Earlier this week, I constructed a 25-man roster of the best Pirates players of the 2010s. So you had to see this Mound Visit coming.
Today, we're looking at the yin to the yang of that first list and look at the worst the Pirates had to offer last decade. The players were chosen by their performance and their legacy with the team. I didn't just pick the players with the 25 worst WAR totals because that wouldn't be any fun. Sometimes the worst players are the ones who are just good enough to cling on to a major league job.
To be clear, we will only be looking at their contributions with the Pirates from 2010-2019. If they excelled with another team but struggled with the Pirates, they will not make this list. With all of that out of the way, let's get started:
Starting lineup
C Rod Barajas: .206 BA, 11 HR, 31 RBI, 361 PA, 73 OPS+, -1 bWAR, -2.4 fWAR (fWAR factors in pitch framing)
The Pirates did not prioritize pitch framing until the 2013 season. Barajas is a big reason why they made the change. According to FanGraphs, Barajas cost Pirates' pitchers 19 runs with his framing in 2012, and his terrible OBP made him even less valuable. If there is any positive from Barajas' tenure in Pittsburgh, it is he indirectly lead them to Russell Martin the following winter.
1B Lyle Overbay: .227 BA, 8 HR, 37 RBI, 391 PA, 82 OPS+, -0.6 WAR
Before 2011, Overbay had recorded at least 30 doubles in each of his seven full major-league seasons, so they hoped the lefty would pummel the Clemente wall with line drives. Instead, his power evaporated, and his normally unspectacular, but satisfactory, glove took a turn for the worse. The Pirates ended up releasing him shortly after acquiring Derek Lee at the trade deadline.
2B Akinori Iwamura: .182 BA, 2 HR, 9 RBIs, 193 PA, 54 OPS+, -1.6 WAR
On paper, Iwamura looked like the perfect player for the Pirates at the time. Pedro Alvarez and Neil Walker were both in Triple-A, so it made sense to acquire a veteran infielder to keep their spots warm. Iwamura had been a productive player the previous three years, but he never fully recovered from a partial ACL tear he suffered from a Chris Coghlan takeout slide in 2009. (Yeah, that Chris Coghlan.) He struggled both in the field and at the plate, batting well below the Mendoza Line with no power and no range to field his position. His 2010 season would end up being the 12th worst of any position player last decade, going by WAR. But hey, he did technically stick around long enough until Alvarez was promoted.
3B Andy LaRoche: .206 BA, 4 HR, 16 RBI, 271 PA, 52 OPS+, -1.3 WAR
It's hard to believe now, but it looked like the Pirates might have had something in LaRoche following the 2009 season. While he was far from spectacular, the 25 year-old held his own at the dish and was a plus defender at the hot corner, resulting in a respectable 2.4 WAR season. That optimism was obliterated the following year, and he lost his job to Alvarez in June. He fared even worse off the bench, and batted just .109 in his limited playing time after the All-Star break. LaRoche ended up being just another bust prospect from the Jason Bay trade.
SS Ronny Cedeno: .253 BA, 10 HR, 70 RBI, 956 PA, 81 OPS+, 1.6 WAR
I was tempted to put Bobby Crosby on this list since he was technically worse, but he was just a utility player who was brought in for depth for a sub-.500 team that never really had a shot. Does anyone really care or remember his tenure? Cedeno, on the other hand, was just a plain ol' mediocre player who coasted though two years doing just enough to keep his starting job. In a lot of ways, he's similar to Jordy Mercer, who made the best team list. But while Mercer was at least viewed somewhat favorably in Pittsburgh, Cedeno never was. The legacy clause gets him on the list.
LF Ryan Ludwick: .232 BA, 2 HR, 11 RBI, 133 PA, 90 OPS+, 0.0 WAR
Yes, there were outfielders who performed worse for the Pirates than Ludwick did in 2011. There were also bigger busts, like Jose Tabata and Lastings Milledge. However, Ludwick represented something different. The Pirates were buyers that trade deadline, and Ludwick was half of their haul. While that Pirates team was doomed to fail, Ludwick did nothing to slow the second half collapse. To make matters worse, he hit Pirates pitching very well the next three seasons as a member of the Reds.
CF Ryan Church: .182 BA, 3 HR, 18 RBI, 183 PA, 49 OPS+, -0.6 WAR
I didn't write this article chronologically. I listed out the roster, picked a player and wrote a blurb about them, in no particular order. I kept putting Church's blurb off because, for the life of me, I have nothing to say. He was just... bad. A bad part-time player on a really bad 2010 team. Saying anything else would be overkill.
RF Melky Cabrera: .280 BA, 7 HR, 47 RBI, 397 PA, 88 OPS+, -1.2 WAR
This pick probably won't be received well. Cabrera was a good guy to have in the clubhouse and was a decent role player for the first half of the season, but a thumb injury brought this production to a halt in the second half of the season. Going by FanGraphs' WAR leaderboard, Cabrera's -1.1 fWAR after the All-Star game was tied with Elias Diaz for the third worst in baseball. The Pirates just asked too much of the veteran, and while he did occasionally help with the bat, it did not make up for his defense.
Bench
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