claim him ;>}
As for Andy, he looked good but unless Pedro can’t stick at 3B his future is unclear also – Pedro will be up by June unless he absolutely tanks @ Indy. Aki at 2B now with Delwyn hitting like a slugger behind him so I don’t know if the talked about moved to second will happen.
Good riddens to you Brandon Moss! Woo! Take this as a warning, Kevin Hart!
this is a good day for the Pirates. Good luck this season, John Raynor!
woo hoo
Too bad, I remember watching Moss play in the minors. I thought he’d stick as an average player, especially in Pittsburgh.
Weird huh? The Pirates have talent now. Gotta admit however, seeing Pirates fans’ thoughts of contention is very cool.
It is strange… an end of an era could be coming soon. I don’t think this is the year the Pirates break their losing ways but their certainly on the right track. You have to give a lot of credit to Huntington for his dedication.
Not sure I would give them that much credit. Moss doesn’t belong on any MLB rosters.
I wonder which team will claim him.
If he was an infielder, I would say the Texas but I think the Astros will claim him.
I hope the RED SOX claim him. He was very good for them, even breaking the opening day roster in Japan in 08′. I think they know his strengths & weaknesses and if they got him back he’d thrive again. In my opinion at least.
The Sox dont need him with all the OF they have for now and the future. Drew, Ellsbury, Cameron and Hermida already on the roster. Cant see Moss being any better than those four.
Plus hes a lefty, and we already have too many.
Well, that and they have Reddick and Kalish at Pawtucket, so it’s not like they’d even need him for injury depth. Too bad, he was a good kid.
Actually, the more I think about it – Moss is out of options and would have to go on a 25 man roster for whoever claims him. I’m not sure any team out there is willing to do that. he very well may clear and head back to Indy. Especially with the spring he’s been having.
Neal…I know hindsight is 20-20, but what was the better deal on the table?
The trade still makes no sense to me.
You got to hand it to theo, he traded half a year of manny and two below average prospects for a year and a half of jason Bay, Which now equals a #39 and #57 pick in this years draft. They have one off the best drafting systems out their,
(23) ellsbury,(65) pedroia,(42) buccholz,(57) lester,(114) Paplebon,(243) youk,
Moss was not projected to be much more than a 4th OF, where Hansen was a top prospect and a clear talent, one of those win some and lose some category type players.
What gets me in this, is all the flak Boston is getting for these 2 guys not performing. Can’t see how Boston ever should have been forced to include a top talent like Hansen to begin with, the LAD didn’t exactly provide a load of wealth at the time of the trade it looked like and they didn’t even pay Ramirez the 8M he had left for the season! They got superstar talent, gave back mediocre AAA talent in LaRoche who at that time was not considered nearly as bright a prospect as Hansen was back then and a youngster still in low A ball.
if anybody came out of that deal as swindlers, it was the LAD. Huntington took a crap shoot on a top prospect closer and it back fired. you cannot project with certainty and prospect.
Imagine if Huntington could remake this deal several times he would find one of the teams top talents name was involved would succeed and then he would be happy, but you can’t do that. he had *1* chance at it.
And here I was assured that Moss was at worst an above-average player for the next 6 years. His minor league numbers assured success!
You’re always telling us, Andrew, through your numerous alts that the Red Sox never have a single prospect who is worth anything. Here’s your PROOF. Congratulations.
The Nats will probably pick him up. They can use an outfielder after getting rid of Dukes and he’s better than anyone else they’d throw out there, which isn’t saying much at all.
Anyone know the better offer neal is talking about?
The St. Pete paper had actually announced Bay to the Rays. I know Jeff Niemann was in it. I can’t remember the rest.
sad to see a once promising prospect fall so far.
I still don’t know what NH was thinking when he made that deal. I have said it before and ill say it now, I have liked every move but the Bay trade. That trade was bad from the beginning.
And another example of why the Pirates are where they are. When you hear the GM saying this.
“Pirates GM Neal Huntington recently admitted to WEEI’s Alex Speier that in hindsight, there was a better deal on the table for Bay.”
Pirates fans ought to hold their ownership to account, it starts right there before they blame anything else in baseball.
Explains a lot as to why the Marlins and Rockies can come into the league after the Pirates last made the playoffs and those two teams have made the playoffs and the Marlins have won 2 titles.
The proposed Rays deal was Jeff Niemann and Reid Brignac for Bay. Niemann looks good for the Rays and Brignac, although he’s regressed a bit from that time, still looks like a promising SS prospect the Pirates would love to have right now. At least NH has the gonads to admit he f’ed this one up. In all reality though, Andy LaRoche was a HIGHLY touted prospect
I’m surprised that no one mentioned the supossed Jason Bay to the Braves trade…. mlbtraderumors.com/2008/07/pirates-owners.html
However, I wonder if anything brewed with Jason going to the Mets or Yankees?
he has never really been good for the pirates