No Rumor: Lunchbox Hero on the Oriole Menu...

Edit - The Pirates acquired LHP Stephen Tarpley & a player to be named from the Orioles in exchange for OF Travis Snider. The 21-year-old Tarpley spent the entire 2014 season w/ Aberdeen in the NYPL and went 3-5 with a 3.68 ERA and 60 Ks in 13 games (12 starts).

Per Baseball America (behind a subscription wall & reported by MLB Trade Rumors) "Tarpley has the stuff to start, with a 90-92 mph fastball that touches 96 at times in addition to a curveball and changeup. He previously had a slider in his arsenal as well, though the Orioles opted to scrap that pitch so he could focus on his change, per BA. MLB.com praised him as an arm with upside, touting not only solid curveball and a changeup that shows potential, but also his pitchability and size."

We'll wait until the PTBNL is named to weigh the deal.

Travis Snider's deal shouldn't be a shocker; the O's needed a lefty OF'er with a little bop, and the Bucs have Andrew Lambo sitting around. In fact, Snider-for-Brian Matusz was one of the few baseball meeting rumors generated by the Pirates' FO, but the Antonio Bastardo deal squelched the need for a bridge lefty and the talks.

Travis Snider - Baltimore Bound? (credit: Charles LeClaire/USAToday Sports)

Pittsburgh is moving a guy at high tide, more or less - Lunchbox Hero had a decent year, getting into 140 games with 390 PAs, putting up a slash of .264/.338/.438 with 13 homers and 38 runs batted in. It's true that Lambo has two more options to go to Indy, but he is 26 and doesn't have much left to prove in AAA, where last year he hit .328 with 11 bombs and 42 RBI in 260 plate appearances. He also has been lightly groomed to play first base, which could be an open position in 2016. Lambo is under team control through 2020, which plays into the equation.

The Pirates have pretty strong organizational depth in the OF. Ol' bud Jose Tabata is still around (and will be through 2016) and Jaff Decker is probably a competent bench option, while Willie Garcia and Josh Bell are comin' hard, though Bell is likely the post-Pedro answer at first base. Even Gorkys Hernandez is back in the system, a guy that can fly and glove with the best.

On the ML roster, Josh Harrison and Corey Hart have both been corner outfielders, too, so that shelf is stocked high and wide.

Could it backfire? Sure. First off, Snider could turn into Steve Pearce or Brandon Moss. And it does weaken the outfield depth a bit. Cutch is a rock in center. Even with his achy ribs, he was in 146 ballgames - and that was the fewest he played since his rookie season in 2009.

But Snider was the wild card when the league passed around the book on Gregory Polanco, and that safety net is now gone. And one never knows when Starling Marte is gonna take one for the team that lands him on the DL, (for various reasons, he's never topped 135 games in a season) so depth is big part of the 2015 outfield construction as the fourth man is in play.

But the FO seems confident they have that depth. After many years of wandering through the wilderness, players actually have to earn a spot on the roster, and that makes some guys expendable. The team is deep in outfielders and pitching, so don't be surprised if the Bucs move some more players on the fringes to restock the system.

And they won't be trading bubble players for other pine riders. The discussed take from Baltimore is said to be a minor league player or two from the AA or even A ranks. The FO is looking to keep the system stocked at each level with guys that are young and hopefully can be coached up to snuff. So it begins...

Travis Snider

Travis Snider, 24, is the man the Bucs hope can claim right field, where they've been looking for a guy with some pop to free up Garrett Jones for first base duty. He's gone from a Top Ten prospect to a player it looks like the Blue Jays have given up on. Still, in 844 big league at bats, he's launched 31 homers and brought home 112 runs, and that's not bad production for a season and some change.

The outfielder has been compared to Pedro Alvarez, one year his senior, from his mercurial play in the show to his ping-ponging between the bigs and minors. Oh yeah, maybe because he can lose balls like Pedro, too, when it's going right. The lines: Snider - 927 PA, .249/.307/.428 with 31 HR, 112 RBI, 27% K; Pedro - 1008 PA, .232./.305/.423 with 41 HR and 141 RBI, 31% K. Scary, hey?

He played baseball at Henry M. Jackson High School in Washington, the same school that once-upon-a-time Bucco Brent Lillibridge attended, where he was selected to the 2006 USA Today All-USA high school baseball team. He was big time even as a tiny tot; Snider played for the Mill Creek team at the 1999 Little League Western Regional Tournament.

