The Pirates agreed to a minor league deal with the outfielder Brian Goodwin, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (via Twitter) He will be invited to Major League spring training.
Goodwin, 30, was the 34th overall choice in the 2011 draft, but has never established himself with his original organization, the Nationals, despite some productive passages. It ended up being negotiated with the Royals and later claimed by the Angels without waiver – enjoying a bit of success in both places. The Angels negotiated it with the Reds last summer, however, and Goodwin’s bat hit the crater in Cincinnati, where he hit only .163 / .236 / .357 in a small sample of 55 plate appearances. The Reds did not hire him in December.
That ugly season in Cincinnati aside, however, Goodwin has been a productive hitter for the big leagues most of the time. He’s a .250 / .317 / .455 hitter overall and recently, in 2019, he reduced .262 / .326 / .470 in almost regular playing time with Angels (136 games, 458 plate appearances) .
Goodwin does not have particularly strong defensive ratings and is unlikely to see much (if any) time in the center of the field with the Bucs. It is best deployed in a corner, which Bucs can certainly accommodate. Bryan Reynolds, Anthony Alford, Cole Tucker and Gregory Polanco are the most likely names to compete for Pittsburgh’s field time at the moment, although Pirates takes the chance to give up the rest of Gregory Polanco’s contract. Alford has not yet established himself at the MLB level, while Reynolds will seek recovery after a disastrous sequence of his brilliant performance as a rookie. Tucker, on the other hand, is a converted shortstop who will need to win a job like himself.
Based on his track record and the scarcity of field talent established in the Pirates’ squad under reconstruction, Goodwin seems to have a good chance of breaking the squad and winning a good game. If he does get on the list, the pirates will be able to control him during the 2022 season through arbitration. Of course, if he joins the team and hits the plate, he will immediately become a potential summer swap for a Pirates club that will seek to move any short-term asset to additional prospecting depth.