Pittsburgh Pirates: Three Veteran Free Agents Who Could Help

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Jul 29, 2020; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton looks on during batting practice before playing the Milwaukee Brewers at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports /

Spring Training is starting to ramp up, but there are still some interesting free agents left. This is where the Pittsburgh Pirates could still add veteran pitching depth.

The offseason is in its final weeks. Pitchers and catchers have already reported to Spring Training, but there’s still many different veteran free agents left on the market that could help give the Pittsburgh Pirates roster depth.

Right now, the Pirates are one of the worst teams in the Major Leagues, but it would still be a good destination for veterans looking for a bounceback. One, it’s a low-pressure environment. Two, they would be backed by a decent defense with a Gold Glove caliber catcher, fantastic left side of the infield and an outfield defense that is improving. Finally, it essentially guarantees that they are on a good team by the end of the season.

The Pittsburgh Pirates will be looking to deal many of their players for whatever returns they can get, but this is especially true for any rental player on the roster, similarly how they were able to deal Jarrod Dyson last year for International bonus pool spending.

Even after the signing of Tyler Anderson, the Pittsburgh Pirates could still use some roster depth and some durability as well. So here are three veteran pitchers still on the market that the Pirates could go after.

Rick Porcello

2016 American League Cy Young winner Rick Porcello is coming off a so-so stint with the New York Mets. While he may have had a 5.64 ERA and 1.50 WHIP, he also had a solid 3.33 FIP, 4.38 xFIP, 4.45 SIERA and 4.58 DRA.

Porcello only walked 5.7% of all the batters he faced while having a strong 0.76 HR/9 rate. Porcello has never been a big strikeout guy, but had a 20.7% strikeout rate compared to his career average 17.5% rate.

Porcello was majorly hurt by a .373 batting average on balls in play despite an above average exit velocity (87.2 MPH) and hard hit rate (36.8%), which caused his ERA to rise so much. Combined with a small sample size of just 59 innings and his numbers are a bit inflated. In the three seasons prior to 2020 he was a roughly league average pitcher putting up a 4.79 ERA, 4.45 FIP and 1.32 WHIP. That comes out to a 104 ERA-, 96 ERA+ and 102 FIP-. That’s all within 5% of the league average.

The main reason the Pirates should look into Porcello is to provide a durable arm. From 2017-2019, the soft tossing right hander averaged 33 starts and 190 innings per season. The Pittsburgh Pirates have a lot of young arms, including in the bullpen, so having a starter who can consistently give you 6 innings every five days and give your bullpen some rest is a big positive.

Edinson Volquez

The Pittsburgh Pirates are more than familiar with Edinson Volquez. The right-hander was one of their best starters in 2014 and was given the ball for the 2014 National League Wild Card Game for the Pirates. Despite his poor start in the Wild Card Game loss, Volquez wound up being a successful signing, one that was originally seen as a bad move, but could the Pirates pull some magic out of Volquez again?

Volquez is now primarily a relief pitcher and in his late-30s, but he’s throwing harder than ever. Last season his sinker averaged 94.3 MPH, the highest mark he’s touched since 2010 with the pitch. He was even able to get it into the 95-MPH range a few times during the season. His curveball also still was in the top 79th percentile of spin at 2733 RPM. Both his fastball and sinker had above average spin as well in the top 58th percentile.

His change up was his most valuable pitch averaging -2.5 run value/100 pitches. However, both his four-seam fastball and curveball were also well above average in terms of run value/100 pitches.

Volquez may still have something left in the tank as evident by his recent spike in velocity. It wouldn’t hurt to bring in the veteran right-hander on a one-year deal or minor league deal to grab a relief role and potentially turn into a trade piece by the deadline for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Mike Leake

Mike Leake will be looking for a bounceback season after sitting out 2020 due to COVID-19. The former Cincinnati Red starter has been one of baseball’s most durable arms since his arrival in MLB back in 2010.

In the three seasons prior to 2020, Leake was about a league average starter. In 568.2 innings stretching from 2017 to 2019, Leake had a 4.19 ERA, 4.43 FIP and 1.28 WHIP. This comes out to a 101 ERA+, 99 ERA- and 103 FIP-. He was also roughly league average in terms of xFIP. With a 4.28 mark, he had a 98 xFIP-.

Leake’s strong suit was preventing free passes. With a walk rate of just 4.1%, only Miles Mikolas had a lower walk rate in these 3 seasons (min. 300 innings pitched). His HR/9 rate was inflated during his last year, giving up 15 home runs in his final 60 innings of 2019, but that was also the first season his HR/9 rose above 1.2 since 2012.

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However, what might make him a potential pitcher on the Pirates’ radar is his durability. He’s failed to pitch less than 180 innings just two times from 2012 onward. Like with Porcello, Leake would give the Pirates 6 sold innings of baseball every five days which would help take a load off a young bullpen.

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Spring Training is starting to ramp up, but there are still some interesting free agents left. This is where the Pittsburgh Pirates could still add veteran pitching depth.

Rick Porcello

Edinson Volquez

Mike Leake

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