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After a weekend of head-scratching comments and disheartening news, Neal Huntington tried to lighten the mood on Monday by bringing in a Pittsburgh native and a 25-year-old ex-prospect.

At the beginning of the weekend, it seemed as if Huntington was going to try to pawn Jack Wilson off to the Cardinals along with Matt Morris’ contract, but that fell through when the Cards signed ex-Pirate Cesar Izturis to a one year, $2.85 million contract. Next the rumors came that Huntington was in negotiations to trade LF Jason Bay, perhaps to the Chicago White Sox. Those rumors were quelled when at least one executive bashed Bay’s trade value, apparently letting the new Pirates’ management learn an open secret – that Bay will never be worth less than he is right now. Apparently the Pirates had talks with Cleveland that centered around Kelly Shoppach, a 27-year-old backup catcher who can not possibly be the main component in a package for one of the best offensive players in the game two of the last three seasons. If Huntington gets a package centered around Shoppach, it will further prove that he is a general manager incapable of seeing the forest because of the trees as he would be upgrading the catching position at the expense of the rest of his baseball club.

The last rumors involved Xavier Nady and were the most disturbing. They stated that if the Pirates were unable to trade Nady, they would simply non-tender him and receive nothing in return. The original article seemed to cite cost reasons for the potential decision. This would be ridiculous as Nady will probably make about $3.1 million in arbitration, which is more than worth 20 home runs. Even more frustrating, however, was the fact the Dejan Kovacevic somehow learned of these murmurs and printed them. If the Pirate’s front office had cared about the trade value of Nady, they would have kept the decision in-house. Instead, Huntington and his cronies effectively killed whatever trade value Nady may have until at least after December 12th.

These developments have led to a new outlook on the Winter Meetings for Huntington, as he now seems to be focused on improving the team through methods other than trades.

The Pirates are apparently deep in negotiations with Chris Gomez, a pretty awful reserve infielder who somehow hit .297 last year with a roughly .700 OPS. He is, however, the player the team is in negotiations with. They actually picked two other players up off of waivers today.

SS Josh Wilson (who coincidentally has almost exactly the same name as Jack) has local roots, as he is a 1999 graduate of Mt. Lebanon High School. Wilson’s career seemed pretty dead before last season when he suddenly set foot on a major league diamond again with both the Washington Nationals and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He is almost certainly worth a roster spot and, at 26, hit .251 last season. Wilson is a potentially valuable bench player, able to fill in at any of the infield spots except first base and even having pitching experience. He is nowhere near the hitter that Josh Phelps was, but will fill in nicely when the Pirates decide to non-tender Jose Castillo. Wilson may be another publicity stunt (see: Kelly, Don . . . another Mt. Lebanon graduate), but he is one with an apparent pedigree who could prove to be of some value to this club immediately if for no other reason than protecting the eyes of Pirate fans from Jose Castillo’s hideous swing.

The other player acquired, Ty Taubenheim, was a Toronto Blue Jays farmhand before becoming the Pirates’ problem. He seems to be a decent enough pitcher, but struggled at AAA last year, posting a 6.37 ERA over 19 games, 16 of which were started. He made one appearance in the major leagues, giving up five runs in five innings. Taubenheim is in the Phil Dumatrait and Jimmy Barthmaier mold of potential ex-prospect who, with the right coaching, could turn into a valuable piece.

The Pirates designated Brad “Big Waste” Eldred and RP Brian Rogers for assignment to add the two players, thereby clearing some of the dead weight off of the roster. Of course, it seems as if they may have added slightly shinier dead weight, but that is the Pittsburgh Pirate way of doing business, after all.

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