Pittsburgh Pirates: Starling Marte needs to leave to kickstart rebuild
![ST. LOUIS, MO - Aug 10: Pittsburgh Pirates Center field Starling Marte (6) walks off the field disgusted after striking out during a regular season game featuring the Pittsburgh Pirates at the St. Louis Cardinals on August 10, 2019 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, MO. (Photo by Rick Ulreich/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_752,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/6c6fdabdab3eba8751544078ddba5b2a7dfc2cc043d0de606db82d1aaae0c3fb.jpg)
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Starling Marte is a good player who could bring back talent, so he needs to be the first one to go in a Pittsburgh Pirates rebuild.
Starling Marte expressed that he is not excited about the direction of where the Pittsburgh Pirates are going. But he is very excited about the New York Mets, at least in an interview with Hector Gomez of Deportivo.
“They have the power to decide,” Marte said when talking about the state of his current team. “If I had it in me, I would leave at this point because the caliber of players that we have is not enough to compete in a World Series. The Mets have everything. It would be a great opportunity to play with them.”
“The Mets are in position to do that, and it will be an honor to play with them. If it doesn’t happen, I will keep working hard and giving my team all I have,” he added.
If I was Ben Cherington and I saw that, I would have some urgency to get him out of Pittsburgh. Cherington took the Pirates job because he knew it would be his team and it would be his new project. He loves to build a team from the bottom up, so Marte is not going to be part of those plans.
Pirates fans know that their team is going into a rebuild, as there’s no way that they will be able to contend with teams in the NL Central like the Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Brewers, and St. Louis Cardinals because they just don’t have enough talent.
Pittsburgh is not going to be spending money on free agents for a good few years because they aren’t going to be entering their window of contention until at least 2022.
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Fire sale should happen to signal a new direction
Starling Marte needs to be the first domino to fall to kickstart the rebuilding process. He has already that he would love to be with the New York Mets, so Cherington should make Brodie Van Wagenen give him some talent to start replenishing the farm system in return for the longtime member of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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After Marte goes, I would get rid of starters Chris Archer and Trevor Williams, and then all of the other players that could net a good return of young players to try to get the Pirates farm system to be as strong as possible before Ben Cherington’s first draft with the Pirates organization in the summer of 2020.
With that said, Josh Bell, Bryan Reynolds, and Jameson Taillon would be the untouchables if a team called because those three players have the ability to lead a young group and be the core of a winning team down the road.
Next. Pirates make right move with Cherington. dark
But getting back to outfielder Starling Marte, I don’t think it would be in the best interest of both sides for Marte to be in the black and yellow in 2020 because he wants to be on a contending team while the Pittsburgh Pirates are headed in the opposite direction.