As we sit at the All-Star Break, the Pirates are surprisingly in first place. Even more stunning is the fact that they are 11 games over .500 at 48-37. The dynamics of this season have shifted dramatically from not only the start of the season, but even in the last 3 weeks. Now it's not just that this team could eke out enough wins to break the 81 win mark, but (to the dismay of Jim Mora) there is legitimate talk of making the playoffs.
To that end, there have been some strong rumors in recent days about players the Pirates are sniffing around. One of which is Padres outfielder, Carlos Quentin. Quentin would not be my first choice for slugging outfielder, as I have stated in the past that would be Josh Willingham. But the Padres seem motivated to sell and the Pirates are motivated to buy, so here we are.
Quentin is a slugger. Pure and simple. Not stolen base quota from him. Not a lot of average and just an average amount of walks. And certainly no defensive ability. But he does hit dingerz and chicks do dig the long ball.
Quentin was hurt at the start of the season, but in the 33 games he has played he has hit like a ball of fire. His line on the season to date is .268/.406/.518 (924 OPS, 1.7 WAR). His career line is .253/.349/.491 (840 OPS), so there may be some regression to the mean in store. Quentin's career WAR total is skewed by the utter disdain that defensive metrics (and the eye test) hold for his defensive disabilities. However, his career wOBA is a nice .364, so he would be here for his stick and not his glove.
The 29 year old San Diego native is being paid $7.025M this season and he is a free agent at the end of the year. If you assume 1.7 WAR for the remainder of the season (to allow for some regression), that's a WAR value of $8.5M. Subtracting 3/8 of his salary, to account for the remaining games after a July 31st trade, he would have a trade surplus number of $5.87M. That's roughly a grade B hitter on John Sickel's list (think Robbie Grossman) or a slight overpay would be a grade B pitcher (think Nick Kingham).
Quentin would replace Garret Jones in RF, with Jones moving into a strict 1B platoon with McGehee. Both Jones and Quentin have roughly the same isolated powers this year (.250 to .239), but Quentin has more on-base ability and is not a platoon player. Quentin would slide nicely into the cleanup spot and give protection for Andrew McCutchen, while also allowing Pedro Alvarez to hit in the 5 hole potentially.
