Post-Gazette

By Dejan Kovacevic,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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The Pirates had been determined to peddle away as many veteran, pending free agents as possible by Major League Baseball's trading deadline, and they certainly achieved that.

Four of their seven players in that category were gone by the time Dave Littlefield completed the busiest day of any general manager yesterday:

Reliever Roberto Hernandez and minor-league starter Oliver Perez went to the New York Mets for outfielder Xavier Nady.

Starter Kip Wells went to the Texas Rangers for minor-league reliever Jesse Chavez.

First baseman Sean Casey went to the Detroit Tigers for minor-league reliever Brian Rogers.

First baseman-outfielder Craig Wilson went to the New York Yankees for starter Shawn Chacon.

The fallout?

The franchise will save $5.4 million in prorated salary the rest of the season by sending out five of its nine highest-paid players: Casey ($7.5 million), Wells ($4.15 million), Wilson ($3.3 million), Hernandez ($2.75 million) and Perez ($1.9 million), and replacing them with Nady ($427,000) and Chacon ($3.6 million).

The projected season-ending payroll is $42 million, about $6 million more than was paid out last season.

The team also benefited by bringing in two major-league players whose rights they control beyond this year: Nady, 27, will be first-time eligible for arbitration this winter, meaning he cannot become a free agent until 2010. Chacon, 28, must wait until after next season for free agency.

The 25-man roster is younger, too, in part because the two spots left open after the trades were filled by promoting center fielder Chris Duffy, 26, and reliever Josh Sharpless, 25, from Class AAA Indianapolis.

Put together, those elements brought some level of resolution, even if the experience did not strike an entirely satisfying chord for the man who engineered it all.

Asked to assess his day, Littlefield replied, "I don't want to be in this situation, making trades. My goal is to win. We want to be in the position where we're acquiring players because we're battling for a playoff spot."

He immediately added: "We feel good about the value we got for what we had, particularly the guys who are going to be two-month rentals. Overall, I'm pleased."

XAVIER NADY Position: RF/1B Born: 11/14/78 Carmel, Calif. Size: 6-2, 205 Bats: Right Throws: Right Experience: 4 years 2006 Salary: $427,000 Average: .264 Home run: 14 RBIs: 40 On-base percentage: .326 Slugging percentage: .487 Click photo for larger image.
SHAWN CHACON Position: RHP Born: 12/23/77 Anchorage, Alaska Size: 6-3, 220 Bats: Right Throws: Right Experience: 5 years 2006 Salary: $3.6 million Record: 5-3 ERA: 7.00 Games started: 11 Innings: 63 Strikeouts: 35 Walks: 36
BRIAN ROGERS Position: RHP Born: 7/17/82, Dallas, Texas Size: 6-4, 190 Bats: Right Throws: Right Experience: None 2006 Team: Class AA Erie Record: 3-2 Saves: 1 ERA: 2.39 Innings: 64 Strikeouts: 69 Walks: 14
JESSE CHAVEZ Position: RHP Born: 8/21/83, Riverside, Calif. Size: 6-1, 160 Bats: Right Throws: Right Experience: None 2006 Teams: Class AA Frisco, Class AAA Oklahoma Record: 2-5 Saves: 4 ERA: 4.43 Innings: 61 Strikeouts: 73 Walks: 28 Click photo for larger image.

As Littlefield acknowledged, though, one issue that is much murkier now than before the dealing is this:

Who will play first?

It could be Nady, Littlefield said. Although Nady spent the bulk of this season in New York in the outfield, he has made 45 appearances at first in his career, as well as spot duty at third base.

"He has the versatility," Littlefield said. "That's one of the things we liked about him."

Littlefield did not rule out that it also could be third baseman Joe Randa or veteran utilityman Jose Hernandez.

For the longer term, Littlefield pointed to injured minor-league slugger Brad Eldred as a possibility. Injured catcher Ryan Doumit, too.

And what of Ryan Shealy?

