#pirates and #twins are among teams that could have interest in @reidbrignac

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) May 17, 2013

Brignac was recently designated for assignment by the Colorado Rockies after hitting for a .250/.294/.375 line in 48 at-bats. In his career in the majors he has a .228/.270/.321 line in 719 at-bats. The strength of his game is that he has good defensive tools, which would have some appeal as a backup infielder who can cover shortstop. His numbers aren’t inspiring, but he’d be a better option than John McDonald.

Back in 2008 there were trade rumors at the deadline that the Pirates were interested in Brignac, including a rumor that a deal was done sending Jason Bay to Tampa Bay in exchange for Brignac and Jeff Niemann.

SATURDAY: Brignac has been traded to the Yankees, per Jon Heyman.

Brignac traded to yankees

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) May 18, 2013

Vic Black (pictured) and Duke Welker were seen by ten teams this weekend.

Peter Gammons (via Will Flemming on Twitter) said on MLB Network that 10 teams were at Victory Field this weekend, looking at Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitching prospects Vic Black and Duke Welker.

ON MLB Network, Peter Gammons reporting that more than 10 teams were at Victory Field this weekend looking at Vic Black and @the5thwelker

— Will Flemming (@WillFlemming) May 14, 2013

Both Black and Welker are hard throwers, with their fastballs sitting in the upper 90s and touching 100 in the past. They also each have plus breaking balls, which lead to a lot of strikeouts for each pitcher.

I’m not sure what it means that teams were looking at both relievers. I wouldn’t be surprised if teams were interested in either player. I’ve heard opposing scouts praise Welker for a few years, even when he was walking a batter an inning a few years ago in low-A. That said, I’d rather see the Pirates go with the approach they’ve been taking with relievers. If they’re going to trade relievers, they should trade established relievers for prospects, then use guys like Black and Welker to replace the departed players. Trading guys like Black and Welker would allow other teams to build low cost, quality bullpens in the same approach that the Pirates have been taking.

Is Gaby Sanchez really available?

Ever since the New York Yankees lost Mark Teixeira, there have been plenty of rumors connecting the Pirates to the Yankees. Most of those rumors seem to be of the message board type. One team has a need, the other team has a strength in that area, so they match up. In this case, the Pirates have a strength, the Yankees have a need, and baseball doesn’t make sense unless the Pirates deal from their strength to help the Yankees fill their need, regardless of what they get in return.

Earlier today Joel Sherman of the New York Post connected the two teams based on the strength of the Pirates and the need of the Yankees. The deal sounded like something that would come from a Yankees message board, suggesting that the Pirates would be interested in David Aardsma to support Jason Grilli at the back of the bullpen. That doesn’t make much sense for two reasons. One is that the Pirates have placed a high value on Garrett Jones, and they dealt a first round compensation pick for Gaby Sanchez. The second is that the Pirates don’t have a history of paying for relievers. So any deal sending one of their high valued first basemen for a reliever doesn’t make sense.

Jon Heyman added to the speculation tonight with the following Tweet:

#pirates Gaby Sanchez appears to be available. could #yankees be a fit?

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) March 23, 2013

I’m not sure where Heyman gets that Sanchez is available. It’s pretty clear that the Pirates plan on platooning Jones and Sanchez this year. They’re both hitting well this Spring, but that doesn’t mean one or the other would be available. It just means that the platoon could work out as planned.

This seems to be more of the same thinking. The Yankees need a player. The Pirates have two players at that position with value. So the rumors say that the two sides are a match for a deal, regardless of whether it would make sense for the Pirates to deal one of their players.

I’m not sold that the Pirates are dealing either of their first basemen to the Yankees. We’ve seen the asking price for Jones. We saw what the Pirates were willing to give up for Sanchez. Unless the Yankees are offering top prospects, I can’t see a deal happening. All of these rumors seem to be coming from the perspective of the Yankees needs, while acting as if the only reason the Pirates would ever have depth is to trade it away when the Yankees need a player.

actual baseball note: liriano #pirates deal still on track, pending physical. exam delayed while non-throwing arm heals

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) February 6, 2013

It doesn’t seem like we’ll have a conclusion to this any time soon, but today’s news confirms that the Pirates haven’t moved on from Liriano.

Neil Huntington tells me he wants to sign BOTH Liriano and Sanchez, for rotation options. Not an either-or scenario for #Pirates

— Tom Singer (@Tom_Singer) February 5, 2013

That’s obviously a good thing, since both players have some upside, and the addition of Sanchez would add more rotation depth. I compared the two players last night, pointing out a lot of their similarities.

Jonathan Sanchez is close to a deal with the #pirates. word is, he’s healthy and worked all winter on mechanics.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) February 4, 2013

Sanchez missed time last year with a biceps injury. He only made 15 starts, putting up a pretty alarming 8.07 ERA in 64.2 innings. His xFIP was better at 6.46, but not good.

The lefty looked better in previous years, and always reminded me of Oliver Perez. His biggest issue has been a total lack of control, with a career 5.0 BB/9 ratio. However, he’s got dominant stuff, with a career 9.1 K/9 ratio. Last year was clearly a horrible season, but the 2009-2011 numbers were much better. Sanchez had a 3.07 ERA in 193.1 innings in 2010, and an ERA around 4.25 in 2009 and 2011. His xFIP in those years was in the range of 3.94-4.36.

