Well this one should be pretty easy. Joel Hanrahan and Brock Holt were traded to the Boston Red Sox right after Christmas. I combined both of these since they went together and honestly I just won’t have enough to write about either one now that they are gone.
You can read all about that trade here, here, here, and here.
Hanrahan was obviously a great asset for the Pirates. He helped this team win a lot of games and the numbers really bear that out. The closer role may be overvalued, but the Pirates problem is the proper valuation of the closer role, it’s having talent on the field. Hanrahan was talent on the field. He is being replaced by some pretty big question marks, which I’ve covered at some length in the four linked articles above.
Brock Holt? He was a marginal prospect to begin with. His bat could secure him a spot on an MLB roster coming off the bench. His glove will likely keep him from being a big league regular. Still, the Pirates have never necessarily been stacked when it comes to reserve players, so even moving Holt, no matter how small his role would be, might be a bit of a downgrade. Enough to get upset about? No. Still, enough to make a slight difference here and there.
And if we’ve learned anything from watching this team the past two years, it’s that the small here and there’s tend to make a big difference.
Roster Watch: Pedro Alvarez
Roster Watch: Rod Barajas
Roster Watch: Clint Barmes
Roster Watch: A.J. Burnett
Roster Watch: Jeff Clement
Roster Watch: Kevin Correia
Roster Watch: Chase d’Arnaud
Roster Watch: Eric Fryer
Roster Watch: Jason Grilli
Roster Watch: Matt Hague
