In our daily Wake-Up Call, we get you ready for the day with a complete look at all things Pittsburgh Pirates.
The deadline for teams to submit qualifying offers to free agents has come and gone.
Players such as Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and Justin Turner have all received the one-year, $17.2 million contract offer from their respective teams. Each player has until Nov. 14 to either accept or decline the offer.
While many star position players have received an offer, not many starting pitchers have. Well, except for Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jeremy Hellickson, who was the only starting pitcher to be extended an offer before the deadline.
.@Phillies reportedly extend $17.2M qualifying offer to RHP Jeremy Hellickson. https://t.co/LCd4Kt7dQU Club hasn’t confirmed. pic.twitter.com/1eMqvA3Sa7
— MLB (@MLB) November 7, 2016
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Hellickson made $7 million in 2016, so it is possible that he accepts the qualifying offer which means he will make more than $10 million more than he did this past year. If he doesn’t accept, which I think is more likely, Hellickson would test the free agent market and could be bound for a larger contract.
The Phillies starter, who won 12 games in 2016, is part of a very weak free agent starting pitching class. According to SportingNews.com’s top 10 list of available free agents, only one starting pitcher, 36-year old Rich Hill, is on the list.
The Pittsburgh Pirates have five free agents including starting pitcher Ivan Nova. Nova was acquired from the New York Yankees at the trade deadline, therefore he was not eligible for a qualifying offer.
The Pirates did not extend any qualifying offers before yesterday’s 5 p.m. deadline.
The Bucs have a very young nucleus of pitchers that could have an impact in 2017 including Jameson Taillon, Chad Kuhl and Tyler Glasnow. However, aside from Gerrit Cole, there aren’t many veteran starters within their rotation.
With the lack of quality free agents available, an increased priority may have to be set on signing Nova to a contract. The 29-year old will be 30 by the time 2017 comes around and could be looking at a nice pay day due to his time with the Pirates in which he went 5-2 with a 3.06 ERA in 11 starts.
The Hellickson qualifying offer really shined more light on how desperate teams will be for pitching this offseason. The Pirates will likely want nothing to do with the barren starting pitching market and may, even though they might not want to, have to be willing to sign Nova to a long term deal if they are adamant about improving their young rotation.
In this market, Nova is a prime target and the Pirates should do whatever they can to stay in the hunt for his services.
An entire list of MLB free agents can be found here.
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