The Post-Gazette reports that the Pirates (and other teams) are considering signing Mark Loretta, presumably to take over the Chris Gomez role. Loretta's late peak with the Padres is now long gone and he'd probably be stretched as a starter, but he played 72 games at shortstop for the Astros in 2007, and he's a notch better than the typical bench infielder. I assume the Pirates aren't planning to have Loretta take over the starting shortstop job if Jack Wilson is traded, but signing Loretta would prevent shortstop from being a complete black hole if the Pirates deal Wilson and don't get a shortstop in return. Signing Loretta thus might make a Wilson trade more likely.