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Kevin Newman

Pittsburgh’s Promising Middle Infield

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If you hear the names Frazier and Newman, you might think of a couple shows from the 1990s NBC television schedule (yes, I know the great sitcom’s spelled “Frasier”). In this case, though, we’re talking about the Pirates’ modern-day middle infield. Although the team looks as if it’s a ways away from returning to contention, it does seem to have a promising second base-shortstop combination in Adam Frazier and Kevin Newman. They’re two of the reasons why all hope isn’t lost for a franchise that has cratered in recent years after it went to the playoffs in each season from 2013-15.

Looking back to 2013, Frazier was a sixth-round pick (that means he wouldn’t have been selected this year) who topped out as Baseball America’s 27th-ranked Pirates prospect after the 2015 campaign. As BA noted then, Frazier somehow went three seasons at Mississippi State without hitting a home run, but he has since shown more pop in the majors. Last season was his second straight 10-HR showing, which isn’t saying much in such a power-happy era, but he has still been a roughly average offensive performer since debuting in 2016. He’s the owner of a respectable lifetime .279/.342/.420 line and a 103 wRC+ across 1,574 plate appearances, and he managed a decent fWAR of 2.2 in 608 PA last year. And while Frazier’s penciled in as the Pirates’ second baseman, he’s versatile enough to move around the diamond if they find a better option there. The 28-year-old has logged a substantial amount of time in the outfield, where he has played all three spots, and has seen a bit of action at shortstop and third base.

Newman, 26, has also shown off a good amount of versatility, having lined up at both middle infield positions, third and in left since he got to the majors in 2018. The majority of Newman’s work has come at short, though, and that’s a position he has on lockdown – at least, until rising prospect Oneil Cruz gets to MLB.

Even if Cruz does reach the league sometime soon and bump Newman off short, the club may still have a keeper in the latter. A first-round pick in 2015 and a former top 100 prospect, Newman impressed in his first full season in 2019 with 2.4 fWAR and a .308/.353/.446 line with 12 homers and 16 steals in 531 PA. Newman doesn’t hit the ball that hard or bring a lot of power to the table, but he’s a fast runner who consistently makes contact. Those factors make him a good candidate to continue posting high averages. Just four hitters outdid Newman’s strikeout percentage of 11.7 last season, and only three bettered his 87 percent contact rate.

Frazier and Newman aren’t exactly exciting players, but they could make for a nice, inexpensive duo for the Pirates going forward. They’ll combine for less than $3.5MM this year, which is important for a low-budget Pirates team that will put a dirt-cheap roster on the field if a season does happen. Of the two, though, Newman seems more likely to stick around for longer, considering he has five years of control left to Frazier’s three. The Pirates haven’t been shy about selling off players with dwindling team control, but perhaps that will change with new general manager Ben Cherington at the helm. In the meantime, the hope for Pittsburgh is that Frazier and Newman will continue as the effective, low-cost performers they’ve been so far.

Pirates Have Initiated Extension Talks With Four Players

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The Pirates have launched exploratory talks with at least four players about possible long-term deals, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports on Twitter. Jon Heyman of MLB Network had previously reported that the club intended to explore deals of this kind with some young talent.

Among the targets are outfielder Bryan Reynolds, middle infielder Kevin Newman, and starter Joe Musgrove — all relatively youthful, quality MLB players. The Bucs have also approached top prospect Ke’Bryan Hayes, per the report.

As we discussed when the initial news arose, this is hardly surprising in the full context. The Bucs, like many lower-budget organizations, have long relied upon early-career extensions to achieve value. And there are indications that there’s a broader push to lock up relatively inexperienced players around the game, though we’ve yet to see an onrush of dealmaking.

There are some interesting elements here, though. Hayes is an especially intriguing target since he has yet to appear in the big leagues. That’s no longer a barrier to an extension, as we’ve seen several such accords, but it’s also not exactly commonplace.

Most recently, Luis Robert lined up on a $50MM deal — a record-setting number for a pre-MLB player. But he has risen to the ranks of the the most elite prospects in the game. And he had already secured a huge bonus ($26MM) when he signed as an amateur. Suffice to say, Robert had ample leverage.

Hayes is generally regarded as one of the fifty or so best prospects in the game, so he’s not to Robert’s level of future expectations. Perhaps a better comparable is Scott Kingery, who was promised $24MM in his agreement with the Phillies two years back. It’s arguable the market has moved north since that time, so Hayes would be justified in viewing that as a starting point.

Also of note: the lack of talks — so far as is known publicly — between the Pirates and star first baseman Josh Bell. The Bucs already agreed to a $4.8MM arbitration salary with the 27-year-old, who is coming off of a breakout 2019 season. Bell would surely cost a far sight more than any of the players listed above.

Pirates To “Explore” Extensions With Young Players

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The Pirates expect to “explore multiyear deals” with certain of the team’s early-career MLB players, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter). The likelihood of agreement isn’t clear.

Recent reporting indicated that teams around the league are pursuing quite a few deals of this kind. It’s not surprising to see the Bucs participating in that effort. Early-career extensions have long been a key part of the team’s strategy. And while the team is in flux from a competitive standpoint, all teams are interested in scenarios that increase the value of their existing control rights over players.

