Pirates Trade Rumors: Rick Porcello to Pittsburgh?

A name that simply won’t go away in the Major League Baseball trade rumor circuit is Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Rick Porcello.  Perhaps only Justin Uptons‘ name has been thrown around more, and that is in large part to Upton shutting down the trade to Seattle.  (The guy loves the spotlight..)

It appears that the Detroit Tigers feel they have six starting pitchers and the 24-year old Porcello is numero six, thus he needs to go.

Porcello fits the Bucs mold rather well.  The 6’5″ Porcello would have three more years of control, a salary under $5 million this season, and some level of upside.

It seems hard to believe that the team isn’t willing to work with him to develop his secondary pitches, but who the hell are we to judge?   It seems obvious Detroit has little confidence in the once-thought-to-be-future ace of the staff.

Since 2009, the large scale numbers of ERA and WHIP have regressed, while his FIP has improved from 4.77 during the rookie campaign to at least a better-than-average 3.91 last year.   The ERA+ bounced back a bit last season as well, but still fell 22 points shy of that 114 put up in his 2009 rookie campaign.  Still, some in Detroit feel he isn’t the pitcher the Tigers should trade.    Screw it–the Motor City is in win right now mode, so the Bucs need to pull the triger.

The Tigers typically move fast in these situations, so what do the Pirates have that fits the Tigers wishlist?

Neal said to take just one.

Shortstop?  Jim Leyland–have you seen the ZIPS projections for the Pirates shortstops?    Hell, take two they are small.

Right handing hitting outfielder?  Oh my!  The Pirates have more of those than the Tigers owner has Pizza! Pizza!   There is nothing but future projected talent out there Mr. President/Mr. CEO/Mr. General Manager/Mr. David Dombrowski.   Grab yourself one.

Closer?  Jason Grilli.  You recall the name.  All good.  He’s yours.

Ok, so the Tigers wishlist could also double as the Bucs wishlist, so ignore this post.  Getting Porcello looks to be just as hard as it was when we couldn’t come up with a scenario in which a Joel Hanrahan for Porcello swap would work a month ago.