Pirates trade Ivan Nova to White Sox

The Pittsburgh Pirates continued to shed salary for 2019 as they swapped righthanded pitcher Ivan Nova to the Chicago White Sox in return for a minor league pitcher.

The soon to be 32 year old Nova started 29 games for the Pirates in 2018 and finished 9-9 with a 4.19 ERA and 114 strikeouts as part of their rotation.
Nova earns eight million for the 2019 season and would be a free agent following that year so I can see the Pirates wanting to receive something for him and the Pirates appeared to be set in their rotation with Jameson Taillon, Chris Archer, Trevor Williams, and Joe Musgrove as their top four, so for a team with limited dollars to spend, Pittsburgh decided that eight million for an impending free agent was a bit high for their budget.

I might have kept Nova as the fifth starter and took what would have had the potential to be a pretty decent starting corps into the season and see what happened.
I would think had the team been in selling mode at the trade deadline, the Pirates would have likely been able to acquire a similar prospect in a trade, so that makes me think that as usual, the decision came down to the financial budget.
Still, I understand it as Nick Kingham pitched very well at times in his 15 starts and the cost difference between what the Pirates hope would be similar pitchers is pretty vast, so slotting Kingham into the fifth spot in the rotation makes sense.

Pittsburgh received 19 year old (turns 20 next month) pitcher Yordi Rosario.
Rosario split last year between the White Sox Dominican and Arizona league teams combining for an ERA of 2.57 between the two teams in 56 innings.
The interesting number is 70 strikeouts in those innings, so there appears to be some upside, although far from a sure thing.
I would think Rosario has a chance to start at Low A Greensboro, but may also stay in Florida and then be assigned in June to either Bristol (He'd be a little old) or West Virginia (He might be a little young).
Rosario's a lottery ticket, but an intriguing one.

Pittsburgh also signed journeyman righthander Jordan Lyles to an undisclosed deal.
Lyles was 3-4 with a 4.11 ERA in a season split between the Brewers and Padres.
Lyles started eight games for the Padres and made 16 relief appearances before his being traded to Milwaukee where he pitched in eleven games all from the bullpen.
Lyles will likely be in the bullpen to start and might be either a challenger for the fifth starting spot for Nick Kingham or the fallback option in case of injury or need.

Pirates re-sign Ivan Nova

The Pittsburgh Pirates decided that a small sample was enough as the Pirates kept pitcher Ivan Nova with a three year contract worth eight million a year.

The 29 year old Nova was obtained in mid-season from the Yankees,where he had started and relieved and was installed in the Pittsburgh rotation.
With the Yankees,Nova had struggled to a 7-6 (4.90 ERA) record and I was surprised when the Pirates had interest in a soon to be free agent.
Nova seemed to thrive in the Pirates program,which has turned around and revitalized a few careers over the last few seasons in throwing three complete games in eleven Pittsburgh starts with an ERA that barely nudged over three.
Nova,even with the questions surrounding them,easily slots in the third rotation position behind Gerrit Cole and Jameson Taillon and ahead of Ryan Vogelsong and Chad Kuhl,who are basically placeholders until at least Tyler Glasnow and eventually Nick Kingham can take spots ahead of Vogelsong and Kuhl,neither of which will be confused with Koufax or Gibson any time soon.

As well as Nova pitched in his eleven starts (and he did pitch quite well),eight million plus per year for a pitcher that has not exactly dazzled otherwise since his 2014 Tommy John surgery is one that makes me wonder.
Eight million for a middle of the rotation starter isn't overtly expensive,but the Pirates cannot afford to miss on those types of players-such as they did last season when trading Neil Walker to the Mets for Jon Niese.

I'm betting the Pirates aren't quite done tweaking the rotation yet as I anticipate another attempt to upgrade the mediocre back of the rotation,
Pittsburgh has been rumored to be interested in the White Sox Jose Quintana,who would be a huge leap forward for the staff,but would likely cost a pretty penny in prospects.
A potential Quintana deal would tip the Pirates hand as far if they feel that they can contend or not.
Paying what you would suspect would be two top prospects and a lesser one would make you believe that Neal Huntington thinks that the Pirates can contend.
If they try the bargain route,then they might be looking more towards 2018.

