Trade Marte right away
For a team needing pitching, dealing their center fielder should fetch arms
Starling Marte turns 31 in October. He has two years left on his contract, and they are the most expensive years. Those items alone make
Marte a classic Pirates trade candidate. Combine them with Bryan Reynolds looking like an enticing heir apparent in center field, and a trade almost seems too obvious.
It also seems quite necessary for a club that needs pitching the way worms need moisture.
Without more legitimate major-league arms, the notion of the Pirates as playoff contender will shrivel and die, if it hasn’t died already in the minds of management.
Either way, the Pirates should trade Marte while he is still marketable. And he is absolutely marketable.
Plenty of contending teams, I would imagine, would be interested in an affordable plus-defender on a 162-game pace for 23 home runs, 29 steals, 113 runs and 191 hits (Marte has missed nine games). And who has a long track record of aboveaverage production.
You can live with the occasional Marte mind melt (three outs to an inning, Starling!) if he is putting up numbers. He hit .298 in May and was off to a scorching start the first three games of June. The time is ripe.
Other teams might look at Marte’s salaries the next two years — $11.5 million and $12.5 million — as a bargain, whereas the Pirates might see them as a burden (they do have a $2 million buyout option either year).
There is one team out there that could suddenly use an outfielder in the worst way, albeit under devastating circumstances.
The Philadelphia Phillies have a need. Andrew McCutchen tore the ACL in his knee in a rundown earlier this week, and it was plain sickening to watch.
First, if McCutchen’s teammate, Jean Segura, hustles to first, then San Diego second baseman Ian Kinsler does not let Segura’s popup drop in order to start a double play. McCutchen then pulled up lame in the unnecessary rundown, and if you’re a Pirates fan, you had to feel like crying.
Later that night, McCutchen tweeted, “Pray for me … please,” and the outpouring was immediate and vast, from fans across the country. Clear evidence of how the classy McCutchen has carried himself through his career.
But this being pro sports, life moves on fast. The firstplace Phillies just traded for Jay Bruce. Now they need another outfielder. And a leadoff man. Marte would be a perfect fit.
If that doesn’t work out, other teams would surely have interest in a player who has both thrilled and confounded Pirates fans for years. As broadcaster Greg Brown put it after a Marte gaffe during a recent game, “Marte will frustrate you. And he will wow you.”
There is no refuting Marte’s productivity. If you believe in the WAR stat, which measures all-around value, Marte has been a star — measuring 5-plus — in as many years as Bryce Harper. That would be three, one fewer than McCutchen, plus a year of 4.9.
And yet, there always seemed to be another level just outside Marte’s reach. He had SuperStar-ling written all over him. The Pirates felt that way, clearly, and still do. They basically told Marte as much in exit meetings after last season.
In spring training this year, in an interview with 93.7 The Fan, team President Frank Coonelly recounted that conversation.
“With Starling it was very clear: You can be and should be the best player on the field and we’re talking our team, the other team, most times we play a baseball game,” Coonelly said. “And we don’t always see that. We need to see that virtually every game that you play.”
You still don’t see that, necessarily, but you do see a guy who can fill a scorecard, sometimes without trying.
Again, going into Wednesday’s game, Marte was on a 162-game pace for 113 runs, 191 hits, 23 home runs and 29 steals.
You’d almost like to see how it would play out with the Pirates, but Marte is going to be gone soon enough no matter what, and this team can’t get anybody out.
It needs pitching the way tulips need sunlight, and Marte is the player who can fetch some.