Colin Moran?

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

I'm wondering what it would take to grab Colin Moran in a deal from the Pirates. The Pirates are in a youth movement, which means that K'Bryan Hayes is likely the 3B, and they still have Bell over at 1B.

 

Moran isn't a star, but he's a solid left-handed hitter who just turned 28 and is cost-controlled. Seems like he'd he'd be a nice fit.

[PeaveyFury]

Moran is really a 3B in name only based on the defensive metrics, but he did grade out well as a 1B.

[AKCheesehead]

Perhaps he'd be a better fit for the cardinals?

 

 

[adambr2]

Whatever keeps him from facing us a bunch of times every year, because he sure seems like a star against the Brewers.

[JosephC]

I'm wondering what it would take to grab Colin Moran in a deal from the Pirates.

 

At 3 years and 107 days of service time (roughly 3.6 years), Moran has totaled a 0.6 bWAR and 1.1 fWAR. So he's literally about a 0.2 WAR player per full season.

 

Based strictly on a valuation calculation, IMO he really shouldn't even command one rookie ball lottery ticket type prospect. An organizational filler guy is probably as good as the Pirates could expect if they decide to dump Moran's arbitration salary and just move on. Do the Brewers still have Bubba Derby or Nate Orf in their organization? One of those two guys would probably be a fair swap for Moran.

 

MLBTradeRumor's guy projects Moran as a 3.3 million dollar player in arbitration, and I don't like him at that price. But I'll take a guess that MLBTradeRumor's guy has missed on this projection. Have to think the Pirates would have a better idea of what Moran will get in arbitration, and they likely would have declined if they thought he was going to get that much money.

[Eye Black]

Whatever keeps him from facing us a bunch of times every year, because he sure seems like a star against the Brewers.

For his career he has raked against the Brewers. Among teams he’s played more than 6 games against he’s faired better against the Brewers than anyone else.

 

Moran’s career OPS versus the NL Central:

 

Brewers (44 games) - .876 OPS

Cubs (43 games) - .851 OPS

Reds (44 games) - .814 OPS

Cardinals (44 games) - .723 OPS

[ClosetBrewerFan]

I dont see a lot potential growth for Moran. He is what he is; a sub 800 OPS 3b. Not great, just mediocre. It will cost us a few prospects and he is only getting more expensive now that he's arby eligible. I'd rather pass on him, but he could be better than the alternative.

[Outlander]

Don't really like him at 3B and the Brewers already have a left handed hitting 1B so probably not a good fit.

[Simba2020]

His hard hit and barrel percentages were well up last year which may in part have led to his increase in homers. If that was due to improvement due to maturity and not the luck of a smaller sample size, he might be somebody that would be worth grabbing. At least offensively. He's still not worth trading anything of value for as the chances of him being non-tendered following 2021 are high.

[JohnBriggs12]

I've always like Moran. His slugging percentage and OPS has increased every year, and Miller Park/Am Fam Field would boost his production. He's barely passable at 3B, but with the K artists on the Brewer staff and the moving of infielders around, Counsell can work around that. I see a guy with 25-30 HR potential that doesn't strike out all that much.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

I've always like Moran. His slugging percentage and OPS has increased every year, and Miller Park/Am Fam Field would boost his production. He's barely passable at 3B, but with the K artists on the Brewer staff and the moving of infielders around, Counsell can work around that. I see a guy with 25-30 HR potential that doesn't strike out all that much.

 

That's what I see as well. I don't think that Moran is ever going to be a star, but he's a solid role player whose skill set is a solid fit for this lineup. If the choice is between getting a guy like Moran, or rolling with Urias at 3B going into 2021, I'd take Moran every time. I think he's the type of player who could hit 30 HRs and put up near an .800 OPS playing half his games at Miller Park.

[JosephC]

People are giving Moran too much credit as a third baseman. There is Ryan Braun historical bad level of third base play. Moran isn't that bad but may be only one level better than Braun. He played 882 1/3 innings at third base in 2019 and had a miserable -21 DRS and -16.0 UZR/150. The Pirates only put him at third for 35 innings in 2020. He's like Hiura bad at third base, the obvious difference between the two being that the Brewers still hope that Hiura will turn into a .290/.370/.510/.880 type hitter. Moran's three year numbers have him at .272/.330/.428/.757. He'd very likely have better offensive numbers in Milwaukee versus Pittsburgh, but his offense would have to go way, way up if he's going to be a valuable player while playing third base everyday. He might have to get to an .800 OPS just to be a 1.0 WAR player as a primary third baseman.