The Pittsburgh Pirates had a disappointing 2016 season. As the off-season begins, it is time to grade out the club. Today we look at Antonio Bastardo, who has another year to prove he can return to his former Pirate form.
One of the underrated pickups for the Pirates at last year’s trade deadline was former Pirate Antonio Bastardo. It likely went under the radar because the trade at the time was looked at more as the dumping of Jon Niese‘s salary to the Mets rather than trading for Bastardo. But getting anything for Niese at that time would have been a plus, and the return being Bastardo, who had success in 2015 with the Pirates, was probably better than the Pirates could have hoped for.
Bastardo improved as a Pirate with a return to Ray Searage and the pitching staff that had helped him earn a two-year, $12 million deal last off-season. He still has room to improve, but with a full off-season with Searage, he should have the ability to return to the Bastardo we saw in 2015.
Return to Pirates
When Bastardo returned to the Pirates, if he provided anything positive at all, fans would have rejoiced. The bullpen was in disarray, as Mark Melancon had been traded away, Tony Watson was having a down year, and no one else could hold down a spot behind those two. Hopes were high for Bastardo because of this, and the fact that the team remembered his 2015 campaign fondly, although Pittsburgh chose not to re-sign him. He didn’t shine immediately, as a couple of his first few outings with the Priates were shaky at best. But he turned in a 1.74 ERA in August, allowing just two earned runs in 14 appearances. With the ire of the fans focused on Watson’s average-at-best move to the closer role and the love on the other trade deadlne acquisition Felipe Rivero‘s strikeout ability, Bastardo certainly flew under the radar.
He returned to his career numbers in September in posting a 3.55 ERA, and had a rough finish to the season, allowing four runs in his last two appearances of the year. His season ERA would have sat at 4.05 were in not for those last two outings, an improvement over the 4.74 ERA he had with the Mets. Keep in mind the team had nothing to play for in those two poor October outings.
Hope for Future
Even with those two appearances to close out the season, Bastardo still improved as a Pirate, just like Rivero improved from his time as a National. He posted a better ERA, WHIP, K/9, BB/9, HR/9, H/9, and FIP as a Pirate than he had as a Met. Now, his numbers weren’t drastically better, and he was still worth zero wins as a Pirate. That’s typical for a reliever traded halfway through the season. Unless you dominate, the small sample size isn’t enough to make you worth more than a win at most.
But we should still all have hope for Bastardo. He has a full off-season to work with Ray Searage, and a return to the guy we saw in 2015 is very doable. He needs to return to that form to be worth the $6 million-plus he’s going to be making next season. The bullpen is thin as it is without Melancon and with Tony Watson likely being on the trade block, an improved Bastardo would go a ways towards the Pirates improving on their poor 2016 bullpen.
Conclusion and Final Grade
Antonio Bastardo only had 24 innings as a Pirate. He allowed four runs in one of those innings (0.1 and 0.2 in the last two outings of the season). He has the potential to be much better than he was in 2016, as he has shown that great lefty reliever ability with the 2015 Pirates and during his time with the Phillies. And while he did improve as a Pirate, he didn’t by that much. Based on what we saw in a small sample size, I’d grade Bastardo as a B- for his time with the Pirates last season.
What Grade would you give Antonio Bastardo?
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