The Pittsburgh Pirates are close to a deal with Brandon Inge, according to Danny Knobler of CBS Sports.
Brandon Inge is close to a deal with the Pirates. Minor-league deal with spring invite. cbsprt.co/X6iavW
— DKnobler (@DKnobler) February 13, 2013
Inge would be coming in on a minor league deal with an invite to Spring Training. He split time with Oakland and Detroit last year, combining for a .218/.275/.383 line in 303 at-bats. He’s never hit for average on a consistent basis, but he has shown some power throughout his career, including two seasons with 27 homers. Last year he had 12 homers. In his career he has been much better against left-handers (.791 OPS) than right-handers (.651 OPS). He’s also very versatile, playing second base, third base, all three outfield spots, and catching in his career. Most of his time has been spent at third, and he hasn’t caught since 2008.
Inge will probably compete for a utility spot off the bench, and seems more likely to serve as depth in Triple-A. He’s an interesting option for his platoon splits, since the Pirates don’t have many platoon guys who can hit left-handers. However, Gaby Sanchez is filling that role in the only platoon the team currently has.
February 12, 2013 at 8:02 pm
Inge would be better than Harrison
February 12, 2013 at 8:09 pm
I politefully disagree. How much defensive versatility does Inge offer? How many bases could Inge steal this year, you think? Regardless, there are still going to be at least two bench bats ahead of them, so the greatest benefit for the team would be Harrison’s ability to play 2B, SS, 3B, and OF, in addition to the speed he can offer.
February 12, 2013 at 8:14 pm
I realize there was mention to Inge’s defensive versatility, but watching him play the last several years, I just don’t believe that to be reality; not at this point in his career anyhow. No offense to him, I just wouldn’t consider him to be a greater asset than Harrison.
February 12, 2013 at 9:48 pm
I would say Inge is versatile. He can hit .220 and strike out in 25%-30% of his AB wherever you put him. The defense is good and nice to have a very good emer catcher…but Harrison’s speed doesn’t really mean a lot when he gets on less than 30% of the time. You hope somebody steps up and has a decent year off the bench. I dont care who it is. I like DeJesus better than both these guys…at least his potential to play an all around game while not hacking at everything or k’ing excessively.
February 12, 2013 at 11:44 pm
It’s time to give Jordy Mercer a shot. He put up good numbers at AAA and AA the last two years.
February 13, 2013 at 3:26 am
Please remove SS and OF from that. Putting him there doesn’t mean they should…it’s embarrassing
February 12, 2013 at 9:25 pm
Read your own description and recognize a pinch hitter.
February 12, 2013 at 9:54 pm
All they need now is a reliever or 2.
February 12, 2013 at 11:03 pm
So, anyone hear what happened at Spring Training today if anything?
February 13, 2013 at 10:17 am
There is no way this guy could outperform Jordy mercer, Pedro Alvarez, Josh Harrison, anybody in consideration for 3B playing time.
BTW can we please can Barmes. My goodness.
February 13, 2013 at 1:41 pm
Yeah, I can’t believe they put up with one of the best defensive short stops in the league last year. That’s just ridiculous.
The truth is that there wasn’t an SS option that would have made up enough offensively last year to counter balance the loss in defensive production that Barmas brought to the table, and that’s the truth. Oh, btw, Barmas hit .229 with 8 HRs, so not as bad as everyone says I think. Maybe they would’ve been able to find someone to hit .260, but not much more. Not to mention that if you’d trade a guy that could’ve won a GG at short stop last year for .030 more points in AVG and at most 4 or 5 HRS and well below average defense, you probably don’t know much about baseball.