According to twitter reports, the Pirates will decline their 2019 options on infielders Josh Harrison and Jung-Ho Kang. The Pirates have made it clear they’d like to retain Kang’s services, but their unwillingness to pay $250,000 less than they were willing to pay for Sean Rodriguez raises doubts that they’ll be able to do so.
Harrison almost certainly won’t be back. In all or parts of eight seasons with the Pirates, he posted a batting line of 277/317/408. His best season was 2014, when he batted 315/347/490 and made the All-Star team for the first of two times.