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Pirates Scouting First Baseman Mike Carp

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According to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe, the Pittsburgh Pirates have been scouting first baseman Mike Carp of the Boston Red Sox. He also mentions that the Milwaukee Brewers have been looking at Carp. Early in the off-season, there were a lot of teams interested in Carp, but the Red Sox were asking a lot in return.

Carp would give the Pirates a 27-year-old lefty first baseman with three years of control left. He is due to make $1.4 M this year, coming off a season in which he hit .296/.362/.523 in 86 games for the Red Sox. He had just 28 plate appearances against left-handed pitchers in 2013 and in his five big league seasons, he is hitting .295/.337/.455 in 156 at-bats against lefties. Those numbers are actually slightly better than his numbers against right-handed pitchers.

He is seen as a platoon option, but his numbers against lefties have actually been decent in limited exposure. Carp has also played left field during his career, including 31 starts there in 2013, so he could also provide outfield depth, though there is obviously a big difference between left field at Fenway Park and left field at PNC Park.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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