So the Pirates have won the auction for South Korean shortstop Jung-ho Kang. Well, they’ve actually won just the auction for the right to negotiate with Kang. But after bidding $5 million for that right, it’s fairly hard to imagine the Corsairs not making an offer Kang can’t refuse. But once he’s in the fold, what should the Bucs do with him?
Well, MLB.com’s Phil Rogers has some ideas about that:
Kang is listed at 6-feet, 180 pounds, but reports say he's got a heavy lower body, which limits his range. While playing on turf fields in Korea, he has waited back to field balls, trusting his arm to get outs. He'll have to move differently if he makes it to PNC Park but he has two things going for him -- the Pirates are as smart as any team in defensive positioning, and his solid arm gives him the flexibility to move to third base if that's needed. The Bucs are planning to shift Pedro Alvarez to first base to open third for Josh Harrison, who may have had as much to do with them returning to the playoffs as (Andrew) McCutchen, but Harrison has shown he can play all over the field.
After reading Jeff Sullivan’s report on Kang, I don’t believe he (Kang) can play shortstop reasonably well enough. There’s been some talk about Kang shifting to second base instead, but ... well, here are last season’s MVPs – Most Valuable Pirates – as measured by Baseball-Reference.com’s Wins Above Replacement, along with their current spot on the depth chart:
1. Andrew McCutchen – Center field
2. Russell Martin – Blue Jay
3. Josh Harrison – Third base (mostly)
4. Starling Marte – Left field
5. Neil Walker – Second base
6. Jordy Mercer – Shortstop
Granted, neither Walker nor Mercer were brilliant last season, nor figure to play brilliantly next season. But both were roughly three wins better than replacement-level, and it’s not likely that Korea’s Kang the Conqueror will do better. I mean, he might be perfectly capable of something tremendous ... but how would anyone know, even the canniest of scouts and sabermetricians, based on what they’ve seen in Korea and a few weeks of spring-training competition? It would take a lot for me to throw over one of those aforementioned regulars for the stocky shortstop with the big power. Equivalencies? Considering that not a single South (or North) Korean hitter has ever played an inning of Major League Baseball, you’ll have a hard time finding any meaningful equivalencies. Forget the sabermetrics, or most of them anyway. This is almost pure scouting.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
But you’ve gotta be pretty damn sure before you trade Walker or Mercer, two good young players in the primes of their careers; Mercer’s still cheap, and Walker’s salary is hardly unreasonable.
Ah, but what about Harrison? He’s coming off an All-Star season, yes. It’s also the best season of his career BY A LOT, and he just might be more valuable as a super-utilityman, playing not every day, but rather somewhere almost every day. And I’m not so sure the Pirates are moving Pedro Alvarez to first base so Harrison can play third base; I think it’s got just as much to do with the failures of Ike Davis and Gaby Sanchez, plus Alvarez’s .924 fielding percentage at third base last season. That latter fellow hit 36 home runs (and won a Mel Ott Award!) in 2013, so you want him in the lineup most of the time. And with the Pirates still playing the old-fashioned way, you have to find a place somewhere in the field for him. At this point, first base seems like the only reasonable way station until he signs with an American League club in a couple of years.
Also, Harrison bats right-handed, while both Alvarez and young right fielder Gregory Polanco are lefties. So there are a couple of obvious ways to get Harrison in the lineup a couple of times per week, especially if management’s tired of waiting for Jose Tabata to find his power stroke.
And again, I’m really not so sure Harrison should be in the lineup more than two or three times per week, considering his pre-2014 track record.
In the short term, it’s a shame that Harrison and Kang aren’t natural platoon partners. But the Pirates now seem blessed with enough good hitters that with the exception of that good-sized hole in the lineup where Russell Martin used to be, they’ll be as good as just about anybody in the National League Central. It’s just too bad they couldn't find a Korean starting pitcher worth outbidding every other team for ...
