Pirates Notes: Hudson, De La Rosa, Fister, Pitching

Andrew McCutchen trade rumors have understandably dominated much of the offseason talk in Pittsburgh, though here’s some more buzz on other potential Pirates moves…

• The Pirates are one of several teams who have shown interest in reliever Daniel Hudson, Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tweets.  As many as 16 teams have checked in on Hudson, including his former team in Arizona.  Hudson posted a 5.22 ERA over 60 1/3 IP with the Diamondbacks last season, though advanced metrics (3.81 FIP, 4.12 xFIP, 3.84 SIERA, 8.65 K/9, 2.64 K/BB rate) hint that the hard-throwing righty had a better season than his ERA would indicate.
• Jorge De La Rosa and Doug Fister have received some “due diligence” check-ins from the Pirates, Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports (via Twitter).  Nothing appears to be in the works between the team and either pitcher at the moment.
• The Pirates have been very successful at turning reclamation projects into successful arms in recent years, though finding such pitchers is becoming more difficult, GM Neal Huntington tells Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and other reporters.  “There doesn’t seem to be as many (pitchers) that we’ve been able to identify,” Huntington said.  “The traits we’ve liked in the past, they’ve been more difficult to acquire because teams are paying for them.  They recognize we’ve had some ability to return some value on some guys coming off down years or injuries.  There is a higher competition level, and supply is down, and as a result cost goes up.”  Huntington hinted that the Bucs may have to acquire something other than its preferred target of a ground-ball pitcher in order to land a veteran arm, though the GM said that adding a veteran isn’t a must.  “We’d be comfortable adding nobody if it’s just not there,” he said.