The Pirates announced today that shortstop Jordy Mercer has been placed on the disabled list with a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee as well as a lower leg contusion. The injury, which comes with a recovery time of approximately six weeks, per the team, was sustained on a controversial takeout slide (video link) by Brewers center fielder Carlos Gomez.
To fill Mercer’s spot on the roster, the Pirates selected the contract of Brent Morel. First baseman Corey Hart was transferred to the disabled list to make room for Morel on the 40-man roster.
The loss of Mercer further depletes Pittsburgh’s infield depth. Starting third baseman Josh Harrison is already on the shelf for up to six more weeks with a torn ligament in his thumb, which has caused offseason pickup Jung Ho Kang to shift into a full-time role at the hot corner. Presumably, Kang will now take over as the club’s shortstop, with Morel playing third base. As Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review tweets, acquiring a right field upgrade probably becomes a luxury for the Pirates, with the focus shifting to a third base upgrade.
The list of third base candidates believed to be available is relatively limited, with Aramis Ramirez from Milwaukee standing out as the most oft-mentioned possibility. Atlanta’s Chris Johnson, of course, is available, though his contract has stood as a significant road block. His Braves teammate, Kelly Johnson, is a versatile bat that could potentially play some third base in the short term. Utility options such as Cliff Pennington and Clint Barmes, who was with the Pirates from 2012-14, could potentially be acquired to step in at shortstop, with Kang remaining at third base.
That was a terrible slide, only way you should be allowed doing that is if it’s at the base, at least its not as obvious as to what you’re trying to do
It was an ugly play all around. Mercer came in from a weird angle thanks to the shift and ran directly into the baseline and Gomez had to do something to try to avoid running square into him. The choice of that awful slide was probably not the correct one, but not sure what else he should have done.
He broke up the double play and thats what your supposed to do.Mercer is at as much fault as Gomez.Mercer shouldn’t have put himself in that position to get hurt.
Or Gomez shouldn’t have slid way off the bag. You cant blame the guy for making the play and getting away from the bag. You can blame the guy for going well of the bag to slide into him. I get that it is a thing in baseball to break up DP, but still on to of the bag is fine, this is not and honestly, for most people it wouldn’t be such a big deal, if it wasn’t Gomez. He has so many of these incidents and fights, how could you blame anyone else?
He didn’t make the play and get away from the bag, he ran into the baseline to make a tag on the runner. It was not a typical force play where a guy slid out of the path to intentionally hit the fielder. Gomez had to run him over, stop and give up, run out of the baseline, or try that crazy slide.
Maybe it was unintentional, but i think Gomez should be more careful. In my opinion, MLB shoud consider punish players in situations which more relevant physical damages occurs (regardless of fault).
I don’t think the slide was dirty. You can either stop and let them get a free double play, or you can try to get down and atleast make him come down with a tag to get you, buying time for your runner to get to 1st.
I think Gomez will probably wear one at some point, but I don’t have any problem with the slide.
That’s baseball. Accidents happen, you said it better than I could have.
This is great for the White Sox from a trade perspective. This time yesterday, if the White Sox wanted to trade Alexei Ramirez, they would need to either eat a substantial amount of money or throw in a lotto prospect while not getting much of a return or they would be forced to lose Conor Gillaspie on waivers. Now, they have 2 prime trade chips for a light market on infield. Gillaspie likely wouldn’t get them much (maybe a low level piece), however, Ramirez could snag them at least a B level AA prospect (like 15-25 in the organization) and while they would still need to send at least $1m, they wouldn’t be eating a ton of money of the $5.5m still owed (Including the buyout). its a shame how it happened though and I wish Jordy Mercer a speedy recovery.
Teams hoping to reach/compete in the play-offs will be seeking upgrades to their rosters, not downgrades to what they already have. Neither Ramirez, nor Gillaspie, offer even minimal potential to any MLB team, as a 3B option- not enough power, batting average, speed, or defense.
Come on Arthur. Surely prospective playoff teams are saying Gillaspie or Ramirez are exactly what we need. Lol.
