Trade Profiles: Shane Victorino

This is the final player that I think will be seriously on the Pirates radar. Some people may be surprised to see the Flyin' Hawaiian on this list but he is most certainly a target. His contract is up at the end of the year and with the Phillies struggling he's a good candidate for them to sell. The question is, is he a good fit for the Pirates?

Victorino has always been a great defender as the Phillies CF and would translate well to the spacious LF of PNC Park. The Pirates could use better defense in the OF for sure but they need offense to go along with it. Unfortunately that is what Victorino lacks. His stats this year are a disappointing 8 HRs 38 RBIs .244 Avg. and .683 OPS. And I used career stats to debunk this issue with Justin Upton in my first article but they don't help Victorino much. Some argue Victorino is having a down year but if you look at his career averages of a .276 Avg. and .773 OPS it seems he is having a pretty average year minus a dip in average. Here's another player that could be an OF fix. His stats this year include 6 HRs 13 RBIs a .242 Avg. and .671 OPS. Know who it is? That's Alex Presley. So that leads me to ask this question. Would Shane Victorino be an upgrade at the plate or be a flashier name that plays like Alex Presley? Plus with a large salary and supposed large asking price would his defense alone be worth it?

I don't think a trade for Victorino will happen even though we are one of few teams interested because of the salary and asking price. I think if the price comes down more teams will also get involved. And honestly I don't think he's an upgrade of what we already have. So I wouldn't trade for Victorino but if you think he can hit above his career averages in the second half, you'll disagree with me.