(Photo Credit: J. Patrick Rice)
The Pittsburgh Pirates today announced that they have acquired outfielder Marlon Byrd, catcher John Buck and cash consideration from the New York Mets in exchange for minor league infielder Dilson Herrera and a player to be named later. The announcement was made by Senior Vice President, General Manager Neal Huntington.
Byrd hit .285 (121-for-425) with 26 doubles, five triples, 21 home runs and 71 RBI in 117 games with the Mets. Byrd, who will turn 36 on Friday, is hitting .311 with 11 doubles, three triples, six home runs and 20 RBI in 38 games since the All-Star break. His 81 total bases since the break rank second among all National League hitters (San Diego’s Will Venable is first with 87 and Andrew McCutchen is tied for third with 80) while his 20 extra base hits are tied with Venable for most in the league in that time.
Since breaking into the big leagues with Philadelphia in 2002, Byrd has hit .279 (1188-for-4260) with 243 doubles, 32 triples, 103 home runs and 516 RBI in 1220 games with Philadelphia (2002-05), Wash- ington (2005-06), Texas (2007-09), the Chicago Cubs (2010-12), Boston (2012) and the New York Mets (2013).
Buck was hitting .215 (79-for-368) with 11 doubles, 15 home runs and 60 RBI in 101 games at the time of the trade. He enters today ranked third among all National League catchers in RBI (59) and fourth in home runs (15). Since the beginning of the 2010 season, Buck’s 63 home runs as a catcher rank third in the Majors.
The 33-year-old Buck has a career average of .233 (816-for-3499) with 170 doubles, nine triples, 133 home runs and 483 RBI in 1049 games in the big leagues with Kansas City (2004-09), Toronto (2010), Miami (2011-12) and the New York Mets (2013).
The club will announce corresponding 40- and 25-man roster moves.