Thinking about a podcast soon,which is way overdue....

Pittsburgh Pirates make three deals at the deadline

The Pittsburgh Pirates were on the outside of the wild card chase,but the distance was not so remarkable (four games) that it could not be made up.

Instead,the Pirates made what looks to be their most blatant salary dump in years and was dismaying to their fan base among three trades at the trade deadline.

The worst trade and most obvious salary dump came in a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays as the Pirates traded struggling veteran pitcher Francisco Liriano and two players from the AA Altoona Curve for Drew Hutchison.
To begin,let's look at Hutchison,who did win 13 games for the Blue Jays last season,but did it with an ERA of five and half and a WHIP of 1.48 (not good),so clearly you don't to be Brian Kenny (who hates the win stat) to see that Hutchison was simply the by-product of a good hitting ball club.
The 25 year old has spent most of this season with AAA Buffalo and was a highly thought of prospect just a few years ago.
Hutchison has not had arm woes that I know of,so the Pirates are hoping to work that rehab magic one more time..

Francisco Liriano has been bad this season.
Really bad, with his ERA being almost as bad as Drew Hutchison's 2015 without the offense to make up for it hence Liriano's record being 6-11.
Liriano's velocity is down,his strikeouts are down and he was still owed 13 million for 2017,so I get why the Pirates wanted to move him,but they could have released him and kept two nice prospects.
Was a guy with a 5+ ERA last year that couldn't even make the team for much of this season that valuable to add?
In my opinion-a resounding no.
Reese McGuire hasn't hit for power (1 homer at AA Altoona),but has been outstanding defensively and leaves the Pirates farm system lacking any kind of a catching prospect...
Harold Ramirez hasn't hit for power either,but has hit over .300 at each of his last three stops in the system and at minimum could be a 4th outfielder type.
I know the Pirates are set in the outfield for a while with Austin Meadows on the way,but giving away possible players for the simple cost of saving money makes me think of the Dave Littlefield years-Never a good parallel!
Not happy with this deal at all...

Pittsburgh then continued a bizarre circle with the New York Mets as the team brought back reliever Antonio Bastardo,who left the team after last season to sign with the Mets in exchange for Jon Niese,who had been added from the Mets over the winter for Neil Walker.
Bastardo's ERA is over 4,but he's still striking out a batter an inning from the bullpen and should help a team that lost bullpen depth after dealing Mark Melancon to Washington.
Bastardo is signed for 2017 at six million.
Niese had struggled as well in Pittsburgh leaving at town with a record of 8-6,but an ERA of 4.91.
Niese had a club option for ten million for 2017 with a 500,000 buyout,so I can see this one a little.
If you didn't want to pick up the option for Niese,you saved the buyout cost and added a productive reliever in Bastardo,but doesn't that make the trade of Neil Walker look awful now?
The Pirates in the end lost Walker and got back a guy that they could have re-signed over the winter.
Hmmm.....

The final trade is the one that scares me as Pittsburgh added pitcher Ivan Nova from the Yankees for two players to be named later.
There has to be more on the surface that we know as Nova is 29,has an ERA around five for the second year in a row and is a free agent at the end of the year.
I would hope that the Pirates have a proviso of some type that the level of prospect or even number of prospects is subject to change if Nova would not re-sign with Pittsburgh,but I haven't read anything of that type.
I'm not against taking flyers on players,but this seems downright weird to me...

All and all,I'm just confused.
Salary dumping players,losing prospects just to say you are receiving something instead of nothing,bringing back players that you could have re-signed?
Making trades that make zero baseball sense because you need to shred salary?
These don't seem like the Neal Huntington Pirates-they seem like the Bonifay/Littlefield Buccos and I don't like that.
I don't like that at all.

Back later with a recap of the final team and their trades-the San Francisco Giants.