When professional athletes sign with a new team, they often light up when talking about what led them to join that organization. After signining with the Pittsburgh Pirates, outfielder Jarrod Dyson offered a rather depressing explanation for his landing in Pittsburgh.
Dyson spoke to reporters after signing a one-year deal with the Pirates and was quite open about the process. The 35-year-old didn’t have much else to choose from, so he took the only offer that was available.
“Ain’t too much out there right now,” Jarrod Dyson said, via Jason Mackey. “You would love to explore, but at the same time, you have to take what you can, take the good with the bad and roll with it. Make the most of it.”
It represents a major fall for a player who won a World Series title with the Kansas City Royals in 2015. Dyson played with the Arizona Diamondbacks for the past two seasons, finishing 2019 with a .230/.313/.320 slash line in 400 at-bats.
While Dyson struggles at the plate, he’s outstanding on the bases and offers excellent range in center field. He stole 30 bases this past season in Arizona and is 250-of-294 on stolen base attempts in his career.
He could have been an excellent bench piece for MLB teams with their eye on contending in 2020, especially with the new move to 26-man rosters.
Unfortunately, the interest was seemingly just never there for and he had to sign with one of the worst teams in baseball. Let’s hope Dyson can find a way to make the best of it. Perhaps he’ll even be traded to a contender during the season.