Pirates acquire Ike Davis

From the Pirates' press release:

The Pittsburgh Pirates today acquired first baseman Ike Davis from the New York Mets in exchange for minor league right-handed pitcher Zack Thornton and a player to be named.

Selected comments from Pirates' General Manager Neal Huntington following today's trade:

On Ike Davis:

He's done a really nice job against right-handers in his career. He's had two big seasons and two injury plagued seasons. And we're betting our guys can get him back on the right track. We're betting he's a better fit in this ballpark than he was in Citi Field ... He is a very nice complement for Gaby. A guy who we think whose good days are ahead of him again.

Will there be a platoon at first?

Gaby Sanchez career OPS vs. LHP: .900

Ike Davis career OPS vs. RHP: .828

The word platoon gets thrown around a lot. I think this will be where Clint uses his judgement ... I truly think this will allow Clint to use his bench a little more as a bench, rather than as a platoon bench, as he's had to do so far this year. But, if you look at the numbers, they complement each other very well.

What makes you optimistic about Ike Davis in Pittsburgh?

You look and see what he did in July and August, when he came back from the minor leagues. It was .420 on-base, almost an .860 OPS., playing good defense. Walk rate at almost 20 percent, strikeouts were down, hard contact was up. And, again, left handed hitters probably have a better fit in our ballpark.

The future:

Hopefully this will solve our first base needs for years to come, but if it doesn't we still have a pretty good guy in-house (Lambo) that we feel strongly about.

How this affects Ishikawa:

We'll have a corresponding 25 man roster move ... that's always the downside of the game.