Huntington exploring trade with Marte out, but 'confident' in current roster

The Pirates' lack of an experienced third outfielder is unlikely to change anytime soon as they move forward without Starling Marte.

Neal Huntington told reporters prior to Sunday's game against the Yankees at PNC Park that he is evaluating external options, but he remains "confident" in a 25-man roster that has tested Clint Hurdle's creativity and has flaws defensively.



In the five games since Marte was suspended for testing positive for the performance-enhancing substance Nandrolone on Tuesday, Hurdle has used three different players in right field, none of whom primarily play right field: John Jaso, Adam Frazier and Jose Osuna, who was recalled from Indianapolis after the suspension was announced Tuesday.

"We’re exploring external options and if we find something that we believe makes us better we would certainly look to move in that direction," Huntington said. "As we’ve done in the past, sometimes we have to do things a little unconventional. We feel comfortable with our guys out there. ... We get the angst. We get the concern."

Marte will be away from the Pirates until after the all-star break — his suspension is scheduled to end after the Pirates’ home game against the Brewers on July 17 — but he will also be ineligible to participate if the Pirates make the postseason this year. Hurdle moved Andrew McCutchen back to center field and chose to keep Gregory Polanco in left field — an alignment Huntington said was best for the club's defense.

The suspension came at an unfortunate time. Top prospect Austin Meadows is experiencing growing pains in Indianapolis. He was batting .196 entering Sunday while primarily playing center field, striking out in more than 26 percent of his at bats in 15 games. Osuna, who tripled Friday in his first Pirates start, provides a powerful right-handed bat but only has 253 career plate appearances at AAA.

Jaso impressed both Huntington and Hurdle with his improvement in right, but terribly misplayed a ball with the bases loaded in the sixth inning Saturday. The play allowed two runs to score and gave the Yankees a 5-3 lead. Prior to this season, he had only played 50 1/3 innings in the outfield during his major-league career.

Frazier, who has become the Pirates' utility man with Sean Rodriguez gone via free agency, was batting .306 entering Sunday but has proven to be a liability defensively.

"The challenge is he’s shown he can play defense," Huntington said of Frazier. "Maybe part of that is us asking him to bounce around and play a million different positions. Sean Rodriguez made it look so easy last year that we probably get spoiled, but I’m anticipating that in Sean’s first year of balancing and playing four or five different positions that he didn’t make it look as easy as he did for us last year. There’s a reason why we hoped to bring Sean back."

Though it is only part of a larger picture, the lack of cohesion has the Pirates 29th in the majors in errors and 28th in fielding percentage. This is far from the ideal time to explore a trade, either. It's a less than a month into the season, and Huntington said that is reflected in the acquisition cost for an outfielder.

"We like the group that we have," Huntington said. "We’re looking at external options. If we thought there was something better internally at this time we would make that move, but right now we think this is the right 25."

Huntington said he did not have time to prepare for losing Marte, either. He said the Pirates were informed at 9 p.m. Monday night that their starting center fielder tested positive for the anabolic steroid. Huntington deferred comment to Marte when asking if the suspension was appealed or how the substance was ingested, saying he wanted to be "respectful" of the process.

The current plan is for Marte to begin working out at Pirate City in Bradenton at a yet-to-be-determined date in preparation for his return, but the Pirates face a multitude of challenges in the meantime.

Hurdle must find a way to replace one of the top athletes in the National League. He's also working to find the best batting order, particularly at the No. 2 spot.

"Starling acknowledges he made a mistake," Huntington said. "He’s going to pay significantly for that mistake. We’re going to cover 80 games with 25 guys who are going to show up, they’re going to fight and they’re going to give everything they can and they believe they can win games. We believe they can win games."

• Reliever Antonio Bastardo surrendered a towering home run to Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge Saturday. Bastardo, who was reacquired from the Mets last August, has allowed four home runs in 5 1/3 innings with an 18.56 ERA.

Bastardo has voiced his concerns to both Hurdle and Huntington. The 31-year-old is not sure what's wrong. Though there is no sign of injury, Hurdle said Bastardo's fastball is cutting when it shouldn't and the Pirates are determined to find out what's wrong.

Huntington remains optimistic that Bastardo can return to being the pitcher who had a 1.25 WHIP in 28 games with the Pirates last season and when he was a reliable left-handed option for the club in 2015.

"You watch the results and the fastball doesn’t have the same explosiveness and the same carry," Huntington said. "It’s cutting a little bit. There are some mechanical indicators. There are potentially some arm-strength indicators in there that I do know (pitching coach Ray Searage) and (bullpen coach Euclides Rojas) are working on making some adjustments in his non-pitching program to get him back to the guy that was effective for us two years ago and was effective for us the second half of last year. He would be a nice asset for our bullpen if we could get him back to where he was."

• Triple-A right-hander Nick Kingham is progressing after rolling his ankle in minor-league camp. Huntington said Kingham has increased his workload to two innings and will continue to get stretched out in the coming weeks in hopes of returning sometime in May.