Pirates name Neil Walker starting second baseman; Bench Iwamura

The Pittsburgh Pirates today officially named Neil Walker their starting second baseman. Manager John Russell announced prior to Monday's game that Walker will now become the everyday second baseman.

Walker will replace Aki Iwamura in the starting lineup for the foreseeable future. Iwamura has been horrendous at the plate, batting .173 on the season and has also struggled in the field.

According to Russell, Iwamura, the teams highest paid player ($4.85 million) will now become a bench player and will see time off the bench at second and third base.

The Pirates traded young reliever Jesse Chavez to Tampa Bay in exchange for Iwamura during the offseason. Iwamura was coming off a season in which he appeared in less than 70 games due to knee surgery.

As an organization, the Pirates deserve praise for deciding to move forward with Walker as their second baseman. There were serious doubts that the Pirates would be willing to pull the plug on the Aki Iwamura experiment due to Iwamura being the highest paid player on the team.

Walker celebrated his promotion, going 2-for-4 in the Pirates 2-1 win against the Chicago Cubs on Monday afternoon. The 24 year old is batting .321 on the season and has 4 multi-hit games in just 7 games since being recalled last Tuesday.

The Pirates snapped a 5 game losing streak with their 2-1 win on Monday as the team continued their dominance against the Cubs