Set to turn 36 next month, Pirates left-hander Francisco Liriano hopes to keep pitching for a couple more seasons, Stephen Nesbitt of The Athletic reports (subscription required). There’s no word on whether the Pirates are interested in re-signing the pending free agent, though.
Liriano could be days from wrapping up his second stint with the Pirates, who inked him to a minor league contract last February. While the well-traveled Liriano was a starter (and a good one at that) during his previous run with the Pirates from 2013-16, he has settled into a full-time relief role this season.
Pittsburgh’s decision to buy low on a Liriano reunion and use him in its bullpen has worked out for both parties. He earned a roster spot out of camp and has since logged 69 innings (which paces all Pirates relievers) of 3.39 ERA ball with 8.09 K/9, 4.43 BB/9 and a 49.2 percent groundball rate. ERA indicators FIP (4.54), xFIP (4.93) and SIERA (4.76) suggest Lirirano has been fortunate to prevent runs at such a useful clip, but it’s worth pointing out he has done so by inducing harmless contact more than the vast majority of major league hurlers. Liriano’s infield fly percentage (15.2) sits 22nd among all of the game’s qualified relievers, while he ranks in the league’s 99th percentile in average exit velocity against (84.5 mph) and hard-hit percentage (28.7), according to Statcast.
Assuming Liriano remains a reliever going forward, it doesn’t seem he’ll be fazed by the three-batter minimum rule that MLB will implement in 2020. That could push southpaw relievers who struggle versus right-handed hitters out of the bigs, but Liriano has done a satisfactory job retiring them. Righties have posted a .309 weighted on-base average against Liriano, which isn’t a great deal higher than the .295 mark lefties have managed.
Despite his success this year, Liriano obviously isn’t going to come at a high cost as a free agent. Liriano has earned a $1.8MM salary this year, and if he does land a guaranteed contract during the offseason, the value doesn’t seem likely to stray far from that neighborhood.
He shouldn’t really have to trouble finding a spot — he may as the market has been unkind to guys in their mid/late 30s like Liriano but I do think he’s a quite valuable LH-RP in the right situation. If he’s going to come at a cost as small as the $1.8M he made this past season — I wouldn’t mind seeing the Red Sox take a shot on him. They obviously need to revamp their bullpen and having a quality veteran like Liriano who could go multiple innings if needed seems like a decent fit given the massive amount of uncertainty with the health of their rotation and the state of the bullpen going forward.
I don’t think their bullpen was that bad, and it would have been a lot better if the starters held up their end, which as a unit they really didn’t do this year. Liriano may be a nice addition since he’s not strictly a LOOGY, though. It feels like Boston has had problems keeping a dependable lefty in the pen for a long time
LOOGY’s are now a thing of the past.
Glad we had to trade a 1st round draft pick ( Reese M.) to Blue Jays for salary flexibility. Anyone check where that savings was reinvested? More PIrates Rhetoric!! Ownership not TRULY committed to win!! There are other smaller markets that scout better, have a TRUE Organization strategy, Draft and development is not up to par. You can see by how the team’s fundamentals are poor year after year. In this business world, it’s all about accountability.
As long as he’s only attracted to adults, the Pirates should keep him.
What else do they have to run out there?
I don’t know. They seem to love running Geoff Hartlieb and his 9+ ERA out there in relief. Can’t do much worse
Hartlieb of course was not the only AAA reliever that they had to use this year.I do not see what they see in Clay Holmes.
As it stands now with all relievers healthy and pitching up to their capability next year the Pirates actually could have a good bullpen.Of course with all of the major league injuries now you need to be the Dodgers or Yankees to have enough replacements to fill the roles.NH needs to address this in the offseason unlike what he did last year.
Liriano should be welcomed back as he has been reliable for most of the year and seems to be a fairly classy guy.Too bad that they had not given him a two year contract like the first one that he signed with the Pirates.
The difference between Holmes and Hartlieb is that Holmes has proven he can pitch well on an inconsistent basis. There was a period in the middle of the year where he strung off like 10 decent appearances in a row before getting crushed a few times. I’m not saying he could ever pitch well consistently, he certainly won’t ever be a late-innings guy or a starter, but it’s just much easier to see potential in him than it is for Hartlieb.
I know what you are saying and I do recall that Holmes had a decent middle of the year.I remember though his meltdown last year in the Brewers game,and it reminds me of Dovydas.Some of these guys just cannot pitch under any pressure and I think that Holmes is one of them.Some are much better at starting than relieving and I think Holmes is one of them like Brault.Maybe he needs a third pitch and that is why they think that he is a reliever but the mental part may be being ignored by the Pirates.
I think that you are saying that you see more of the potential for mediocrity in Holmes.I do not disagree.But I see more of the potential to be a good reliever in Hartlieb.He is a converted outfielder and he needs to stop walking everyone.He fully needs another year in AAA to learn how to pitch.In summation,I think that he has a higher ceiling but a lower floor than Holmes.He was brought up this year in the never ending cycle of trying to find 3 or 4 relief pitchers,and it should be obvious that he was not nearly ready as was Durapau,who I hope that they have not given up on.
Pirates don’t seem to develop Starting Pitchers very well.
Hard to believe the guy is 36! now. His advanced peripherals suggest there’s a good chance a lot of his BB’s this year were ever so close to being K’s instead. That’s the thing with Liriano, though. So much of the time throughout his career it looked like he was a 1/4″ this way or that way on location away from being truly dominant.
hopefully pirates can pick him back up, he wasn’t too bad this year and should be fairly cheap.