Saturday, July 21st, 2007 by Adam Wagner
Cesar or Brutus?
The Cesar Izturis trade is apparently the first of several that Dave Littlefield plans to make in his quest for mediocrity. The obvious issue that the trade brings about is Jack Wilson’s status as a Pittsburgh Pirate, now that the team has officially traded for a player that is essentially a clone of Wilson.
Littlefield keeps claiming that Izturis was simply traded for in order to add “infield depth,” which makes sense on one hand considering that Jose Bautista is out until August, Jose Castillo is simply not performing, and the less time Don Kelly spends on a major league roster the better. In another sense, however, it does not make sense, as Izturis is known to be one of Jim Tracy’s favorite players, the Pirates have essentially five of the same player (Castillo, Izturis, Matt Kata, Freddy Sanchez, and Wilson), and Wilson is owed a lot of money over the next two and a half seasons.
As a player, Wilson and Izturis are extremely similar, with Izturis being able to play second and third base in addition to shortstop and Wilson being a little better hitter. Wilson has a little pop in his bat, which Izturis completely lacks; the main difference, however, is age. Izturis is 27 while Wilson is 29. Both are shortstops who depend on their gloves to keep them in employment, so Izturis’ age is probably a plus for him.
All of that, however, has been hashed and rehashed by the local media way too many times. The main issue that has completely ignored is that the Cubs were trying to trade Izturis for weeks and were only able to get a player to be named later, even after they agreed to pay most of his contract. Compare that to Jack, who has posted somewhat better offensive stats and has shown himself to be a dependable fielder, but is gaining age rapidly, potentially losing a step in the field, has had attitude problems (the Colborn Incident and the slacking earlier this year), and has a significant contract. The players are similar, with all of that taken into account. If a player to be named was all that the Cubs were able to receive for Izturis, the Pirates can not reasonably expect better in a trade for Wilson.
It almost seems as if the Pirates would be better off trading someone like Castillo, if only to lessen the glut of middle infielders (of course, this would be typical Pirates, trading someone at the nadir of their value) and keep both Wilson and Izturis. The main problem is that there are six players for three positions, which is ridiculous. The Pirates have much larger problems than these three positions, but Littlefield seems to have begun collecting middle infielders/weak-hitting third basemen like he usually collects relief pitchers.
In the end, the Izturis trade probably will spell the end of Jack Wilson in Pittsburgh, be it in the next two weeks or the next six months. What remains to be seen is how that in any way makes the Pirates a better team.
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