MLB impact: Ranking baseball’s decision makers for 2018: Part 1
By Bill Felber
T-25. Neil Huntington, Pittsburgh Pirates, -8.4 games
Huntington’s problem was his farm system. Thirteen farm system products dotted Pittsburgh’s roster, but only one – pitcher Edgar Santana – produced a net positive WAA.
Three – pitcher Nick Kingham (-1.1) and Dovydas Neverauskas (-1.3) along with infielder Kevin Newman (-1.2) produced values wore than -1.0. It is, of course, possible that those players eventually justify the short-term pain they brought with long-term gains.
The net impact of Pirate rookies was -7.2 games, the worst among rookie classes by a substantial margin.
Huntington had a decent although not active free agent season. He signed only two who produced value for the Pirates, but those two – Ryan Lavarnway and Richard Rodriguez – generated a net of +1.5 WAA. Factoring in the three free agents Pittsburgh lost or let leave, the overall impact was +0.7.
Huntington was an active dealer, moving 10 players out of Pittsburgh and bringing in a dozen. His decision to ship pitcher Gerrit Cole to Houston for Colin Moran, Joe Musgrove and two minor leaguers backfired big-time when Cole blossomed into the star the Pirates had always expected him to be. Cole went 15-5 with a 2.88 ERA that translated to +3.4 WAA. Moran and Musgrove, meanwhile, were filler pieces.
Huntington did score with the February acquisition of outfielder Corey Dickerson from Tampa Bay for a pair of minor leaguers. A regular, Dickerson batted .300 with 13 home runs and 55 RBIs, good for +2.0 WAA. His shipping of David Freese to Los Angeles helped the Dodgers short-term, but will probably be meaningless to Pittsburgh’s future plans.
The more highly publicized trade of prospects Tyler Glasnow and Austin Meadows for Chris Archer may become consequential, but was a non-factor in 2018. Meadows and Glasnow produced 0.0 WAA for Tampa Bay, while Archer netted the Pirates +0.1.