According to Ken Rosenthal, the Pittsburgh Pirates have placed relief pitcher Jared Hughes on release waivers. The Pirates avoided arbitration with Hughes this off-season, agreeing on a one-year deal for $2.825 M. They were hoping for a bounce back season after he posted a 3.03 ERA and a 1.42 WHIP in 59.1 innings over 67 appearances last year. The ERA wasn’t bad, but his FIP was 4.68 and tells a different story. He struggled this spring, with a 11.57 ERA, .348 BAA and a 2.14 WHIP in 9.1 innings. Hughes was supposed to pitch in today’s game. Along with the demotion of Drew Hutchison earlier today, the active Spring Training roster is now down to 31 players.
Unless someone picks him up, which is very unlikely because they would assume his entire salary, the Pirates will release him and pay him 45 days termination pay. That works out to exactly 1/4 of his salary.
Source: #Pirates’ Jared Hughes on release waivers.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) March 29, 2017
UPDATE: 2:00 PM: The Pirates announced that Hughes has cleared outright waivers and has been placed on unconditional release waivers for the purpose of granting him his unconditional release.