Jayson Stark reports that the Pirates probably won’t do anything today, and that they will instead see what is available in August, according to teams that have been talking with them.
Likelihood is growing that #Pirates won't do anything today & see what's out there in August, according to several teams talking with them
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) July 31, 2013
He also says in another Twitter update that a lot of teams are saying they have nothing going on, and that this has been a slow deadline.
Can't believe all the teams who say they have virtually nothing going. Exec:"I think this goes down in history as deadest deadline day ever"
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) July 31, 2013
All morning we’ve been hearing about how the Pirates aren’t going after guys heavily, rather than how they are pursuing guys. They have no more than lukewarm interest in Alex Rios. They don’t seem to be aggressively pursuing Bud Norris. They are looking at David DeJesus and Nate Schierholtz, and you can also add Luke Gregerson to that mix.
I think there’s still a possibility of a move being made. You could chalk these comments up to posturing to try and get prices down. At the same time, this has been an extremely slow deadline all around the league. Hopefully MLB does something to change that this off-season by moving the deadline back to August. They already have the waiver trade deadline on August 31st, which allows teams to trade in August using the waiver system. The problem with that approach for the Pirates is that they have the best record in the NL. If they wanted to add a player, he would have to pass through every team in the NL if he was waived by an NL team, or every team in baseball if he was waived by an AL team. So it’s not like the Pirates will have a lot of opportunities in August, unless the Reds and Cardinals allow some players to fall through (or unless the Pirates slip in the standings behind one of those teams).
