Pittsburgh Pirates: Five Left-Handed Pitching Free Agent Targets

The Pittsburgh Pirates don’t have very many quality left-handed pitching options for 2022, so they should conisder pursuing these 5 free agent pitchers.

The Pittsburgh Pirates left-handed pitching situation isn’t the best. Currently, Sam Howard and Anthony Banda project as the team’s two left-handed relievers, while Steven Brault and Dillon Peters are their best options for the rotation. There is a possibility that all four of those pitchers are non-tendered or designated for assignment this offseason, with the Pirates moving on from at least two of them appearing to be a lock.

Now, sure, they do have some young and talented left-handers in the system. Omar Cruz will likely make an impact at some point during the 2022 season. Anthony Solometo was considered the best prep lefty in the 2021 draft. Trey McGough led all Pirate minor league pitchers in walk rate. Blake Weiman is considered their best LHP relief prospect. Though only Cruz and maybe McGough and Weiman have the potential to make an impact over the next 2-3 seasons assuming they don’t acquire another through trade. Aside from Solometo, none of the other three are considered high-end prospects, the closest of the trio being Cruz.

Given that the 2022 Pittsburgh Pirates look to be very young while having a lot of roster turnover, the Pirates need to have a few constants throughout the season, especially at a position they have very few quality options at. The team needs to look into adding a left-handed pitcher or two, preferably veterans who have the potential to help lock down spots in either the rotation or bullpen. So who are some options they could explore?

Tony Watson

The Pirates are more than familiar with Tony Watson. He was one of their key pieces of the Shark Tank in 2013-2015 and spent a total of 7 seasons as part of the Pirate bullpen. Throughout that time, Watson pitched 433 innings, posting a strong 2.68 ERA, 3.59 FIP, 1.09 WHIP, while making the 2014 All-Star Game and becoming one of the sport’s best left-handed relievers. Plus he was a high-quality set-up man.

The Pittsburgh Pirates traded him at the 2017 trade deadline to the Los Angeles Dodgers for then young infielder Oneil Cruz. Watson became a free agent at the season’s end and signed on with the San Francisco Giants where he would continue being a solid figure in the pen. His next 138 innings from 2018 through 2020 saw him pitch to the tune of a 3.20 ERA, 3.62 FIP, and 1.101 WHIP. While he never reached his early-to-mid 2010’s height, he provided a consistently solid and durable arm for the Giants.

After 2020, he latched on with the Los Angeles Angels and was eventually traded back to the Giants. All told, he pitched 57.1 innings, posted a 3.92 ERA, 3.48 FIP, and 1.01 WHIP. He was great at limiting hard contact, being in the 94th percentile of exit velocity (86 MPH) and hard-hit rate (95th percentile). While Watson may have only had a 19.6% strikeout rate, he had an 8% walk rate and kept home runs at a minimal rate of .63. His outstanding hard-hit numbers paired well with a 45.6% ground ball rate.

The only issue is that his underlying numbers didn’t put Watson in the best of light. He had just a 4.26 SIERA, 4.30 xFIP, and 5.07 DRA. But the only measure on Baseball Savant he was considered below average in was strikeout rate, being in the bottom 22nd percentile. He was well above average in all expected stats, about average in whiff rate, and, as stated earlier, outstanding when it came to inducing soft contact.

The cost for Watson would be relatively low. The Angles were able to sign him for a one-year, $1 million offer. That was after he was released from a minor league deal with the Philadelphia Phillies. It probably wouldn’t take any more than $1-3 million to resign the former All-Star set-up man. Watson would pair well as the 8th inning guy to David Bednar. Plus, then the Pirates could have both Cruz and Watson on the 26-man roster, which would end up being a cool outcome of the Pittsburgh Pirates originally trading Watson.

Rich Hill

It seems every time Rich Hill’s career is nearing its end, he finds a way to revitalize himself and make it another year. While 2022 will be his age-42 season, I doubt after his solid 2021 campaign he’s going to call it quits just yet.

Hill is coming off a solid season where he tossed 158.2 innings with the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Mets. Overall, he posted a 3.86 ERA, 4.34 FIP, and 1.21 WHIP. While his strikeout rate was nothing to write home about, 22.7% is still usable. Plus he had an 8.3% walk rate. Hill wasn’t the greatest at limiting home runs but again, a 1.19 mark is passable.

Hill had an above-average exit velocity (88.3 MPH) and hard-hit rate (34.8%). That helps make up for some mediocre batted ball rates. He also saw his whiff rate rebound from just 15.9% in 2020 to 23.1% this year. Hill clearly isn’t a hard thrower, but he still has above-average spin on his offerings, being in the top 71st percentile of fastball RPM and top 81st percentile of curveball spin.

The major issue that comes with Hill is his poor ERA estimators. He has a 4.70 xFIP,4.43 SIERA, and 4.97 DRA, which comes closer to a mid-to-upper 4 ERA pitcher based on those numbers. Plus he posted his worst ground ball rate since 2011. Not the right direction you want those numbers to be trending. Hill also has some injury concerns. While he stayed healthy for the majority of the 2021 season, it’s the first time he’s pitched more than 150 innings since way back in 2007.