Maybe he and Neil Walker can bond about the glory days in the clubhouse. Snider played football, too, as a running back/linebacker for the Timberwolves, and drew a little attention from some PAC 10 schools. But baseball was his forte. The Toronto Blue Jays took him in the first round (14th overall) in the 2006 draft, and paid him $1.7M to trade in the pigskin for horsehide.

Snider began his professional career in 2006 with the Pulaski Blue Jays. He hit .301 with a couple of homers in 24 games. For that, the eighteen year old ended up winning the Short Season Player of The Year honors for the Appalachian League and was named a Baseball America Rookie All-Star.

In 2007, he was promoted to the Class A Lansing Lugnuts. He was a Midwest League All-Star and BA's Minor League & Low Class A All Star. Snider tore it up in fall ball, too, where he was named to the Arizona Fall League All-Prospect Team and an AFL Rising Star.

He began the 2008 season with the Dunedin Blue Jays of the Florida State League. He hurt his left elbow in the spring, so spent his time in Class A as a DH. After 17 games, he was promoted to the AA New Hampshire Fisher Cats of the Eastern League.

The youngster started off slowly, but eventually got his bat back in order and healed up enough to patrol the pasture again. He earned an All-Star berth and won the EL Home Run Derby by hitting 10 home runs in his home yard. In August, the Blue Jays promoted Snider to the AAA Syracuse Chiefs of the International League. After 18 games there, he was called to the show.

Snider became the youngest position player in the majors at the tender age of 20. The night he was called up, he started and doubled off the Yankee's Carl Pavano for his first big-league hit. A week later, Snider smacked his first MLB home run off Kevin Slowey of the Twins, becoming the fourth youngest Blue Jay to homer. After his first cup of coffee with Toronto, his line read .301/2/13 in 24 games.

But in hindsight, the rapid advancement through three minor league levels to MLB may have been too aggressive, particularly in the upper tiers. He did get parts of four seasons in AAA and almost 800 plate appearances, but never played more than 60 games at that level during any single year. Maybe slowing down and spending an entire season somewhere would have better prepared him for the show, from the cat-and-mouse of pitching adjustments to working through an extended slump. Life in the fast lane...

Baseball America thought his progress was excellent, though, and ranked Snider sixth on their list of 2009's best baseball prospects. He moved up five spots from the previous year's rankings, and ahead of cats like Madison Bumgarner (# 9), Buster Posey (#14) and Giancarlo (Mike) Stanton (#16).

He made the club out of camp in 2009. He was expected to challenge Adam Lind for the LF job, and got a boost when Vernon Wells went down in the spring. Snider had a home run and double on Opening Day, and became the youngest player in franchise history to hit two home runs in a game on April 13th against the Twins. But the good times didn't last, and he was sent down to AAA in May. Snider was recalled in August, and homered in his first at-bat back. He finished the season at .241/9/29 with 241 at-bats.

Snider posted his biggest numbers in 2010. He got into a personal high of 82 games with nearly 300 at bats, responding with 14 HR and 32 RBI and a line of .255/.304/.463. And that was with spraining his wrist in May, costing him a couple of months and a couple of trips to the DL.

After opening the 2011 season in Toronto, Snider was optioned to the Las Vegas 51s in late April after staying south of the Mendoza line in his first 25 games. It didn't help that he had an intercostal (rib cage) sprain suffered while golfing in the spring and missed the first two weeks of camp.

On July 3rd, he was recalled by the Blue Jays, and a month later was sent back to make room for Brett Lawrie after hitting .225/3/30. He was diagnosed with tendinitis in his right wrist on August 25th, ending his 2011 season.

Snider came to 2012 camp to battle for the LF spot, but was cut in favor of Eric Thames (who ironically was traded on the same day as Snider, also for a reliever). He was again bothered by his wrist at LV, missing scattered time in April, May and June when he jammed it diving for a ball.

He was pulled from his minor league game on July 20th after being called up to replace Ben Francisco, who was shipped to Houston. Playing against the Seattle Mariners on July 30th, Snider was trotting out to left field for the bottom of the seventh inning when he was called back to the dugout again, this time to find out that he had been traded to the Pirates for Brad Lincoln. They were both members of the same 2006 draft class: Lincoln was the fourth overall pick, and Snider was the fourteenth selection.

