Ken Rosenthal had the following tweet this morning about the Pittsburgh Pirates and Shane Victorino.
Things can change quickly over next 31 hours, but #Pirates did not seem alive on Victorino as of late last night. #Phillies
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 30, 2012
As Rosenthal notes, things could change between now and tomorrow’s deadline. The news is a bit surprising, as we’ve heard the Pirates connected to Victorino a lot this summer. Of course, on the other side of those talks, Jeff Passan reports that the Phillies are more aggressive in dealing Hunter Pence than they are Victorino. The Phillies are looking to unload some salary next year, and by dealing Pence they’d be getting rid of $3.7 M this year, and upwards of $14 M next year. Victorino is a free agent following the season, so he would have zero impact on reducing next year’s payroll.
+ postsTim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.
I’d disagree with the assessment that the Pirates have connected to Victorino a lot this summer. There was one report that said the Phillies wanted Lincoln and the Pirates countered with Hughes. The Phillies declined that offer. All the other reports were just piggybacking off of that one report.
Here’s the Victorino archives.
http://18.206.184.11/?s=shane+victorino&x=0&y=0
A lot of the early talk was more speculation and matching a team looking for an outfielder with a team who would potentially be dealing an outfielder. But the actual connection has been more than just the Lincoln/Victorino talk. There was reported interest before that offer.