Still, Hill can provide a solid left-handed starting pitcher in 2022. The very worst-case scenario is the Pittsburgh Pirates take a very low-risk, one-year deal in the $2-5 million range and he only pitches 80-100 innings, or his underlying numbers catch up to him and they eventually release him. The best-case scenario is that he gives them 120-150 innings and 25 starts and a mid-to-upper 3 ERA. There’s almost no risk involved in a deal that small to a starting pitcher who’s been quite solid the last handful of seasons.

Kwang-Hyun Kim

Another starting pitching option the Pirates could pursue is Kwang-Hyun Kim. Kim was one of the KBO’s better pitchers for 12 seasons. After the 2019 season, Kim came over stateside on a two-year deal with the division rival St. Louis Cardinals. Kim became a quality pitcher throughout the last 2 seasons, making him a solid candidate for the Pittsburgh Pirates to pursue.

Through 145.2 innings with the Cardinals, Kim has a 2.97 ERA and 1.22 WHIP, albeit with a solid though unimpressive 4.22 FIP. Kim is not a strikeout pitcher. He has a strikeout rate of just 17.2%. Though he does have a solid 8.4% walk rate and .93 HR/9. Not bad numbers by any means. His 48.1% ground ball rate goes well with his above-average hard hit and exit velocity numbers.

This past season Kim pitched 106.2 innings, having a 3.46 ERA, 4.34 FIP, and 1.28 WHIP. Again, nothing overly outstanding, but nothing bad either. He only had a 17.8% strikeout rate and 8.6% walk rate. Plus his 1.01 HR/9 wasn’t fantastic either. On the plus side, he had a healthy 47.4% ground ball rate while being in the top 68th percentile of exit velocity and top 70th percentile of hard-hit rate.

Kim is your typical soft-tossing, ground ball kind of pitcher. He doesn’t have overpowering velocity, or an extremely high spin rate to get a bunch of strikeouts. Though so far, he’s been really good at it. But the biggest concern will be how he would handle the transition from the St. Louis Cardinals to the Pirates with that approach. Kim had a 4.85 SIERA, 4.70 xFIP, and 5.27 DRA. The Cards were the league leaders in team DRS, 5th in UZR/150, 2nd in range runs above average, and had 7 players with at least 3 Outs Above Average (3 with 10+ OAA). A combination of Nolan Arenado, Paul DeJong, Paul Goldschmidt, Tyler O’neill, Harrison Bader, Dylan Carlson, Edmundo Sosa, and Tommy Edman with Yadier Molina behind the dish is probably as good as it can get defensively.

While the overall defense of the Pittsburgh Pirate was not awful this past season, and should see some improvement now without Gregory Polanco, the DH returning so Colin Moran doesn’t have to spend every day at first base, Travis Swaggerty likely playing a good amount of 2022 at the major league level, and some other plus defenders in the upper minors, it wasn’t anything to write home about. A guy like Kim may not have the same results as he did with an infield of potential Gold Glove winners. Still, while it may not be to the elite-degree the Cardinals had, the Pirate defense is far from awful.

But the Pirates can offer Kim something that the Cards cannot. That being a 100% chance at a starting rotation spot. The Cards used left-hander as a partial swingman. 28 of his 35 total appearances were out of the starting rotation. He ended 2021 in the bullpen. Though Kim is a bit older, with 2022 being his age-33 campaign, I don’t see a major reason why not to make a push for the Korean pitcher.

Brooks Raley

Brooks Raley was a Chicago Cub farmhand back in the early-2010’s. He made his debut in 2012, but would only pitch 38.1 innings between ‘12 and ‘13. After bouncing around with the Minnesota Twins and LA Angels in 2014, Raley would head over to South Korea for a few seasons.

Raley returned to the states in 2020 and pitched only 20.1 innings in 2020 with the Cincinnati Reds and then the Houston Astros. While Raley had a poor ERA, he struck out a ton of batters, kept his walks down, and overall had a solid season despite the poor surface numbers.

It was more of the same for Raley in 2021. Raley pitched 49 innings with the Astros, posting a 4.78 ERA. But make no mistake, he’s much better than his ERA suggests. Raley had a strong 3.27 FIP and 1.20 WHIP. Raley struck out over 30% of batters faced (31.7%) while having a sub-8% walk rate (7.8%). Plus he had a 1.1 HR/9 rate.

Raley was the best-of-the-best when it came to inducing soft contact. He was in the top 100th percentile of exit velocity (83 MPH) and hard-hit rate (21.5%). Both of those led the league. He was also in the 90th or better percentile of fastball RPM (92nd percentile) and curveball RPM (95th percentile). Outstanding numbers, and even better once you consider he had a 45.3% ground ball rate. The only real knock on him was his 26.3% line drive rate which isn’t very good.

Raley had both an xFIP (2.91) and SIERA (2.90) below 3. He also was well above average in DRA, having a DRA- of 75 (25% better than league average), overall posting a 3.47 mark. The only stats he was below average in were ERA and line-drive rate. Aside from that, he was an outstanding left-handed relief pitcher.

Raley gets swings and misses, he seldom lets opponents square him up, and is overall one of the most underrated arms on the market. If there was any relief pitcher the Pittsburgh Pirates should heavily pursue, it would be Raley.