9:04pm: The Bucs have also knocked out their case with fellow righty Jared Hughes, Heyman adds on Twitter. He secures a $2.825MM deal that lands over his $2.5MM projection. The 31-year-old, eligible for the second time, didn’t quite maintain his output from his prior two seasons but ended the 2016 season with a strong 3.03 ERA over 59 1/3 innings with 5.2 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 to go with a 57.9% groundball rate.
7:47pm: The Pirates have avoided arbitration with righty Drew Hutchison, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag tweets. He’s set to earn $2.3MM.
That figure comes in just over the $2.2MM salary that MLBTR and contributor Matt Swartz projected Hutchison to take down in his second season of arbitration eligibility. Though Hutchison went through the process last year with the Blue Jays, earning $2.2MM, he did not accrue enough service time to pass four total years of MLB service, so he’ll earn only a nominal raise and remain controllable through 2019.
Pittsburgh acquired Hutchison last summer in the trade-deadline deal that sent Francisco Liriano and prospects to Toronto. Hutchison ended up throwing just 24 major league frames in 2016, working to a 5.25 ERA. Though he posted a 22:7 K/BB ratio, he was also tagged for six home runs. Hutchison spent much of the year at the Triple-A level, where he recorded a 3.59 ERA across 138 innings with 9.0 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9.
Hope he is what the Pirates say he is and he surprises this year.
Hutch has the potential to be a beauty. He earned a rotation spot last year in Toronto over R.A.
Good stuff?
With Searage, I’ve learned not to worry about prior results when the Pirates get a pitcher….just velocity and stuff.
I still think he will be a good starter. Just needs to be consistent.
That is false. Hutchison started last year in AAA.
As a Jay’s fan I was sorry to see him traded. Hutch could be a very good mid rotation starter capable of 200 innings and a mid 3/era. I’m sure Pirates fan will see
A guy with a 4.93 career ERA gets $2.3 million?? Unbelievable
Hutchison has a 4.25 career ERA. I know, math is hard for some people.
Hutch has a career 4.93 ERA. He has a FIP of 4.25 for his career. Next time, before being condescending, do some research before you look foolish.
2.3 million is nothing in MLB. That’s a 1/2 win player. The game is awash in money and the owners make more of it than the players do.
The immediate gratification of trading for Quintana and chasing a wild card spot has some appeal, but…
Marte, Polanco, Meadows, Bell, Newman, Taillon, Glasnow, Keller, Kuhl, etc. PLUS what they can get for McCutchen, Watson and Cole over the next year….
SI would run a cover story calling them “Your 2020 World Series Champions”.
Always had high hopes for Hutch.
He is certainly working with the right pitching coach now and could surprise some people this season.
Best of luck to him
I sure hope Hutchinson pans out. That trade is already being dubbed at the worst of Huntington’s career.
No. The worst trade will always (hopefully) be the Jason Bay trade. It was bad in concept and it was badly executed.
Instead of seeking true prospects, they tried to find AAAA guys to fill out the MLB roster to buy time. So, the idea was wrong to begin with, but on top of it, the players they got were more like AA guys.
Andy LaRoche. Enough said.
Liriano was a salary dump. We now have Nova and Hudson because of it. The prospects had become suspects in their eyes. Now you could (and I would) argue that they still should have tried to get more for them before other teams realized that, but…it’s not the end of the world.
2 small issues with your post. 1) The Bay trade. On the surface it would look horrible. However, after the initial trade, Bay did play well with Boston. He went way south after that with the Mets and Mariners. New York got crushed for the FA signing. Morris was actually a pretty good reliever. LaRoche not so much of a good player.
2) The Liriano Deal. That was a dump period and not just salary. He was pitching horribly all season for the Bucs until the trade. He was so bad that 2 prospects had to be thrown into the deal to get Toronto to take him for Hutchison. He was better to end the year for the Jays but betting he will look more like the guy that was with Pittsburgh for most of last season and not like the guy that ended with Toronto. Frankie was just plain bad last year for the Bucs. One of the main reasons they finished well back of the wild card.