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Pirates Interested in Jeff Francis?

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The Pittsburgh Pirates are one of the clubs interested in Jeff Francis, according to Jon Paul Morosi of Fox Sports. Francis is coming off a year where he was healthy for a full season with the Royals, putting up a 4.82 ERA in 183 innings. His advanced metrics suggests he was better than that ERA, with a 4.29 xFIP. Francis is similar to Paul Maholm in that both pitchers are left handed, get good ground ball ratios, don’t allow a lot of walks, but also don’t strike out a lot of batters. If the Pirates signed him he would probably see a boost pitching at PNC Park.

In my preview of the starting pitching market, I mentioned Francis as one of the four realistic options that I liked for the Pirates.  Of course there’s also the Clint Hurdle impact to consider, as Francis pitched under Hurdle for several years in Colorado.

UPDATE 12:43 PM: Michael Sanserino of the Post-Gazette says that the interest in Francis is “inaccurate”, per an industry source.

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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