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Pittsburgh Pirates second baseman Josh Harrison is a candidate to be dealt this winter.

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Harrison Reportedly on the Trade Block

Tuesday, Nov. 29

The Pirates are considering trading Harrison this offseason, according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports. 

Per Rosenthal’s report: “The Pirates tried to re-sign free-agent infielder Sean Rodriguez with the idea of trading Harrison and reallocating dollars to other players, according to major league sources.”

Rosenthal also wrote, “One rival general manager described the Pirates on Thursday as a club that ‘generally’ listens to trade offers for players under long-term control.”

The Pirates find themselves in an interesting situation with Harrison. On one hand, Rodriguez signed with the Atlanta Braves this offseason, taking away the obvious replacement for Harrison. On the other, he is due a guaranteed $18.5 million over the next two seasons, which is a steep price for a player whose offensive production has declined.

In 2016, Harrison, 29, hit .283 with 59 RBI and 57 runs scored, all solid marks. But he hit just four home runs and has only eight homers in the past two seasons combined after ripping 13 in 2014, the year he made the All-Star team.

Harrison remains an excellent fielder, so the Pirates won’t be worse for keeping him this offseason. But his production from 2014 (.315 average with 13 homers, 52 RBI and 77 runs) looks like an outlier season, not the norm.

As Rosenthal noted, the Pirates have Alen Hanson and Adam Frazier waiting in the wings if the team trades Harrison.

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While all eyes will be on the marquee players like Andrew McCutchen, Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner in Wednesday’s National League Wild Card Game at PNC Park, there are a few players who may steal the spotlight and have huge games to help their team advance into the division series. 

One of them is Pittsburgh’s Josh Harrison.

It’s easy to ignore what Harrison has done this season with McCutchen right next to him, but Harrison’s .315 batting average, which was just four points lower than that of NL batting champion Justin Morneau, is something the Giants should be taking seriously.

Consistently the catalyst for the Pittsburgh offense this season, Harrison batted .328 from the leadoff spot and seemed to get even better whenever a clutch hit is needed.

Harrison’s .360 average with one out and .359 average with two outs on the season are impressive enough alone, but what is even more extraordinary is his .392 average with two outs and runners in scoring position. All of those numbers are better than the ones put up by McCutchen this season (.320/.284/.283).

Harrison also seems to enjoy playing against Bumgarner and the Giants.

In five career at-bats against the Giants ace, Harrison has collected four hits, including a homer. In the six games he played against San Francisco this year, Harrison went 6-for-18 and belted three of his 13 homers on the season (including the one off Bumgarner), the most against any opposing team this year.

With more and more teams starting to pitch around McCutchen, it’s important for Harrison to set the tone at the top of the order to take off some of the pressure and ease the tasks for the heart of the order, especially when McCutchen is 2-for-10 against Bumgarner in his career.

Look for Harrison to create some chaos for the Giants on Wednesday in front of what is sure to be a raucous crowd at PNC Park and send the Pirates into NLDS against the Washington Nationals.

Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.

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