MLB Network's Morosi: Harrison Has 'Immense' Trade Value In The Market
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PITTSBURGH (93-7 The Fan)- Things haven't gone so well in the eyes of Pittsburgh fans over the past few days from the Steelers losing to the Jaguars in the Divisional round of the playoffs, to seeing the Pirates trade away their premium pitcher and position player away in Gerrit Cole and Andrew McCutchen.
The next to head out the door is rumored to be second baseman/utility man Josh Harrison. MLB Network's Jon Morosi joined "The Fan Morning Show" on Wednesday and said that while it's not a sure thing, "J-Hay" is valued by other teams as a potential addition.
"I don't think that it's a given that he's going to be traded," said Morosi. "Now, I do think Josh Harrison has immense value in the market right now. Teams love players that can give you above average defense at multiple positions and Josh Harrison can do that. The Yankees are a great fit for Josh Harrison, the Mets are a great fit for Josh Harrison. Especially after some of the reaction perhaps to the Cole trade and the McCutchen trade, the Pirates are going to have to find a way to get significant value back for Josh Harrison for them to feel like it's worth their while to move him in the coming weeks."
During the past few days, when General Manager Neal Huntington is asked about his team he has actively refused to use the word "rebuild." Morosi says that Huntington's actions are speaking louder than his words.
"You look at the division overall and I think you have to be honest with yourself and I believe that through the Pirates' actions, they have been honest with themselves," said Morosi. "They looked at it and said, 'What are our chances to finish ahead of the Cubs, the Brewers and the Cardinals and win the World Series in 2018?' And if their calculation was not very good, you make the moves like they made last week. So, what Neal Huntington says is important, but what he does is more important, more revealing. And what he's done in the last week is trade his best starting pitcher and probably his still best position player."
Jon says that if he was a Pirates fan, he would have been more upset with the organization for their past failures more than the Cole or McCutchen trades.
"I would have much less of an issue with the trades of the last week than the decisions at the deadline in '14 and '15," said Morosi. "By that I mean, both of those years we saw David Price traded in '14, we saw Jon Lester traded, we saw John Lackey traded and if those pitchers had landed with the Pirates, do I think they would have found a way to make up those two games because they were two games in back of the Cardinals and the end of both of those years, could I have imagined a scenario in which they would have finished ahead of the Cardinals in those years and avoided those Wild Card games against Bumgarner and Arrieta in which they were outscored 12-0 combined? That to me is where maybe a different path could have been chosen."
You can hear the entire interview with MLB Network's Jon Morosi on "The Fan Morning Show" above.
