Weird Pirates trade idea: Adam LaRoche

Keith Law has an interesting article (Insider-only) on potential offseason acquisitions at the corner infield spots. He lists Mike Napoli as one of the best values available there, and James Loney and Justin Morneau as among the worst. In Morneau's case, Law says that, between Morneau's injuries and his loss of bat speed, there isn't much there anymore, and Morneau might be better served by just retiring.

Law also has a section on trade candidates, and one is Adam LaRoche. The idea is that Ryan Zimmerman's arm makes him a good candidate to move to first, and the Nats can have Anthony Rendon replace Zimmerman at third. Most of the Nats' best relievers are righties, which got me to thinking about the possibility of sending, say, Justin Wilson to Washington for LaRoche. Neal Huntington said on David's radio show yesterday that the Pirates could consider moving a reliever, so at least the outline of that deal makes sense.

... And then I looked up LaRoche's numbers. He isn't coming off a good year, and his excellent performance in 2012 sticks out like a sore thumb. He also has $14 million more on his contract. He doesn't have any surplus value, so he isn't nearly worth a cost-controlled power lefty like Wilson. If you're thinking of doing that, you should just re-sign Morneau instead, even though LaRoche has been good a lot more recently than Morneau has. And as Law notes, the Nationals probably wouldn't want to trade LaRoche anyway. This isn't a great idea, and it shouldn't be Plan A, B or C. It might be worth keeping the basic framework in the back of our minds, though, particularly as a hail-mary if the Pirates can't find a better first baseman some other way.

And just to save everyone's time, I'll go ahead and type out the first dozen comments.

NO.

Nope.

Noooooooooooooo

No way

No

Michael Scott GIF

No

Have you been drinking

0-for-April

@#)$(*@#$@# @#)$(@#*$)

You've got to be kidding

No