Pittsburgh Pirates Rumor Mill – Veteran Starter Options

Welcome to the weekly Pittsburgh Pirates Rumor Mill, where we update you on all of the latest Pirates trades, signings, rumors, injury news, promotions, demotions, and the like from the past week.

The playoffs march forward, as does the off-season for our Pittsburgh Pirates. And it’s been a quiet off-season so far, which makes sense considering free agency hasn’t begun yet. There are the occasional minor moves, but until the World Series concludes and free agency begins, we won’t see any major moves. All we know on the Pirates front so far is that the team could quietly shop Andrew McCutchen this winter and Gerrit Cole may not get an extension from the Pirates any time soon. We know the biggest need for the Pirates is a veteran starter for the rotation, and that the team will return most of the same players next season.

This week we’ll focus on some possible free agent options to fill that veteran starter role, as well as our usual weekly updates. First, let’s talk injuries.

Injury Updates

Barring something unforeseen, the Pirates won’t have any players miss time to start the year next season. Right now, the status quo seems to be the case for Starling Marte, Josh Harrison, A.J. Schugel, Gerrit Cole, Elias Diaz, and Chris Stewart, all players that ended the season on the disabled list. Cole’s injury could negatively affect his chances of an extension with the Pirates, but other than that, there are no updates on this front.

Minor Moves

Since the Pirates acquired Brady Dragmire from the Blue Jays, the team has not made any moves.

UPDATE: As first reported by Pirates Prospects, the Pirates have re-signed pitchers Casey Sadler and Angel Sanchez, ostensibly to minor league free agent deals. This is not a new development for the duo, as this exact same scenario played out prior to 2015 when both went down to Tommy John surgery. With good health, both have a healthy shot at re-joining the club at various minor league levels.

Veteran Starter Options

This is the team’s biggest need this off-season. Ideally, the Pirates would re-sign Ivan Nova to a team-friendly three- or four-year deal, but we all know MLB free agency isn’t ideal for the Pirates. If the team can’t sign him, the free agent starter market is pretty dry. Because of this, the price for even average starters will skyrocket. The Pirates may have to either overpay for a starter, or target one through a trade. But if they strike early, or wait for the market to settle down, maybe the team can sneak in and get a reasonable deal done with a player they like.

In a market like this there are plenty of reclamation projects. C.J. Wilson had a rebound year last season with a 3.89 ERA after a poor year in 2015. His battery mate Jered Weaver has not pitched well the past couple seasons, hitting ERAs close to five. Wilson might have pitched above his head in a contract year, while Weaver might be hitting a wall. You wonder which kind of player the Pirates would target in a case like this: the one that’s done poorly and they hope could rebound, or a veteran that has pitched well following a string a poor seasons. Weaver might be cheaper, but Wilson could be the safer choice.

Hisashi Iwakuma had his worst year of his career with a 4.12 ERA, and he seems to be slowly getting worse with age, but he could be a quality veteran to target on a one-year deal. Doug Fister was a player many of us wanted the Pirates to target last winter, but with back-to-back underwhelming seasons, his value may be down (a perfect reclamation target for the Pirates). Other veterans include former Pirate Edinson Volquez, Rich Hill (a bit of a wild card), Edwin Jackson, Kyle Kendrick, and Alfredo Simon. Yeah, it’s not a pretty veteran market.

The players I’d like the Pirates to target are Volquez, with the hopes that reuniting with the Ray Searage would lead to success, Fister, Nova, Jhoulys Chacin, or Wilson. Chacin in particular intrigues me. He’s a name you never hear about, yet he has a career 3.94 ERA while pitching six of his eight big league seasons with the Rockies, and he’s hitting free agency at just 28 years old. His value is likely down coming off a season where he held a 4.81 ERA, so he could be looking for a one-year deal to rebuild his value. That could be right in the Pirates alley.

We’ll see what route the Pirates take, but it’s certainly not a great free agent market for starting pitchers, that much is clear.

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