Free agent pitchers the Pittsburgh Pirates can pursue on incentive based contracts

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The Pittsburgh Pirates could make a play for the second half of 2024 if they pursued these two free agent pitchers on performance based contracts

The Pittsburgh Pirates should be making moves to improve the team now. That’s pretty obvious. But there could be an opportunity right now for them to improve their chances of winning in the future. There are two free agents right now who would miss a good portion of the upcoming 2024 season and at least the first half of the 2024 season. However, a back-loaded two-year deal would ensure the Pirates could get them back in 2025.

As I previously wrote, the Pirates could make some serious improvements to their pitching staff heading into the second half of 2024. Multiple up-and-coming prospects will be making their debuts in June, with the return of JT Brubaker and Mike Burrows, it might be wise to make a second-half play now, and these two pitchers fit that bill.

Brandon Woodruff

The Pirates should be more than familiar with a . The right-hander has spent his entire MLB career thus far with the Milwaukee Brewers, where he has pitched to a 3.10 ERA, 3.19 FIP, and 1.05 WHIP. He has a respectable 0.99 HR/9, along with a strong 28.9% strikeout rate and a 6.5% walk rate. Arguably one of the most underrated pitchers in baseball, Woodruff looked good when he was on the mound in 2023.

Woodruff started eleven games while throwing 67 innings, working to a 2.28 ERA, 3.60 FIP, and 0.82 WHIP. Woodruff was once again approaching 30% in strikeout rate at 29.2%. However, he was on pace for posting a career-best 5.9% walk rate. His 1.21 HR/9 rate was about league average but much higher than anything he has posted in the recent past.

But Woodruff was limited to such a small sample size because of shoulder issues. He eventually had to undergo surgery on his anterior capsule in October, which originally looked like it could sideline him for all of 2024. But the right-hander hasn’t completely ruled out pitching again sometime in the second half of this upcoming campaign.

Woodruff was projected to make about $11.6 million in arbitration, per MLB Trade Rumors. A deal at $16 million with only $1 million being paid in 2024 would be fair. While it’s entirely possible that Woodruff would pitch in 2024, it’s also far from a guarantee. But if he ends up not pitching in 2024, the Pirates could eat the $1 million. They also get the added benefit of getting a starter who can produce at an ace-caliber level for a relatively affordable price in 2025. The worst-case scenario is that this becomes a one-year deal at $16 million.

Liam Hendriks

Very few Major League Baseball players have ever had as rough of a year as Liam Hendriks did in 2023. The All-Star closer started January by undergoing treatment for stage four non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of cancer. But Hendriks worked hard to get back to baseball. By late May, he was playing rehab games at Triple-A and made his return to Major League Baseball on May 29th, cancer-free. But the return was short-lived. Hendriks only pitched five innings before getting hit with another devastating development as he would need to undergo Tommy John surgery.

When Hendriks isn’t undergoing two life-altering procedures in a matter of six months, he’s an outstanding relief pitcher. From 2019 through 2022, Hendriks owned an outstanding 2.26 ERA, 2.13 FIP, and 0.88 WHIP in 239 innings pitched. Hendriks had a 38.8% strikeout rate throughout these four campaigns, with an equally impressive 5.1% walk rate. Home runs weren’t much of an issue either, with a 0.90 HR/9.

Hendriks wasn’t just good; he was the best. Among relievers from 2019 to 2022 with at least 180 innings pitched, Hendriks had the best ERA, FIP, WHIP, K:BB ratio, and fWAR. In some stats, it wasn’t even close. He had +9.0 fWAR for the Oakland Athletics and Chicago White Sox. The next closest was Ryan Presley at +6.0.

Hendriks probably felt like the forces beyond our control were conspiring against him, but if Hendriks can overcome cancer, then Tommy John surgery should be nothing for him. Hendriks seems optimistic about returning sometime in the second half of the season and he recently set a Thursday deadline for a contract offer. I think a two-year deal valued at $12 million might be enough to attract Hendriks. He’d be guaranteed $3 million in the first year with the rest being paid in his second, hopefully healthy season.

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