Pittsburgh Pirates Out of Kevin Youkilis Talks
By Matt Shetler
For about six weeks now, Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Neal Huntington has been shopping for a bat.
While he’s likely still trying to do that, it appears you can cross the name Kevin Youkilis off the list.
FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi have reported that while the Bucs have been one of the teams in on Youkilis, they have also reported that the Bucs have pulled out of the discussions.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Rob Biertempel also reported the same. Yesterday afternoon, Biertempel showed the Pirates interest in Youkilis.
#Pirates are VERY much in mix for Youkillis.
— RobBiertempfel (@RobBiertempfel) June 23, 2012
However an hour later, his sources told him that the Bucs were out of the running.
New source telling me two sides had talked, but #Pirates are "likely" out on Youkillis "at this point."
— RobBiertempfel (@RobBiertempfel) June 23, 2012
All in all that’s probably a good thing right now as while it would be nice to add a productive bat, Youkilis is a 33-year old guy hitting only .225 with 4 HR and 13 RBI. Even though the Red Sox were willing to eat a huge portion of Youkilis’ contract, the Youkilis of 2012 is much different than the Youkilis of just a few years ago.
Neal Huntington will improve this team during the season, but adding Youkilis probably would have bee a reach to begin with.