Russell Martin's Unfortunate Start To His Pirates Career

Russell Martin was the Pirates’ big free agent addition over the winter, signing the largest major league free agent contract in club history. While his Pirates career his started slowly offensively, he has helped the club defensively; FanGraphs’ Jeff Sullivan looked at the impact that Martin has had with his pitch framing skills and noted a big change for the Bucs. However, as good as Martin could be defensively he will soon need to offer something at the plate in order for him to have value to the club. 

Russell Martin's Role In The Potential Success Of This Winter

Neal Huntington has made some big additions, as well as a noteworthy subtraction, this winter. He’s traded his closer for a quartet of players, with Mark Melancon and possibly Jerry Sands beginning the year in Pittsburgh, re-signed Jason Grilli and Jeff Karstens as well as further strengthening the rotation with Francisco Liriano. However, I believe that the success of the winter will reside on the performance of the club’s new catcher, especially if the offense fails to progress further in 2013. 

Looking at Jeff Karstens' Development

Jeff Karstens has developed into a dependable middle of the rotation pitcher whenever he’s been healthy and should provide a lot of value on a $2.5M contract. While that durability issue that led to him being non-tendered could well be a problem this year and he's seen as more of a back end of the rotation option, I believe that Karstens now becomes a solid number three behind A.J. Burnett and Wandy Rodriguez in the Pirates rotation.