Pirates lose perfect rotation fit to lowly Rockies while lefty hunt drags on

The Pittsburgh Pirates, still in need of a left-handed starter to round out their rotation, just watched an ideal candidate sign somewhere else.

On Thursday morning, veteran southpaw Jose Quintana agreed to a one-year, $6 million deal with the Colorado Rockies — a last-place club that, quite frankly, should not be beating Pittsburgh to sensible pitching additions.

Quintana isn't flashy, but he's a steady, professional left-hander who keeps you in games, limits damage and knows how to navigate lineups three times when needed. Last season with the Brewers, he went 11-7 with a 3.96 ERA across 24 starts. He’s 37, yes — but he’s durable, competitive and comfortable in the NL Central.

More importantly, Quintana would have fit perfectly in a Pirates rotation that is good but incomplete. Pittsburgh has talent at the top, upside and power arms, but lacks balance and veteran stability.

The Pirates did sign veteran right-hander José Urquidy to a low-risk, one-year deal last week, but he's depth. He’s insurance. And he's obviously not the stabilizing lefty presence the club is actively seeking. According to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, he's not even the Pirates' fifth starter.

The Pirates' staff skews right-handed. It skews power-heavy. It could use a change-of-pace arm who disrupts timing and forces opposing lineups to adjust. Quintana was that guy, but now he's headed to Denver.

If the Rockies can identify value in a $6 million veteran to stabilize innings, why couldn’t the Pirates — a team actively trying to contend in a winnable NL Central — close the deal?

Pirates must pivot to pursue remaining rotation options after Jose Quintana signs with Rockies

The remaining “clean,” if imperfect, option to fill the Pirates' open rotation spot is Tyler Anderson. The 36-year-old went 2-8 with a 4.56 ERA last season with the Los Angeles Angels — and while the surface numbers aren’t all that inspiring, he still makes sense in Pittsburgh.

Anderson is a soft contact specialist, a changeup-heavy lefty who neutralizes right-handed hitters. He has experience pitching in hitter-friendly environments, and he has a proven track record as a mid-rotation stabilizer.

Anderson isn't a No. 2 or even a high-end No. 3 anymore, but the Pirates don’t need that. They need someone to slot into the back half and give them 150+ competent innings without imploding every third start. They also need someone who doesn’t require a long-term commitment so as not to block young arms like Hunter Barco coming up through the system.

Anderson checks all those boxes — but now the pressure is on. Once Quintana signed for a $6 million, the market signaled what this tier of pitcher costs. If Pittsburgh misses again, the lefty hunt starts to feel less like strategic patience and more like hesitation (which, admittedly, would be painfully on-brand).

Patrick Corbin is also a theoretical option for the Pirates, though there’s been no known contact between the team and the player. Corbin is the high-variance play. The stuff has ticked back up in stretches, but the consistency hasn’t followed. And at this stage of the Pirates’ competitive window, they should be shopping for stability, not volatility.

If the Pirates pivot quickly and land Anderson, losing out on Quintana becomes a minor footnote in February. If they don’t, it becomes another example of a team identifying its need but failing to decisively address it. And in a division where margins are thin, those small misses tend to matter more than anyone expects.