So was Huntington really serious when he said Alvarez had to earn it? Did he really have to earn it, or was it his job from the start? I think it's the latter. Despite adding Casey McGehee this offseason, I really don't think the Pirates are in a spot where they can justify starting Alvarez at AAA, they simply need him in the lineup. If he's not hitting, obviously he's going to hurt the lineup and someone like Josh Harrison might be better served in there, but you have to give Alvarez a chance regardless of what he's done in spring.
Another topic that has arisen is if the Major League level is where Pedro should be while "working" on his swing. He seems to have some adjustments to make to become a serious big league hitter, and a lot of people think those adjustments should be made at AAA while the big leagues are used for performance and not for teaching. In my opinion, the best place for Alvarez to learn to be a big league hitter is in the big leagues. He could very well struggle for awhile at the beginning of the season, but the best way for him to figure out what he needs to do is to learn from his mistakes at the level they want him at in the future. Sending him to AAA isn't going to do much good at this point.
Pedro Alvarez is a monumentally important player for this franchise, and it's not easy watching him struggle so badly. Starting him in the minor leagues may help the team out of the chute, but in the long haul it's not going to help them. If the Pirates are ever going to be relevant, they need Alvarez to be the hitter that he's capable of being. The fastest way to get him to be that is to have him with the major league club. I don't care if he comes up and goes 0/20 with 10 strikeouts, the Pirates have made the right choice here. They have too much invested in Alvarez to not give him all the opportunities in the world to succeed.