Detroit – Jordy Mercer, understandably, was anxious about entering free agency for the first time.
He is 32 and coming off a season in 2018 where he missed a big chunk of August with a calf injury and then ended up sharing the Pirates’ shortstop position with rookie Kevin Newman the rest of the year. He wasn’t exactly charging into the Hot Stove season with a ton of leverage.
On top of that, in the winter of 2017, he watched two of his buddies, former Pirates Tony Watson (Feb. 19) and Neil Walker (March 12) dangle and nearly rot on the free-agent vine well into spring training.