Pirates adjusting to Bay’s trade

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Minutes before the Pittsburgh Pirates left town for a weekend series in Chicago, general manager Neal Huntington sat them down in their clubhouse to tell them he had traded popular outfielder Jason Bay for four young players.

The reaction from a team that remains unsettled by the recent trade of outfielder Xavier Nady to the Yankees was decidedly mixed.

“They’ve lost a friend, they’ve lost a teammate, they’ve lost a brother and that’s not easy,” Huntington said Thursday. “I think for the most part they understand the direction we’re going in, some probably even support the direction we’re going in, but it’s tough.”

Bay, a two-time NL All-Star, was one of the Pirates’ best players since the Barry Bonds days — a player well-liked not only by the fans, but by his teammates. Now, in less than two weeks, the Pirates have dealt two of the three players who formed the NL’s most productive outfield at the All-Star break.

The deal sends Manny Ramirez from the Red Sox to the Dodgers and Bay to Boston as his replacement. Bay’s equipment bag was about to be loaded onto a truck for the flight to Chicago when he learned the news, just when it seemed the 4 p.m. deadline for making a deal had passed.

It was the second blockbuster deal before the deadline. Earlier, the Chicago White Sox traded for Reds slugger Ken Griffey Jr.

Three players join the Pirates immediately: outfielder Brandon Moss and right-handed reliever Craig Hansen from the Red Sox and third baseman Andy LaRoche from Dodgers.