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The Pittsburgh Pirates have won 10 straight games and have found themselves back in the playoff picture. The team’s biggest issue down the stretch could be starting pitching. They should look to add one.
The Pittsburgh Pirates are going through one of their best stretches of baseball since 2015. They have pulled off win after win compiling 10 straight. This streak started before the All-Star break, but the team kept going with a sweep of Cincinnati and a victory over the Cleveland Indians. With that, the team has gotten back over .500 and is now back into the Wild Card picture.
This has put the team in an interesting situation being that the trade deadline is now just a week away. So now the team has to determine if they are truly going to try to continue to push up the standings and buy, or if they feel they will regress like they did earlier this season and sell.
Well, more and more fans are starting to call for the team to buy at this deadline. If the Pittsburgh Pirates want to win over their fans and start filling the seats again at PNC Park, then the team will buy. Also, in general, this team has shown multiple times that they can play as good as any team in the league, so why not try to build on the current play. However, if there is one thing that the team absolutely should look to add is a starting pitcher.
The team is lacking that impressive, yet proven starter to go with Jameson Taillon at the top of the rotation. They have a Joe Musgrove who finished last season in Houston’s bullpen. Plus Trevor Williams and Nick Kingham who are relatively young and may not be prepared to pitch deep into the fall.
The biggest concern, however, is the lack of depth. Clay Holmes fired a good second career start, but the Pittsburgh Pirates should not be comfortable with him being their sixth starter in the middle of a playoff race. Adding a proven starter will only help this team and there are plenty of options. Here are three pitchers that the Pittsburgh Pirates should look into: