Pittsburgh Pirates General Manager Neal Huntington addressed the media via conference call about the Joakim Soria trade. We’ll have some notes on Soria in that article shortly. During the call, Huntington noted that the Pirates don’t plan on adding a starting pitcher via trade at the deadline.
“We don’t see the ability to acquire somebody that drops into the rotation ahead of our current starters at this time,” Huntington said. “As we sit here right now, obviously, things can change. Given the acquisition costs of starter out there, we went with the move we went with.”
The Pirates don’t have a big need for starting pitching this year. They have a great trio in Gerrit Cole, Francisco Liriano, and A.J. Burnett. Charlie Morton and Jeff Locke haven’t been consistent, but have led to this group being one of the best rotations in baseball. They currently rank 4th in baseball in ERA (3.27) and xFIP (3.40).
There could be a chance that the Pirates add someone if the right deal comes along, especially with the whole “things can change” part. But it doesn’t appear the Pirates are stressing adding a starter right now.