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Pedro Alvarez Believes the Time is Right For a Trade

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According to Jon Heyman on CBS Sports, Pedro Alvarez has told people he believes this is the right time for a trade. Heyman points to Camden Yards and the Baltimore Orioles as a possible destination. The park is kind to left-handed hitters and Alvarez obviously has more value as a DH than anywhere on defense. The problem is that his defense limits the trade options for the Pirates and Alvarez is a low on base player, with no speed and a poor track record against left-handed pitchers, posting a .601 OPS over 623 plate appearances during his career. The other factor is that he has one year left until free agency and he will likely receive approximately $8.1M through arbitration according to MLBTR.

All that adds up to someone that the Pirates would like to move, but could have trouble finding anything of value in return. Heyman reported two weeks ago that the Pirates have Alvarez on the trading block, but as Tim Williams pointed out, his low overall value makes him more of a non-tender candidate than a trade candidate, as he could probably be signed for less than his arbitration figure.

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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