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Since taking over as Pirates general manager in the fall of 2007, Neal Huntington has been almost singularly focused on rebuilding the Pirates' ravaged farm system. This has necessitated trades of some of their best and most popular players, including Jason Bay, Nate McLouth, and Nyjer Morgan, which has seriously upset the more impatient Pirate fans, who are about to endure a 17th straight losing season. With this in mind, it's a bit of a surprise to hear that the Pirates front office has offered both Jack Wilson and Freddy Sanchez contract extensions. Both players have 2010 options, Wilson's is a team option worth $8.4 million and Sanchez's is a vesting option worth $8 million if he reaches 600 plate appearances, that are a bit pricey for the Pirates' tastes, and as a result both were previously thought to be on the trade block.
An interesting aspect of this situation is that Sanchez and Wilson have been friends for years, dating back to their youth in California, and it's expected that they'll either accept or reject the offers in tandem. The talks are also complicated by the quickly approaching July 31st trade deadline; if the team can't reach deals with either player then they'll likely look again to trade them.
On one hand, extending Wilson and Sanchez would give the Pirates some stability at two positions that they have almost no depth at in Pittsburgh or the upper minors. Both players are very solid defensively and have played big roles in the turnaround of the team's pitching staff which is one of the more positive developments in Pittsburgh this year.
On the flip side, the Pirates are probably two or three years away from truly contending and Wilson and Sanchez are both 31 years old with injury histories, which suggests they may not have more than two or three good years left in them. In that light, extending them would be a futile lateral move that takes the focus away from where it needs to be, the minor league system.
Then again, it's always possible that the Pirates are looking to leverage contract talks with these two players into a higher trade value or simply to play to the angry fans before trading away the two most popular players remaining on the team. It's just never easy to tell what's going on when a team is in the situation the Pirates are in.
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