PITTSBURGH (AP) -Minutes before the Pittsburgh Pirates left town for a weekend series in Chicago, general manager Neal Huntington sat them down in their clubhouse to tell them he had traded popular outfielder Jason Bay for four young players.
The reaction from a team that remains unsettled by the recent trade of outfielder Xavier Nady to the Yankees was decidedly mixed.
“They’ve lost a friend, they’ve lost a teammate, they’ve lost a brother and that’s not easy,” Huntington said Thursday. “I think for the most part they understand the direction we’re going in, some probably even support the direction we’re going in, but it’s tough.”
Bay, a two-time NL All-Star, was one of the Pirates’ best players since the Barry Bonds days – a player well-liked not only by the fans, but by his teammates. Now, in less than two weeks, the Pirates have dealt two of the three players who formed the NL’s most productive outfield at the All-Star break.
The deal sends Manny Ramirez from the Red Sox to the Dodgers and Bay to Boston as his replacement. Bay’s equipment bag was about to be loaded onto a truck for the flight to Chicago when he learned the news, just when it seemed the 4 p.m. EDT deadline for making a deal had passed.
Three players join the Pirates immediately: outfielder Brandon Moss and right-handed reliever Craig Hansen from the Red Sox and third baseman Andy LaRoche from Dodgers. LaRoche is the younger brother of Pirates first baseman Adam LaRoche, who is on the disabled list with a rib cage injury.
Pittsburgh also gets Bryan Morris, a 21-year-old right-handed starter from the Dodgers who was assigned to Single-A Hickory.
Huntington tried to explain to the players that the Pirates are getting not only quantity but quality, even if Bay’s loss will be difficult to accept immediately.
“You take a player who has performed the way Jason Bay has performed off the team, and you bring in three young players, while 1-2-3-4-5 years from now it should be self-explanatory, right now it’s a shock,” Huntington said. “It’s tough for these guys and tough to adjust to.”
The left-handed hitting Moss looks to be the centerpiece for Pittsburgh. He hit .295 with five doubles, two home runs in 34 games for Boston after hitting .282 with eight doubles and 30 RBIs in 43 games with Triple-A Pawtucket. He will replace Bay in left field.
“He’s a guy who can do everything,” Huntington said.
The Pirates also picked up a top outfield prospect, 19-year-old Jose Tabata, in the Nady trade.
Hansen throws in the mid-90s and is the kind of power pitcher Huntington has been stockpiling since being hired nearly a year ago. Hansen is expected to pitch in the seventh and eighth innings after going 1-3 with a 5.58 ERA and 25 strikeouts, but 23 walks, in 30 2-3 innings as a Red Sox middle receiver.
LaRoche, a right-handed hitter rated as the Dodgers’ second-best prospect by Baseball America when the season started, hit .203 in 27 games with Los Angeles and .293 with five homers and 28 RBIs in 39 games at Triple-A Las Vegas. The Pirates now have LaRoche, Jose Bautista and minor leaguer Neil Walker at third, but Huntington said, “You never have enough talent.”
In the hours before the deadline, the Pirates also talked with Florida and Boston about a three-way trade involving Ramirez. Tampa Bay made a push for Bay. Huntington is convinced the deal he finally made was better than any he could have made during the offseason.
“We felt we had the right deal and moved on,” Huntington said.
Bay, an NL All-Star in 2005 and 2006, is batting .282 with 22 homers and 59 RBIs. He is affordably priced, too, with a 2009 salary of $7.5 million.
Bay, a quiet but strong leader in the Pirates clubhouse since being acquired from San Diego in the August 2003 trade involving Brian Giles, never pushed to be traded by the Pirates despite their ongoing run of 15 consecutive losing seasons – one short of the major league record.
“That’s the silver lining,” Bay said Wednesday night of any trade that sends him to a contender. “If that’s the case, I’ll look forward to that atmosphere.”
To make room for the new players, the Pirates optioned infielder Brian Bixler to Triple-A Indianapolis, designated right-handed reliever Franquelis Osoria for assignment and took oft-injured outfielder Chris Duffy off the 40-man roster, designating him for assignment.
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