Ramirez and Gillaspie are definitely better than Morel or Rodriguez. Also, there isn’t a strong market for middle infield right now, therefore unless the Pirates want to pay out of the nose for Zobrist or LeMahieu, then they should pursue what’s available to them on the cheap. Also, Mercer will likely return next season, as well as a possible Hanson call-up therefore, rather than taking on an albatross contract like Johnson or Phillips or Gyorko or Infante, they would be taking a chance on a guy who can be had cheaply and has an expiring contract at the end of the season, therefore minimizing the risk of crowding. I just threw Gillaspie out there, Ramirez is who I was really looking at. He is a year removed from an all star season and perhaps a change of scenery would do him well. While he is not ideal, he is indeed an upgrade to what the Pirates currently have at short with Kang moving to third.
Gillaspie will bring back nothing. Poor glove & an awful year at the plate, been fighting plantar fasciitis also. Ramirez may bring slight salary relief but only a cursory prospect at this point.
Mercer got himself injured by unnecessarily running into the basepath to tag the runner. He should have pitched to 2nd to complete the play.
I could see the Braves trading Chris Johnson and Juan Uribe for Jordy Mercer and Josh Harrison straight up. Then put Mercer and Harrison on the 60 DL to wait for the injury to heal by next spring.
Thats such an awful trade for the Pirates on so many levels.
You’d have to add Uribe to Johnson just to reach the point where the Pirates might just take them with no players going back.
I was tjinking more along the lines of Kelly Johnson going to Pittsburgh. Not in lineup for braves tonight. Could a deal be in the works. Could be had for not much pure rental having a nice season
No. Never.
Both players were at fault. Gomez was running hard to make it to 2nd to break up the play, but Mercer decided to lunge into the baseline to tag him. So Gomez reacted by sliding instead of running into him standing up. Heck Mercer might have gotten banged up regardless. I think it would have been different if Gomez thought he might go to tag him, but it looked like Gomez was expecting it to be flipped to 2nd(like any normal person would have done).
Pirates fans – what would you give up for Ben Zobrist? Alen Hansen + Elias Diaz is one idea.
Maybe one. Definitely not both
Definitely not both
Both would be hard to swallow. Of our catchers, id prefer to lose the more highly ranked prospect (McGuire) to Diaz. Hanson may be more expendable, though he’d be a steep price to pay for a rental of a declining bat. I like Zobrist a lot though.
How about Freddy Galvis for Josh Bell?
How about Travis Ishikawa for Aaron Nola?
More like Tabata and all of his contract for Galvis
Tabata was DFAed the end of June, playing triple A now. Interesting, thought.
Throw in Glasnow and it seems pretty fair.
how about pick up Gillaspie and move on. Sean Rod will provide some pop around the diamond for a bit. – Cliff Pennington maybe.
No big trade needed. Alvarez has been no better in the field at 1st than at 3rd. Put him back at 3B and platoon Ishikawa and Rodriguez until Harrison comes back. OR…..make a trade with the Dodgers for Guerrero to play 3rd…….
Guererro is interesting. But no way Alvarez goes back to third.
If they trade for Guerrero, Alvarez stays at 1st, of course. Guerrero can MASH, and needs some job security after being treated like a “red-headed step child” in LA……Pirates could give him a long leash and see what he’s got.
One key difference to Alvarez moving back to 3rd base. When he makes one of his errors at 1st base, it is usually for a single base. When he makes one of his offline throws, or throws a “rainbow into the stands”, from 3rd base, the end result is usually a two base error. Believe it or not, Alvarez is a much safer bet to play first base for the Pirates than to attempt to play 3rd base again.
Agreed…..and there seems to be plenty of “bodies” available to fill the void at 3B……certainly more than at 1B. Aaron Hill could probably be had for a portion of his salary, and he’d be adequate at 3B until Harrison came back (stop laughing….lol…)…..Wil Middlebrooks is also available ……and almost free! Actually, they should have signed Casey McGehee when he was released……….
I’d imagine the Pirates have already called the Padres on Barmes. They need a glove-first backup ss anyways, even when Mercer is back. I think they should also take a long look at Van Slyke to man 1B.