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With Kang out for the season, Pirates must look elsehwere

By Bill Brink 8 years ago

Players understand takeout slides. Go in hard, go in early and go in low, they said after Thursday’s game, and force either a weak or an off-balance throw in a double play situation.

But slide high, however, and things are different. As one Pirate said Thursday evening, “That’s the no-no.”

Cubs outfielder Chris Coghlan went knee to knee on Jung Ho Kang, and Kang needed season-ending surgery. He will be out for six to eight months after suffering a broken tibia at the left knee and damage to his left lateral meniscus. 

This means Kang will almost certainly miss the beginning of spring training and could miss the start of the 2016 season, but more immediately, they must cover for the loss in production. That will be hard to do. According to Wins Above Replacement, Kang was the third most valuable player on the team with 4.1 WAR, behind Starling Marte and Andrew McCutchen. He had 15 home runs and a 123 OPS+.

Their options:

Aramis Ramirez, hitting .253/.299/.416 since joining the Pirates and .268/.318/.561 in September. He has played first base recently, and looked good doing it, but could move back to third base.

Jordy Mercer, hitting 207/.277/.241 since returning from the disabled list and .150/.239/.200 in September. He is the Pirates’ best defensive shortstop.

Josh Harrison, hitting .250/.324/.281 since returing from the DL and .256/.319/.302 in September. 

Kang was hitting .287/.355/.461 with 15 home runs and .286/.310/.500 in September.

Meanwhile, the Pirates are five games back of the Cardinals and only two ahead of the Cubs in the wild-card race. They face Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw this weekend and have three more games head-to-head against both the Cubs and Cardinals.

Game story: Pirates fall in ugly fashion against Cubs.

Notebook: Rotation structured to give Liriano rest.

Coverage of the Cubs from the Chicago Sun-Times.