Dejan Kovacevic on potentially dealing Freddy Sanchez:
The view from here? If Sanchez is traded, it almost surely will be about money. Take it to the bank.
Now maybe this is true, and maybe it isn't. But what business does a beat writer have saying something like this without citing any evidence? (If I've missed something here, please let me know.) Let's say, hypothetically, that some team calls the Pirates and offers their top three prospects for Sanchez. Is there any chance that trade will be evaluated fairly?
I suppose I don't really care what the motivations for a trade are as long as it produces good results, but look, it's really not hard. Sanchez isn't going to be a part of the next good Pirates team. Young players they acquire for him might be. So it could be to the Pirates' advantage to deal him, even if that deal happens to save them money. If the Pirates' goal was to save money rather than to win, they wouldn't be spending on stuff like the draft and the Dominican academy. Their strategy has been almost entirely consistent--they're building through the farm system and trading veterans for younger players. It's an incredibly basic and obvious strategy for a team in the Pirates' position to be pursuing.
I'm not aware of any evidence that the major veteran-for-prospect trades that have happened so far (Jason Bay, Xavier Nady, Nate McLouth) have been motivated by money. So why would this one, if it happens, be any different? If anyone has any evidence that it's going to be different, and not just some half-baked conspiracy-theory stuff motivated by leftover resentments from the Kevin McClatchy era, let's hear it.