It’s unclear where Sanchez fits in with the Pirates, or whether this would be a big league deal. Considering the 2012 injury, I’d guess this would be a minor league deal. Sanchez is a lefty, and the Pirates don’t have a lot of left-handed depth, so he could be a strong competitor for the second lefty spot in the bullpen. He profiles better as a starter if he can bounce back from his 2012 numbers. The Pirates have a lot of starting options, with Kyle McPherson, Jeff Locke, and Jeff Karstens as candidates to fill the final two positions. Francisco Liriano would fill one of those spots if his deal becomes official.

It’s also unclear what this says about Liriano. Sanchez and Liriano have similar profiles. They’re both left-handers who are coming off horrible seasons, both having control issues, both relatively young (Sanchez is 30). They also both have strong arms, dominant strikeout numbers, and are each a few years removed from outstanding numbers.

For now nothing is official on either front. We’ll have to see how this plays out.

UPDATE 9:52 PM: Rob Biertempfel says it’s a minor league deal.

Confirmed: #Pirates close to minor league contract with FA lhp Jonathan Sanchez.

— Rob Biertempfel (@BiertempfelTrib) February 5, 2013

The Pirates and Liriano reportedly agreed to a revised deal on January 21st. The new agreement would alter Liriano’s salary if he missed any time with the right arm injury. It’s been a little over a week since that took place, and the deal still hasn’t become official. Tom Singer reported that he could be coming in on a minor league deal, which would make it easy to adjust his salary based on time missed. The Pirates would only have to pay Liriano based on his time on the 40-man roster. For example, if he missed a month, then was added to the 40-man in May, he would only receive a pro-rated salary for his time from May to the end of the season.

The Sports Xchange, a news wire service that provides news to various outlets, has an update on Liriano. I’ve seen the exact same story in several newspapers in search results, but first noticed it today in Yahoo. The latest holdup, according to the report, is on that minor league deal.

The holdup now appears to be that the Pirates want to sign Liriano to a minor league deal with an invitation to major league spring training and a legitimate chance to make the rotation. However, Liriano is said to at least want one guaranteed year with an option for 2014.

This is a very unique situation, and because of that, it’s very messy. If Liriano agreed to a minor league deal, that would make it possible to reduce his pay based on time he missed from the injury. However, I’m not sure that you can do a two-year minor league deal, and a minor league deal definitely doesn’t guarantee any salary.

The article goes on to say that the Pirates don’t want to give any guaranteed money, since their doctors don’t think Liriano would be ready to start the season on time. It also said they would be comfortable walking away from the deal and going with Jeff Locke or Kyle McPherson, with the rest of the rotation made up of A.J. Burnett, Wandy Rodriguez, James McDonald, and Jeff Karstens.

Based on everything we’ve heard, it seems the Pirates are still willing to give Liriano the original deal. However, it also appears they don’t want to start guaranteeing him money until he’s fully recovered from the injury. Because of the way baseball contracts work, I don’t think that there’s a way to make that happen without a minor league deal, which doesn’t guarantee any money.

The Bucs’ NRI list currently includes 17, and there is at least one more on the way: Indications are that Francisco Liriano — when all the roadblocks to formalizing his signing are cleared — will wind up coming to camp on a Minor League deal and an invite.

Singer notes that the current 40-man roster is full, and that bringing in Liriano on a minor league deal would give the Pirates more time to make a 40-man roster decision.

If Liriano is ready by opening day, that decision would be easy. The Pirates will eventually open a spot on the 40-man when they place Charlie Morton on the 60-day disabled list. That type of move usually takes place during the final weeks of Spring Training. If Liriano was on a typical minor league deal, the Pirates wouldn’t have to add him to the 40-man roster until after Morton was eligible for the 60-day DL.

We heard last week that the Pirates and Liriano agreed to an updated deal, with Liriano’s 2013 salary potentially being reduced if he misses time due to his right-arm injury. So far we haven’t heard an official announcement on that deal.

Shaun Marcum, free agent starter, is drawing interest from Padres, Pirates and Rangers, sources say. @mlbonfox

— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) January 14, 2013

It would seem that the Pirates aren’t locked in with Liriano, especially if they’re showing interest in other starting pitchers. They could definitely afford Marcum, since they were set to pay Liriano $12.75 M over two years. They also have some money remaining from the Joel Hanrahan trade. Marcum comes with the same concerns as Liriano, with a bad history of injuries. A big difference is that Marcum has posted strong numbers when healthy, while Liriano has struggled. Liriano fits PNC Park better as a left-handed ground ball pitcher, while Marcum is a right-handed fly ball pitcher. I don’t know if we could expect the same numbers from Marcum pitching half his games in PNC, but he wouldn’t be a bad sign if the Liriano deal falls through.

UPDATE 11:30 AM: Morosi writes that the intertest from the Pirates is a sign that they aren’t completely confident that they’ll finalize their agreement with Francisco Liriano.

#Pirates and Francisco Liriano still talking, source says, after injury issue arose and put two-year agreement on hold.

— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) January 14, 2013

Liriano was a risk on a two-year deal prior to his recent injury. I’m not sure that the recent injury would do much to change that. It would only serve as a reminder that he could be considered injury prone. It seems that the deal is in limbo right now, with no guarantees either way.

Earlier this week I wrote about some options for the Pirates if the deal fell through.