Pirates Claim Brandon Wood?

The Pittsburgh Pirates have an opportunity to add to their major league roster today. The Angels DFA'd Brandon Wood, a former top prospect, a couple of days ago. We're heading towards the 12:00 deadline for the Pirates to put a claim on him, and all signs are pointing to the Pirates doing so.

Wood was an immensely hyped up prospect in 2007, and made his big league debut that same year. Despite his big time status, Wood has been awful in the major leagues since then. He has 494 career plate appearances and has hit .168/.197/.259 with 11 home runs. Those numbers are very far from what any level of major league player should be doing.

These last 4+ years have been enough for the Angels to give up on him and pass him on to another team. The Pirates are the first team that gets a chance to grab him, and they have a decision to make.

Wood is primarily a third baseman, but can play shortstop as well. He has played a decent amount of games at shortstop in his major league career (63 to be exact) and hasn't done great there with a -8.6 UZR in his career. When you compare that to Ronny Cedeno's career -11.5 UZR at shortstop, it starts to look a little more positive.

Getting Wood is not a risk at all, the Pirates would probably just part with Josh Rodriguez to give him a shot. Despite the lack of risk, it's pretty much a longshot that he will actually turn into something. In his time in the majors, he has struck out in 30.9% of the plate appearances. He has a minute 2.6% walk rate, there are major issues with his approach and vision at the plate.

So what should the Pirates do? I don't think they have much of a choice. The fans have been calling for Cedeno's head for a couple years now, but the Pirates have never had a real chance to replace him. You can't say that the Pirates have some blind allegiance to Cedeno because of that fact, but if they pass on Wood and keep Cedeno the every day starter, that will certainly raise some eyebrows.

In my opinion, the Pirates would be foolish to not sign Wood. Not only should they sign him, they should make him the every day starter. Wood isn't exactly a prospect that has never been given a real chance, but he could certainly benefit in a big way from job security. The Pirates know what they have in Cedeno, and it's not pretty. Wood could continue to play terrible, like he has in his career thus far, and he wouldn't be that much of a downgrade from Cedeno. The Pirates really have nothing to lose in this situation, and the possibility that Wood figures it out and becomes a legitimate big leaguer is more than worth benching Cedeno.

We'll see what happens, the deadline to claim Wood is at noon today (Friday). Cross your fingers, Ronny.