The Pirates were one of a handful of teams discussing Colorado's 26-year-old, power-hitting first-base prospect, but it was Kansas City that landed him for a modest return: The Royals gave up Jeremy Affeldt, 27, to meet the Rockies' wish for a left-handed reliever, along with Denny Bautista, 25, a minor-league starter of little pedigree. The Rockies threw in reliever Scott Dohmann, 28.

Colorado was interested in the Pirates' John Grabow for left-handed relief.

Littlefield was asked if he had pursued a first baseman after trading his top two, and he replied in a general sense that he had sought help at the position.

The main return of the day, without a doubt, was Nady.

A right-handed batter with a history of power, he started 70 games for the first-place Mets and batted .264 -- one point above his career mark in four seasons -- with a career-high 14 home runs and 40 RBIs. This despite missing three weeks in June because of an appendectomy.

One potentially ominous footnote: He is playing through a cracked bone in his right wrist.

Nady's initial reaction, predictable given the standings, was not positive.

"You work all year to get where you are, and then something like this happens," he said. "It's tough."

Littlefield had pursued Nady three years ago when he and San Diego were working out the swap that sent Brian Giles to the Padres. The parties had agreed upon Perez, but the Pirates preferred Nady to Jason Bay as the final component. The Padres insisted on keeping Nady, as general manager Kevin Towers told the Post-Gazette last year, and the transaction ended up being the best of Littlefield's tenure.

Littlefield acknowledged Nady was "part of those talks" and said getting him was the reason for parting with the enigmatic Perez, who was 2-10 with the Pirates before being demoted to Indianapolis early last month and going 1-3 with a 5.63 ERA there.

He rejected the notion that the Pirates gave up on Perez.

"We don't look at it that way. There were inconsistencies, and we had to make a decision in regards to the future of Oliver and what we thought we were going to get. We've got a lot of left-handed starting pitching. Ultimately, we made the decision that we like Nady enough that we were willing to part with Perez."

The deal with New York came with greater urgency on the Mets' part in the final day because reliever Duaner Sanchez was lost for the season Sunday when his shoulder was separated in a car accident.

Chacon has had extreme highs and lows.

He was exceptional as a rookie for Colorado in 2001, struggled in 2002, made the All-Star Game in 2003, struggled again in 2004, was 7-3 with a 2.85 ERA in 12 starts for the Yankees after they acquired him last season, then slipped back to a 7.00 ERA in 11 starts this summer. His career mark: 36-51.

Although he can hit 92-94 mph, Chacon, a right-hander, is not a strikeout type, relying much more on a hard curveball.

Littlefield said he was counting on a reversal for Chacon, and his counterpart echoed that.

"Shawn Chacon was a big-time pitcher for us last year," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said. "I believe he can get back in line."

Chacon is not expected to join the rotation immediately, if only because the Yankees yanked him from starting duty in early July and had been using him in relief. In the interim, Littlefield said, the Pirates might have Victor Santos take Wells' scheduled start Thursday or summon an emergency starter from Indianapolis.

Littlefield apparently had been set to send Wells to Boston as the deadline approached -- medical paperwork had been exchanged -- but the Red Sox took too long to answer, and the Pirates turned their attention to Texas.

The minor-league relievers the Pirates acquired will stay at their existing levels, Chavez going to Indianapolis and Rogers to Class AA Altoona.

Chavez, 22, is a hard-throwing right-hander -- he has touched 95 mph -- who had a 4.43 ERA in 39 appearances split between Class AA Frisco and Class AAA Oklahoma, along with 73 strikeouts and 28 walks in 61 innings.

Rogers, 24, is a right-hander who averages only 89-91 mph with the fastball but has recorded a strikeout per inning since Detroit stopped using him as a starter before last season. For Class AA Erie this season, he has a 2.39 ERA in 37 appearances, a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 69 to 14 in his 64 innings and an average of 0.98 walks and hits per innings, a figure considered excellent in a key statistic for relievers.