At four different levels of the minors, Snider has excelled with a slash of .308/.383/.528 and 86 HR in 500 games. In the show, he's less impressive at .249/.307/.408 with 31 HR and 112 RBI in 244 games, but certainly not a total reclamation job. He's a first rounder who has been ranked in the Top Hundred by BA three times (#53, #11 and #6) with more minor league honors than MacArthur had medals.

The Bucs took a calculated risk at tapping Snider's upside. He was never really properly developed by the Jays, partially because he was said to be a guy that rubbed his first manager, Cito Gaston, the wrong way; partially because he's a streaky hitter that was never given a long look to even out the bumps; and partially because he was yo-yoed between the show and the bushes. After all, he was an 18 year old HS draftee and was in the majors before he was old enough to buy a drink to celebrate..

Snider has also proven fragile for being such a big galoot (6', 235 lb), missing large chunks of time to a bad wrist and a variety of other injuries from concussions to sprains, and that plays into his lack of lineup love, too.

But Pittsburgh has an FO that throughout the years loves pedigrees and trying to tease talent out of underperforming players, running the gamut from AJ Burnett to Andy LaRoche. Snider will have a long leash here until the club finds out if he's the second coming of Brandon Moss, Brian Giles, or something in between.

Lincoln Gone, Snider In And The Domino Effect

Well, it cost the Bucs one of their breakout pitchers, but they did get an outfield bat. The Pirates sent Brad Lincoln, 27, to the Toronto Blue Jays for outfielder Travis Snider, 24, in an exchange of 2006 first round picks. It actually helps both guys in the long run. The Jays will likely use Lincoln as a starter next season, and Snider will get a chance in Pittsburgh to play every day. That's the bet the teams are making regarding relative values; the Jays plan on Lincoln being a rotation guy, and the Pirates get to pencil in Snider as their regular right fielder.

Snider has been up and down in the show since 2009, but never won a starting position. He's a lefty power guy who misses a lot of pitches; he's K'ed 250 times in 917 MLB PA (27%), and gone yard 31 times with 112 RBI, hitting .247 with .734 OPS. In many ways, he's a mini-Pedro, a work in progress with the occasional teaser flash.

He'll go the opposite way at the plate and has trouble with southpaws. "Lunchbox" (he earned the nickname because, well, he likes to eat and is an excellent cook) is just a decent outfielder with good speed and an average arm. It also describes his playing style; he's a hard-nosed, hustle guy.

Snider  isn’t eligible for arbitration until after the 2013 season, so is under team control through 2016. That gives the Pirates a starting outfield of Snider, 24, Cutch, 25, and Starling Marte, 23, with fourth man Alex Presley the old man at 27. We'll see how the corners react to the growing pains, but that's one high ceiling if it works out right. Neal Huntington stayed true to his word; no rental overpays. Snider has the opportunity to become a long term piece of the puzzle.

The immediate dominoes? Well, someone has to replace Brad Lincoln, and that would be either Evan Meek or Bryan Morris, both who have been on the big team this year and are on the 40-man roster already. In the long run, the move tells us the Pirates saw Lincoln as a bullpen piece, and with plenty of those guys piled up in the minors, the FO was dealing from a position with depth. And the Bucs do have a good eye for picking up guys on the market if push comes to shove.

Next, someone has to get the heave-ho on the bench; we're thinking Jordy Mercer, who can be optioned and recalled in September, leaving Drew Sutton as a stick for Clint Hurdle.

There's a back splash for guys that remain, too. Alex Presley becomes the fourth outfielder, which is probably the role he's best suited to play. And with Snider in right, Pittsburgh is back to Plan A, platooning Garrett Jones and Casey McGehee at first, which should make that spot more productive. It looks like Kevin Correia may have to get used to his new home in the pen, too, as he now becomes the default multi-inning guy.

And it sure can't be doing much to make Jose Tabata's day at Indy, either.

It's certainly not without risk; Snider is far from a proven commodity and still feeling his way around the league. For all his pedigree, he's never reached the 300 AB mark. Snider's better known for his AAA mashing (in the hitter heaven of the PCL) and siren-song upside rather than actual MLB production.

So basically, the trade says that Toronto has given up on tapping that potential and cutting their losses. The Bucs are betting that a full-time gig will help him figure it out. Well, we'll find out soon enough; he's supposed to report to the team in time for tonight's game.

For this year, he may not be that much help, and that's the major bone of contention of tapping Snider instead of a Victorino, especially among the mainstream media folk. The Pirates will have a lot of guys trying to learn their jobs on the fly. But for the franchise as it heads down the road, it's a roll of the dice worth taking.