BRADENTON, Fla. — Josh Harrison is still with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and his feelings aren’t much different than they were a month ago.
Harrison spoke to reporters Sunday, the day before the first spring training workout for Pittsburgh’s full squad. The Pirates traded outfielder Andrew McCutchen and right-hander Gerrit Cole this offseason, a retooling that inspired little confidence in the team’s short-term chances for success. The 30-year-old Harrison told The Athletic last month that if the Pirates don’t expect to contend in the next couple years, maybe he should be traded too.
“My statement was something that was from the heart,” Harrison said Sunday. “I spoke what I spoke, said my feelings, but at the end of the day, I can’t control certain things. All I control is me.”
Harrison hit .272 last year with a career-high 16 home runs, and the talented second baseman isn’t the only Pittsburgh player who has expressed reservations about the team’s outlook. Third baseman David Freese spoke out Friday, saying the Pirates haven’t had enough urgency.
With all of that swirling around the team at the start of spring training, general manager Neal Huntington spoke as well Sunday.
“We want to win,” he said. “We have the exact same goals they do. It’s to win a World Series.”
Manager Clint Hurdle said he expects Harrison will keep playing hard.
“The fun part about life right now, the society, is: You make comments on one day, then you might have to carry them around for a while. I think he’s focused on playing ball. He’s shared the thoughts that needed to be shared,” Hurdle said. “He’s always been a good man. He’s always had integrity, and in the middle of that word — integrity — is grit, and he’s got that.”
Harrison made his big league debut in 2011, and the Pirates are the only team he’s played for. He hit .315 in 2014, and with McCutchen gone, Harrison could become a significant leader on this team. He seemed in good spirits Sunday — ready to begin the season, if not exactly backing down from his January comments.
“I’m going to be happy any time I’m playing the game of baseball,” Harrison said. “There’s guys in that clubhouse that I’m really good friends with, and at the end of the day, I can’t control being here, being anywhere else. My main goal is to make sure, wherever I am, that they understand I want to win. If that’s not the main focus, I want to go elsewhere.”
Huntington wasn’t conceding anything about the team’s ability to compete. The Pirates made the playoffs three straight seasons from 2013-15, winning 98 games in the final year of that run. They’ve been a sub-.500 team since then and went 75-87 in 2017.
Huntington didn’t sound like he was in any rush to trade Harrison, but he didn’t rule it out.
“If that day comes where the right thing for the Pirates is to trade Player X or Player Y, as hard and as cold and as calculating as that sounds, then those are the decisions that we’ll make,” he said. “In terms of this year and where we are and where we go forward, we want to win, and we want to do the right thing for the Pirates.”
As for Harrison, there isn’t much more for him to say at this point. He understands that players won’t be told everything the front office is planning, but he always wants to feel his team is committed to success.
“When it comes to guys that are going to be here and put on this uniform every day and want to win, I think there needs to be some type of communication to know that the plan is to win. Sometimes that gets lost,” he said. “Not every move’s going to be agreed with. I get it. But if you stand convicted with what you do, that’s when you have guys go out there ready to fight.”
Pirates’ Diaz discusses mother’s kidnapping ordeal
BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) — It was hard for Elias Diaz to explain exactly what went through his mind when he found out his mother had been kidnapped.
The Pittsburgh Pirates catcher certainly remembers how it felt when she was rescued.
“No one really prepares themselves for something like that,” Diaz said Sunday through a translator. “It was a very tough situation to deal with, but when I did find out the news that we found my mom, I can tell you that the joy that I felt was overwhelming. I’ve never felt that caliber of joy that I felt the moment I received the news that my mom was coming back.”
The Pirates gave Diaz permission to arrive late to spring training this year, and the 27-year-old was at camp, ready to talk to reporters about his mother’s ordeal in Venezuela. Ana Isabel Soto was rescued Feb. 11, three days after she was kidnapped.
“Thank God, she’s doing a lot better,” Diaz said. “She’s doing well. So that’s what’s important. That’s what matters, and we’re very glad.”
Diaz said his mother was just hanging out outside with a friend when she was taken. Diaz says he’s hoping family members will be able to leave Venezuela.
“The goal is to get them out of Venezuela,” he said. “It’s a tough process, but that’s the goal.”
Diaz played 64 games for Pittsburgh last year, hitting .223 with 19 RBIs and 18 runs. He said he was excited to get back on the field.
“I feel like a brand new man,” he said. “I feel like my mom was reborn, and I was reborn as well.”
AP source: Hosmer, Padres reach preliminary eight-year deal
PEORIA, Ariz. (AP) — Just the thought of free agent first baseman Eric Hosmer joining the downtrodden, youthful San Diego Padres sent a morning jolt through the spring training clubhouse.
Hosmer reached a preliminary agreement on an eight-year contract with the Padres, pending a physical. A person with direct knowledge of the deal confirmed the tentative deal, speaking on the condition of anonymity Sunday because there had been no formal announcement of Hosmer’s potential signing.
Hosmer, who spent his first seven major league seasons with Kansas City, would receive a reported $144 million.
Mets GM says, yes, he thinks Tim Tebow will play in majors
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) — Tim Tebow arrived at the New York Mets spring training camp on Sunday, and the attention immediately turned to whether the quarterback who became an outfielder could make it all the way to Citi Field in the future.
Guess what? Mets general manager Sandy Alderson votes yes.
“Somebody asked me if thought he’d be a major league player at some point. I think he will play in the major leagues. That’s my guess,” Alderson said.
“This experiment is not going to last forever, but he’s made meaningful progress. We thought he would best benefit from being in major league camp — that that would accelerate his development,” Alderson said.
The 30-year-old Tebow has already had success on another field. A former Heisman Trophy winner and two-time national champion at Florida, he reached the NFL and threw an overtime TD pass for Denver to beat Pittsburgh in the playoffs.
Be the first to comment