In late 1972, Roberto Clemente politely declined the generous offer of his good friend Tom Walker to help deliver disaster supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Clemente, of course, would perish on his flight, along with one partner from the relief effort and three crew members.
Let's start there. And let's stick to facts.
In 1985, Tom and Carolyn Walker would give birth to Neil Walker, who'd grow up to be part of that groundbreaking group of Pirates who, for a brief but celebrated spell, revived passion for baseball in Pittsburgh.
On Saturday, the Pirates released Antonio Bastardo, the final remaining piece to show for the trading of Walker less than two years ago, because he pitched terribly.
In Bastardo's place, they promoted from Class AAA Indianapolis a 28-year-old journeyman, Phil Gosselin, who batted .135 for the Pirates earlier this season, because the minor-league system is bereft of talent at the top two levels after a decade of fruitless drafting and developing.
To explain the Bastardo move, Clint Hurdle, speaking to reporters in Chicago, said, "For both parties, it’s time to move on. Clear a landing spot for him, hopefully somewhere, and for us to add a position player back.”
That position player was Gosselin.
Hurdle was the only man in the organization speaking on the scene about the move because Neal Huntington seldom accompanies the team he oversees on road trips.
Our site placed a call to the GM, and Huntington offered his own explanation, part of which was this regarding the broader Walker-to-Bastardo trail: "We’ve made a large number of moves that have worked out the way we anticipated. Some of those have worked out better than we anticipated. This is one of those that did not.”
The top hitter in Indianapolis is almost as old as Gosselin. He is 27-year-old, 10-year minor-league veteran outfielder Eury Perez. He went 4 for 4 with a home run Saturday at Gwinnett, accounting for nearly half of the Indians' nine hits in a 3-1 victory. He did so out of the eighth spot in the order because younger players usually fill the prime spots at that level.
The top-rated prospect in Indianapolis, outfielder Austin Meadows, was batting .248 before going down with an injury two weeks ago.
On Friday, the Pirates demoted to Indianapolis Elias Diaz. He is the latest product of their Latin American free-agent pipeline -- a process wholly independent of the draft -- to make an impact in the majors. He was batting .266/.306/.380 through 79 at-bats and performing well behind the plate. He makes $535,000. Francisco Cervelli is making $9 million. Chris Stewart is making $1.5 million. Both have been injured frequently.
Max Moroff, a rare beyond-the-first-round draft pick to make it to Pittsburgh under this management, wasn't demoted. He has four hits in his first 48 plate appearances. He has struck out 17 times. The organization named him its Minor League Player of the Year in 2015.
Tyler Glasnow, the organization's top-rated pitching prospect for years, narrowly made the opening-day rotation after a calamitous spring. He then made 12 starts to open the season and allowed just as many home runs to go with a 7.45 ERA and 29 walks in 54 1/3 innings.
In mid-May, Hurdle and Huntington both declared unwavering support for Glasnow remaining in Pittsburgh, insisting, as Huntington worded it, "He's going to develop in the major leagues."
On June 10, Glasnow was demoted to Indianapolis.
Later that week, Huntington, answering questions from team-employed announcer Greg Brown on the radio, explained of the decision to start the season with Glasnow: "It's hard to say about a guy with the ERA he has, but that was the right move. That seems defiant and stubborn, but the bottom line is that there are things guys need to learn at the major-league level."
Walker was a fixture at second base in his hometown for six seasons, delivering among the most consistently productive OPS figures in the game at his position year by year: .811, .742, .768, .757, .809 and .755. In half of those six seasons, the Pirates made all three of their playoff appearances in the past quarter-century.
In late 2015, Walker was traded to the Mets. Part of management's stated reasoning was that they didn't want to block the path of second base prospect Alen Hanson.
This past spring, Hanson made the Pirates' roster as a utilityman.
On June 9, after 59 plate appearances, the Pirates waived Hanson and lost him to the White Sox.
In 21 games with Chicago, Hanson has started more often than not, including in the outfield, and is batting .256 with a .333 on-base percentage.
Walker's first season in New York saw him bat .282 with 23 home runs. The current season had him batting .270 with nine home runs before an ugly tear of his hamstring put him out in mid-June. He's taking grounders again and expected back soon.
Walker was traded for Jon Niese. Niese's salary in 2016 was $9.75 million. He started 18 games for the Pirates that season, posting a 4.91 ERA and 21 home runs allowed over 110 innings.
Later that summer, in an interview with a local radio station, Huntington publicly regretted the acquisition of Niese, saying, "In hindsight, maybe getting two fringe prospects and trying to figure out where to reallocate the money might have been a better return.”
On Aug. 1, the Pirates sent Niese back to the Mets for Bastardo.
Niese made six appearances that season for New York and posted an 11.45 ERA. He hasn't pitched in the majors since.
Bastardo was guaranteed $5.25 million last season, $6.5 million this season. He was bombarded this past spring and all through the season, allowing five home runs and nine walks in nine innings. Management placed him on the disabled list in May with what was described as a left quad strain. Bastardo never spoke of being hurt. He remained on the DL for two months. He returned earlier this month with all the same problems.
The Pirates will now pay Bastardo $3.15 million to not play baseball this year.
On March 29, the Pirates released Jared Hughes after a poor spring. Three days later, the Brewers signed him as a free agent.
On May 5, when Hughes returned to PNC Park wearing a Milwaukee jersey, he told reporters: “They told me, before spring started, Neal said, ‘Hey, listen, there might be a crunch at the end of spring. You’re making a lot of money. If you have a bad spring, we might not want you on the team.’ So I had kind of a heads-up on it. So I wasn't necessarily surprised. I understood.”
Hughes has made 38 appearances in the Milwaukee bullpen, posting a 1.21 WHIP. He has made 10 consecutive scoreless appearances, a span in which he's allowed two total hits.
The Pirates are paying Hughes $706,250 to pitch for the Brewers.
The Brewers opened this season with a payroll of $56 million, roughly half of the Pirates' payroll, and they're currently atop the National League Central Division by four games.
One player making major-league minimum on the Brewers' roster is Keon Broxton, a 27-year-old outfielder with exceptional speed and 14 home runs this season. Huntington traded Broxton to Milwaukee in late 2015 for minor-league journeyman Jason Rogers. Rogers now plays in Japan.
The Pirates are paying Drew Hutchison $2.3 million to pitch in Indianapolis. He was offered a one-year deal to avoid arbitration over the winter after having been declared the primary target in the Francisco Liriano trade last summer, the one in which two prospects were sent to the Blue Jays to ensure they'd pick up all of Liriano's salary. Hutchison, by far the worst performer at any position through spring training, was declared by Huntington to be in the running for the rotation until the final week.
Hutchison has made 15 starts for Indianapolis. He has a 3.65 ERA and has allowed 10 home runs in 93 2/3 innings. He turns 27 next month.
On June 10, Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal reported, based on an undisclosed source, that the Pirates will give extensions to both Huntington and Hurdle this season.
Today is July 8. The Pirates are 41-47. Another losing season would mark the seventh in 10 years under this management.
Columns don't always require opinion.
