Hunter Pence? Again? I'm sure a lot of you are saying this right now and frankly, so was I when I saw Jon Heyman tweet that the Pirates are interested in him....for the third straight trade deadline. I really contemplated even writing a trade target piece for him because I don't know why the Giants would even consider trading him. Well that and my Wi-Fi was pretty messed up. Anyways, the Giants are only 5.5 games back in the NL West right now even though they are well below .500 record wise. So, I guess they could trade Pence because he's in the last year of his deal and I decided to do a quick little target page for Pence.
Pence is putting up lower numbers than usual this year but he's batting for more power. He has 14 HRs, 49 RBIs, and a slash of .263/.308/.451 OPS .759. That's not stellar but it isn't bad either. I would expect some regression back to his career averages of 25 HRs, 92 RBIs, and slash of .283/.336/.472 OPS .808. That would be a nice kick for the offense. Pence can also defend in right field although he usually looks like the most awkward human being alive. I know most bloggers don't like to look at this stat but I still do because it has merit for the Pirates, but he are Pence's numbers with RISP, .224/.286/.411 OPS .697 this year and on his career it is .283/.342/.475 OPS .817. So I would also expect him to jump back to the mean on this too. Are there any issues with bringing in Pence?
The first thing I thought of when I saw Pence's numbers is Alex Rios. He is just like Rios but just has slightly more power. But Rios also has more control. Pence would be a rental but that could be better because Gregory Polanco should be ready by next June. Rios though would seem to come much cheaper. That leads me to my second issue. The price it's going to take to bring him in. Heyman noted in his article that the Giants would have to be "overwhelmed" to trade Pence. I hate that term. I don't know why they would need to be overwhelmed since Pence is in the final year of his deal and the Dodgers are red hot and will most likely run away with the division. Nonetheless, it's hard to explain trading away a big piece of your team when you just won the World Series last season. So, I would not give up a ton for Pence when I could get a similar guy like Rios for much less.
Just like the past two seasons, I don't think Pence is in the cards for the Pirates. He's a gifted player for sure, that is unquestioned, but it's just going to take too much to get him. The Giants have no real good reason to sell and they are still contending. Although Pence is in the last year of his deal, I think the Giants want to re=sign him or at least make that attempt. I think it would be much safer to just go after someone like Rios, who I'm still not fond of, and not overpay like the Rangers did today for Matt Garza. It would be nice to have Pence's pop in the middle of the order, but I just don't see him being traded for the third year in a row.
UPDATE: Matt Garza was traded to the Cubs today for Mike Olt, CJ Edwards, and Justin Grimm. To put that into perspective, that's like the Pirates trading Gregory Polanco, Tyler Glasnow, and Kyle McPherson for Garza. If that was the asking price, I'm glad the Pirates didn't bite and I'm glad the Rangers did. Good thing is that it limits the Rangers from making other deals, like for Rios, but the bad thing is it sets a bad precedent for big prices for other starters that are available. Also, if you have been out of it Jason Grilli left tonight's save opportunity with "right forearm discomfort". That's the same description that was used to describe Wandy's injury and Jeanmar Gomez's injury earlier this year. So, depending on the severity the Pirates could be back in the relief pitching market looking for a set up man.
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