(Brett Davis/USA Today Sports)
There was a point during the 2012 season when it seemed like the Pittsburgh Pirates seemed like one of the top teams in baseball and would finally end their long drought of failing to make the playoffs. Unfortunately, things fell apart as the Pirates finished the season four games below .500, but they’ve been doing whatever it takes to make sure they’re contenders heading into next season–including the signing Garrett Jones.
The argument can be made that Jones had one of his best seasons with the Pirates in 2012 after finishing the season with a .274 batting average to go along with 27 home runs and 86 RBIs. With these type of numbers, Pittsburgh believed Jones was worth of a raise as they gave him a new one-year deal that will pay him $4.5 million–which is always a nice raise.
One of the best features about Jones is his ability to play multiple positions as he’s capable of playing outfielder on top of first base. Hopefully, this raise for Jones will motivate him to put up even better numbers heading into next season as he could end up being a key factor to this team finally finishing the regular season with a winning record.
Pittsburgh showed plenty of potential at times during the 2012 season and if they can manage to perform like they did last year–there’s no reason why they can’t at least make a run with some of the other contenders in the NL Central in 2013.
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