3 recently non-tendered pitchers the Pirates should go after

The deadline to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible MLB players across all American League and National League teams passed on Friday evening at 7:00 PM central. Typically, this deadline indicates the free agent market is about to expand significantly. While many of the players now hitting the free agent market struggled in 2024, there are some decent players who slipped through the cracks and are now open to signing with anyone.

This is definitely something the Pittsburgh Pirates should take advantage of. The Bucs could definitely use some pitching depth, and a ton of arms are now on the free agent market. The Pirates should have even more opportunities to add a decent, low-risk arm, so let's look at some recent non-tendered pitchers the Bucs should pursue.

The Pirates should pursue these three non-tendered pitchers in free agency

Jacob Webb

Jacob Webb was coming off two middling campaigns with the Atlanta Braves and Baltimore Orioles in 2022 and 2023. The expectations weren't very high entering 2024, but Webb had a solid campaign, posting some nice numbers for the O's. Despite his quality campaign, Webb was non-tendered.

Webb pitched 56.2 innings with a 3.02 ERA, 3.46 FIP, and 1.18 WHIP. He struck out just under a quarter of his opponents with a 24.5% K% and only allowed home runs at an 0.64-per-9 pace. Webb's 7.9% barrel rate was only about average, but he held opponents to an exit velocity of just 87.4 MPH. However, Webb struggled with free passes, as he had an 11.4% walk rate.

In terms of ability, Webb has some decent stuff. Stuff+ places him at 111 for his career and 108 in 2024. He only averaged out at 93.5 MPH, but with above-average movement on his four-seamer. Both his sweeper and changeup had average to above-average movement. All three of his offerings received positive run value grades as well.

So what's the downside? Webb still only had a 4.31 xFIP and 4.06 SIERA. Webb had a .245 batting average on balls in play compared to .284 the previous two seasons. Webb's 6.3% HR/FB ratio was also lower than the 10.1% mark he had in 2022-2023 despite a roughly average barrel rate. Still, Webb is only projected to make $1.7 million in arbitration this offseason. It would be a low-risk pick-up on a right-handed reliever who is coming off a pretty solid campaign.