Pittsburgh Pirates trade rumors: Bucs reportedly likely to keep Pedro Alvarez

The Pirates aren't likely to get rid of Pedro Alvarez, Jayson Stark tweets.

#Pirates telling teams they're likely to keep Pedro Alvarez - which would effectively end their hunt for other 1B upgrades

— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) July 27, 2015

Not that Stark is wrong, but this is the kind of thing that makes covering the trade deadline seem like a silly exercise. First the Pirates "want to get rid of" Alvarez; now they don't. First the Pirates are thinking about trading for Mike Napoli; now they couldn't possibly. For what it's worth, Napoli is right-handed. The Bucs could certainly acquire him and keep Alvarez on the team. They could, then, keep Alvarez and continue hunting for first base help. Then there's the possibility that everything we've heard so far is posturing and that we have no actual idea what the Pirates' plans are.

Really, though, the entire situation feels a lot more important than it is. Alvarez isn't a good player, but neither are most of the first basemen available on the market. So unless the Pirates make a surprising trade for Adam Lind or go completely bonkers and acquire Joey Votto (which is incredibly unlikely for all kinds of reasons, and probably wouldn't be a smart move anyway), whatever decision the Pirates make here is pretty likely to leave fans unhappy.