The offseason is slowly chugging onward, and Neal Huntington continues to do his due diligence on how to improve the Pittsburgh Pirates before the start of the 2016 season. One of the biggest areas of need heading into the offseason was starting pitching. After trading Neil Walker for Jon Niese and signing Ryan Vogelsong, the Pirates now have Niese, Vogelsong, Gerrit Cole, Francisco Liriano, and Jeff Locke as starters on the current team. That’s not the most intimidating of rotations, but it may be what the team sticks with heading into next year.
But let’s say the Pirates still wanted to add one more arm. After all, injuries always happen, and if the Pirates can improve the rotation without adding much in the way of payroll, I’m sure Huntington would do so. Luckily for the team, there are still a decent number of options available on the free agent front in terms of starting pitching. Let’s take a look at the remaining names and see who’s a fit for the Pirates.
According to ESPN, these are the free agent starting pitchers still available this off-season (listed alphabetically with their age):
Chad Billingsley (31)
Mark Buehrle (36)
A.J. Burnett (38)
Wei-Yin Chen (30)
Ross Detwiler (29)
Doug Fister (31)
Gavin Floyd (32)
Yovani Gallardo (29)
Jeremy Guthrie (36)
Aaron Harang (37)
Josh Johnson (31)
Scott Kazmir (31)
Kyle Kendrick (31)
Ian Kennedy (31)
Mat Latos (28)
Cliff Lee (37)
Colby Lewis (36)
Tim Lincecum (31)
Kyle Lohse (37)
Brandon Morrow (31)
Bud Norris (30)
Alfredo Simon (34)
Jerome Williams (34)
Randy Wolf (39)
It’s hard to say what kind of pitcher the Pirates would be looking for at this point in time. They could be in the market for a quality number-three starter to replace Locke in the rotation permanently, but I find that possibility to be slim to none. They also could be looking for someone on a one-year deal for cheap that could be a depth option in case of injury and that could be used out of the bullpen until that point. I find this option to be much more likely. So let’s take a look at a few of these names that would be realistic options for the Pirates.
A few reclamation project-type pitchers that would come at a low cost jump out immediately: Chad Billingsley, Josh Johnson, Kyle Kendrick, Tim Lincecum, and Bud Norris are a just a few of these names. These seem like the most likely candidates for the Pirates to target. Each had good years in the past, and each has gone through a few rough years recently. These rough patches are significant enough to lower the value of these pitchers enough to put them in the Pirates’ financial ballpark, while their past histories of success make them attractive as bounce-back candidates. The Pirates have been linked to Kendrick, and they’ve been connected to Norris in the past. If any of these four returns close to their peak years, they would be a better option in the rotation than Locke.
There are plenty of more attractive names than those four available as well. Mat Latos and Doug Fister are the best options that seem realistic for the Pirates. Guys like Gallardo and Kazmir are probably too expensive, while any reclamation projects mentioned before seem to have a higher chance of flaming out than Latos or Fister. What’s appealing about Latos and Fister is that both pitchers are coming off of just one poor year, and neither pitcher made a full season’s worth of starts. They are the ideal bounce-back candidates for the Pirates in my opinion.
One other name to keep an eye on is Cliff Lee. He hasn’t pitched since 2014, but in 2013 he had arguably his best season in the majors, pitching to a 2.87 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP. The Pirates may be an appealing playoff contender for him to join, and he may have the highest upside of any reclamation project, or of any free agent starting pitcher available.
The Pittsburgh Pirates may decide not to add any more major league starters, and may instead decide just to target minor league starting depth. But they currently still have the payroll room to add another starter, and it may be in their best interest to do so. There are definitely many free agent starting pitchers still available for the taking.
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