March 31: Hughes has cleared release waivers and is now officially a free agent, the Pirates announced on Friday.
March 29: The Pirates have requested release waivers on righty Jared Hughes, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter). The team has since announced the move, noting that Hughes first cleared outright waivers. Pittsburgh had previously agreed to a $2.825MM arbitration with Hughes and will remain responsible for at least a portion of that amount — roughly $695K — unless another team places a claim (which seems unlikely, considering the fact that he’s already cleared outright waivers).
Hughes, 31, has turned in stellar results over the past three seasons, working to a 2.41 ERA across 190 2/3 frames. Though he has recorded only 5.0 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9 in that span, he has continued to draw grounders on about three of every five balls put in play against him.
Hughes largely continued to perform last year, which he ended with a 3.03 ERA, but there were some signs of trouble. His ground-ball rate fell to 57.9 percent after sitting at over 60 percent in the preceding two years, and he allowed a career-high 0.91 homers per nine innings pitched. And while he logged the second-best average fastball velocity of his career (93.0 mph), Hughes also allowed more hard contact (30.1 percent) and drew fewer swinging strikes (9.6 percent) than ever before. His control, too, trended in the wrong direction, as his BB/9 rate rose from 2.6 in 2015 to 3.3 in 2016.
Still, it wasn’t especially surprising to see Pittsburgh agree to terms at a fairly modest sum rather than non-tendering the veteran reliever. The concerns escalated this spring, though. Over 9 1/3 innings, Hughes was knocked around for a dozen earned runs on 16 hits while recording just five strikeouts against four walks.
Whaaaa? But who are we going to complain about now?
Bastardo
LeBlanc and Bastardo come to mind as a couple possible scapegoat replacements, lol
Man, he must have really fell off again this spring. He was noticeably off last season as well. Well wishes, Jared.
he’d be a good pickup for any team, he had a down year, but was still respectable
Hes gotten noticeably worse over the past couple seasons. But I agree, wouldnt be a bad pick for the right team, probably one out of contention tho IMO
You obviously did not actually see him pitch -either last year or this spring
Down year? U guys know nothing. He had a 3.03 era last season which is good and the last seasons an era in the mid 2s. I’m sorry but the Pirates just keep getting dumber and dumber.
Sad to see him go, but its been a long time since he’s been effective. Good riddance.
Yea ….now if we could get rid of Jay Hay, Cervelli and Jordie Mercer I’ll be smiling like a butchers dog
JHay I agree with with the emergence of Adam Frazier. But Cervelli and Mercer? Come on dude.
why would you want Cervelli off the team?
Cervelli is a top catcher in the NL. Sure he doesn’t hit dingers, but he hits for average and plays great defense. And Mercer is a good, quality SS. I would like to move on from J-Hay however.
Thats a little broad of a statement
The Pirates have not thrown out a runner trying to steal since Russel Martin left. Cervelli is mediocre at best. .264 and 1 home run last year….
Am I looking at the same B-R page as everyone else in here? Yeah his 2016 was worse than 14 and 15, and his FIP wasn’t great, but he generally had an OK year. You could certainly do worse than Hughes.
You have to watch Hughes pitch to know how bad he’s been
I watched him tonite……….and all I could think of is that people like you know nothing about baseball.
he had a really tough spring, resulting in his release, plus a couple of “down years”, a rebuilding team will probably claim him
don’t look at the BR page. watch his games. no thanks and adios.
U know nothing. Hughes 1-0
Could always be seth maness
I’ve really never been a fan of Hughes, even though his numbers looked good until last year. He’s easily replaceable. I’m fine with giving other guys a chance.
Amen, Ron. His numbers seem to usually look good, but other than inducing double play grounders he has no redeeming qualities. You can go through a whole bottle of Mylanta watching him pitch just once.
@jerrydipoto
Hughes was usually brought into fireman type situations with men on base mid-inning. I wonder if that skewed his ERA and made him look better than he was, since inherited runners scoring were charged to the previous pitcher.
Could be id like to see a stat made that had an era and inherited runners scoring mixed somehow. I don’t know how you could do that but I’m sure somebody could figure it out.
When he was right, the inherited runners did not score. He was not right last year hence the FIP increase well over his ERA. He was leaving the ball up too much hence the lower ground ball rates and the increased homer rates. Was hoping it was because he had been dinged up last spring and a couple years ago he had an off season/spring training injury and was off all year. Bummer cause I loved to watch him pitch when he was on and fun to watch his enthusiasm. Hope he can get if figured out.
Great personality, not so much on the mound.
Typical yinzer who repeats everything from sports talk radio. One bad year and suddenly the player is useless.
Mercer is an above average shortstop, Cervelli is solid as well, bet you would have been the first one complaining when they didn’t re sign him.
Its difficult being an intelligent baseball fan in Pittsburgh, “City of Whiners”. The media sure doesn’t help, just fueling the Yinzers.
Well I’m betting the pirate elite are keeping their fingers crossed that he gets picked up by someone or anyone otherwise that’s another 500k the pirates will paying that they will use as a excuse of why they can’t spend money. Forget the 2.3 million more off the books that can and should be used to improve the team.
Hey wait, there is that 2-3 million I said they can use to buy a 5th starter. Anyone out there left in free agency?
First Jeff Locke and now this??
He cleared waivers, I guess he gets picked up pretty quick on a minor league deal.
If there’s any hope he can return to inducing ground balls, he’d be a fine pickup for the Reds as bullpen depth. Give him time in AAA to work out his mechanics. Is there any hope of that? (If there was, the Pirates of all teams would have done it, right?)
Your guess is as good as mine. Imho, he would be a better bet than most of the setup men in AAA.
The Pirates have an abundance of arms in AAA now so really not a lot of room. They want to give the ball to youngsters on the rise still like Neverauskas and Santana.
His numbers weren’t horrible, but if you watched him pitch then you knew how bad he was. He is a great dude and I hope for the best, but he honestly didn’t belong with the pirates anymore. We can’t afford to pay someone who pitches one inning every five games.
Pleeease Braves! Pick this man up!!!
Here’s the token “Braves should sign him” post.
Oakland A’s written all over it
every sense he dropped that “mean” look on the mound he gotten slowly worse.. that and the injury really set him back. I hope the pirates are able to keep him around at a cheaper rate to work on that in lower levels.. but probably won’t happen. He’ll find a shot elsewhere pretty quickly.
I think injuries finally took their toll. He has been giving up a bunch of homers since the middle of last year. That means hanging stuff high. Shows in the lower ground ball rates.. Bummer cause I really liked him as a player. Too many young arms coming like I mentioned above like Neverauskas & Santana.
As @gozurman1 mentioned earlier, Hughes main problem was leaving the ball up in the zone. His forte’ was coming in to start the 7th, and using his 93-95 mph sinking fastball to enduce 3 ground balls, and then go sit down. He was a very enthusiastic teammate, being everything Pirates. He was also the best basketball player on the team. It’s a shame his talent went south so soon. I do hope he finds his way back. Preferably in the American League.
Hughes is what he is…a guy who can come in and use that two seamer with heavy sink and get a double play more often than not. There is a value to that. Whether it’s worth a roster spot or not is up for debate. I tend to think it is, unless you have another guy suited for that job.
The Pirates tried to make him into a standard 7th inning type reliever and that’s just not what he is. He’s basically a one pitch guy.
He’ll be a good pickup for another club.
Yes he had a 3.03 ERA but thats only due to the fact that he came in mid inning with runners on base. Look at his FIP its through the roof, and he averaged almost 4 walk per 9 innings which for a releover is god awful. So who knows nothing again?
You! Hughes is now 1-0