Pirates General Manager Neal Huntington spoke to the media following the announcement of the Ike Davis acquisition.
The Pirates had been searching for a trade piece since after the end of the 2013 season and Huntington wasn’t afraid to waiting until the right trade was in place.
“These deals are about finding that common ground and after a number of conversations, we found it,” said Huntington. “Obviously we had a number of conversations with a number of clubs and free agents in the offseason. We just didn’t find the right fit. We remained engaged with a number of teams going into spring training and coming out of spring training and with Davis having the calf setback in the spring training, it probably hampered their ability to do a lot with him at that point in time and with him getting healthy and the season getting underway, they felt it was the right time to go ahead and make the move and we found the right fit.”
The key of getting Davis is his ability to hit right-handed pitching to compliment Gaby Sanchez’s specialty of hitting left-handers. He has a career .256/.471/.828 with 68 doubles, 56 home runs and 177 RBI in 1296 at bats.
“Ike’s done a really nice job against right handed pitchers in his career,” Huntington said. “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 betting he’s a better fit in this ballpark than he was in what used to be spacious Citi Field. Very nice compliment for Gaby and a guy that we think his good days are ahead of him.”
Huntington believes that with this acquisition, a platoon with Gaby Sanchez doesn’t necessarily have to happen. Although, you may see it as Davis is a .202 hitter against leftys.
“The word platoon gets thrown around a lot,” said Huntington. “I think this will be where Clint uses his judgement. He may not hit for Gaby in the sixth inning because they bring in a right-handed reliever and he may not hit for Ike because they bring in a left-handed reliever in the sixth inning. I truly think this will allow Clint to use his bench a little more as a bench than necessarily a platoon bench as he’s had to do to this point this year, but certainly you look at their numbers and they compliment each other very well. Gaby has done terrific work against left-handed pitching and Ike, over the course of his career, has done terrific work against right-handed pitching.”
Injuries have plagued Davis, but Huntington liked what he saw when he was healthy. He has had various leg injuries during his career, including a calf injury that sidelined him for some of spring training.
“You look and see what he did in July and August when he came back from the minor leagues,” said Huntington. “It was a .420 OBP, almost an .860 OPS, playing good defense then again the oblique bit him to finish his season, but the walk rate was almost 20%, the strikeouts were down, the hard contact was up and again, left-handed hitters are a better fit in our ballpark than they do in New York.”
Huntington didn’t comment on when Davis would arrive in Pittsburgh.
(Photo Credit:Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)
