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Pirates Pursuing Matt Moore and Other Rays Starters

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With less than an hour to go before the deadline, the Pittsburgh Pirates are pursuing Matt Moore, according to Ken Rosenthal.

This isn’t the first time Moore has been linked to the Pirates, as they’ve been pretty active on all of the Rays’ starting pitchers, including today. Obviously, other teams are in the hunt for Moore, and the Rays have a pretty high asking price, as you’d expect in this market.

Moore is a lefty who is under team control through the 2019 season at a reasonable rate. He’s owed the remainder of his $5 M salary this year, and has team options in 2017-19 for $7 M, $9 M, and $10 M, respectively. He has dealt with injury issues, and hasn’t lived up to his former top prospect status, with a 3.88 ERA in his career, and a 4.43 xFIP, including 4.08/4.67 this year. He also doesn’t fully fit the Pirates’ traditional model for pitchers, as he has a 36.4% ground ball rate, which is well on the low side.

Moore does have a lot of talent, and is only 27 years old. But he doesn’t seem like the type of pitcher you’d give up two top prospects for. Jon Heyman says that they aren’t too involved in Moore, and he seems more likely for the west coast.

Stephen Nesbit says that the Rays have been active scouting the Pirates’ farm system, and that makes sense, as the Pirates have scouted every Rays pitcher along the way. So we’ll see how this all plays out with half an hour to go.

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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