Travis Snider Proving Pittsburgh Pirates Make Right Call at Deadline
By Matt Shetler
Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Neal Huntington needed to go out and get a bat at the trade deadline and accomplished that by landing outfielder Travis Snider from the Toronto Blue Jays.
Yet while that may have not been the popular move among Pittsburgh Pirates fans at the time and still may not sit well among those fans now, Huntington made the right call on Snider as he is a guy who can help this team win not only now, but in the future as well.
You still hear complaints that Huntington didn’t go out and acquire Shane Victorino or Hunter Pence at the trade deadline, but let’s take a quick look at how the three players have performed from the trade deadline until now.
Snider: .327 AVG/ .370 OBP/ .449 SLG/ .819 OPS/ 7K/ 4BB
Pence: .222 AVG/ .263 OBP/ .361 SLG/ .624 OPS/ 21 K/ 4BB
Victorino: .260 AVG/ .316 OBP/ .384 SLG/ .700 OPS/7K/ 5 BB
Snider is a good player who fits in nicely with an outfield of Starling Marte and Andrew McCutchen, which is a big reason why the Pirates need him healthy and in the lineup down the stretch.
He’s out producing both guys that everyone wanted the Bucs to get at the trade deadline. But now you have to ask yourself where the Pirates would be had Huntington mortgaged major parts of the future to bring in either Pence or Victorino. There’s a good chance that they wouldn’t be holding a playoff spot today and instead could be scrambling to figure out what moves to make next.
Snider is going to be a nice fixture in the Pirates outfield for a long time to come.
It’s easy to criticize Huntington for making the wrong moves, maybe give him some credit for making the right one in Snider.