Pittsburgh Pirates: Who they Have Scouted

As Major League Baseball’s non-waiver trade deadline nears, the Pittsburgh Pirates continue to search for ways to improve their roster.

So far it seems as if the Pittsburgh Pirates are looking at the starting pitching market to help bolster their chances at post season baseball.  As all the Pirate fans know the Pittsburgh Pirates rotation seems to be the biggest issue on the team.  Position player wise the Pirates have a surplus.  Their bench is among the best in baseball with Matt Joyce, Sean Rodriguez, and now Adam Frazier.  Their biggest weakness as the plate is catcher, and Francisco Cervelli is close to returning from the disabled list. In fact there is so much depth that the Pirates had to send down top prospect Josh Bell to Triple-A to help him continue to get at-bats.

On the flip side, the starting rotation seems to be the biggest issue.  The Pittsburgh Pirates ranked #22 in the league with a 4.80 earned run average by their starters.  Although the rotation has been better over last few weeks.  The Pirates have gotten rid of their biggest issues in Jon Niese, by moving him to the bullpen.  They also had allowed some of the young players to pitch in the rotation and they have had better results in doing so.  Plus the Pittsburgh Pirates have seen Gerrit Cole come back to the rotation, Liriano start to pitch better, and Jameson Taillon will be back this week.

However, it seems the Pirates front office is still looking to add a veteran, more proven pitcher to help limit some of the innings of the younger arms.  With that they have sent their scouts out this week and doing their homework on the starters that could be available for trade.  Here is who they have scouted so far…

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