Heyman lists several potential candidates, though it’s not clear which have actually been targeted by the Pittsburgh organization. Outfielder Bryan Reynolds, middle infielder Kevin Newman, and starter Joe Musgrove are all tabbed as possibilities — just the trio you’d likely have thought of.

Reynolds hasn’t even cracked a full year of service, but is coming off of an extremely impressive 2019 debut that might’ve earned him a Rookie of the Year award in some seasons. Newman is still two full seasons away from arbitration. He also put up a strong effort last year, slashing .308/.353/.446 in his first full season in the bigs.

It’s a bit of a different situation for Musgrove, who is already into arbitration eligibility at 27 years of age. He’s slated to earn $2.8MM for the coming season, so he has already locked in significant earnings. Musgrove has been a solid rotation piece since coming over before the 2018 season, compiling 285 2/3 total innings of 4.28 ERA ball.

NL Central Notes: Pirates, Reynolds, Newman, Cardinals, Goldschmidt, Flaherty

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The Pirates are more likely than not to land outside the playoff picture in 2020, but they’ve not given up the notion of wreaking some havoc on the NL Central this year. To do so, however, Bryan Reynolds and Kevin Newman will need to avoid the dreaded sophomore slump, writes Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. True enough, Reynolds and Newman came out the gate strong in 2019, posting 3.2 fWAR and 2.4 fWAR, respectively. And yet, teaming their rookie duo with Josh Bell’s breakout bat still only amounted to the 20th-ranked offense by runs scored (758 runs), 19th by wRC+ (92). Beyond these three, the other two Pirates rounding out their top-5 by wRC+ in 2019 now play for different teams (Starling Marte, Corey Dickerson), and the sixth is a pitcher (Steven Brault). Immediately upon the close of 2019, the Pirates had planned to give Brault a go as a two-way player, but with new leadership up and down the organization, it’s unclear what his role will be. Regardless, Jarrod Dyson is the biggest addition made the to position player group this winter. Reynolds and Newman are core pieces of this lineup, and the good news is this: if they do slump in their sophomore seasons, they should have enough leash to find their way back. Let’s jump from the bottom of the NL Central to the top and check in with the reigning divisional champs…

  • As Spring Training games kick off (weather permitting), hitters around the league are putting their offseason swing adjustments to the test. Paul Goldschmidt, Harrison Bader, and Matt Carpenter of the Cardinals will all be deploying tweaked swings to some degree as they seek the kind of offensive consistency that eluded the trio last year, per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Goldy was the most successful of the three, but his fortunes at the plate sunk and fell seemingly on a monthly basis, and he never quite settled into the type of season to which he is accustomed. A .260 BA was his lowest mark since 2012 by almost thirty points, and while his power remained decidedly above average, it did drop from the astronomical heights of the couple seasons prior. Still, even in a down year, Goldy produced 16% more offense than average. Any substantive regression to his career norms should be enough to raise Goldy’s stock back to the level of franchise cornerstone where the Cardinals expected him to be when they acquired him for three players and a pick last winter.
  • Unsurprisingly, Cardinals manager Mike Shildt wasted no time in naming Jack Flaherty their opening day starter, tweets Goold. Flaherty drove the Cardinals second half push to 91 wins and their first divisional crown since 2015. Who follows Flaherty in the rotation is a more compelling question for those in Cardinals camp this spring. There are no shortage of options, from rotation holdovers like Dakota Hudson and Miles Mikolas, to former ace Carlos Martinez, to newcomer Kwang-Hyun Kim. Adam Wainwright will be somewhere in the rotation after a rejuvenating 14-10 season in which he posted a 4.19 ERA/4.36 FIP across 31 starts. The bridge from Flaherty to Wainwright (to Chris Carpenter to Matt Morris) is a tangible reminder of the Cardinals’ institutional success. 2007, Wainright’s first season as a starter, remains the only losing season the Cards have suffered this century (they went 78-84 and finished in third place).

Pirates Name Gonzalez, Kang Starters At Shortstop, Third Base

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The Pirates have settled on Erik Gonzalez and Jung Ho Kang as their starters at shortstop and third base, respectively, to open the 2019 season, general manger Neal Huntington revealed to reporters Monday (Twitter links via Adam Berry of MLB.com).

Gonzalez’s primary competition for the shortstop role had been Kevin Newman and Kevin Kramer, the latter of whom was optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis this morning, per a team press release. Newman, it seems, will still have the opportunity to compete for a utility role with the club, though he could land in Indianapolis as well if the Buccos decide he requires everyday at-bats. Kang, meanwhile, beat out Colin Moran for the role of primary third baseman. Moran will see some time at first base as well, which could afford him a bit more playing time.

The 25-year-old Gonzalez came to the Pirates in the offseason trade that sent Jordan Luplow and Max Moroff to the Indians. Gonzalez had to make the club one way or another, given that he’s out of minor league options, though it wasn’t set in stone that he’d break camp as the regular shortstop. The organization’s confidence in his glove, it seems, ultimately helped to sway the decision, as neither Gonzalez (.233/.303/.367 in 33 PAs) nor Newman (.276/.290/.448 in 30 PAs) has had a particularly impactful spring at the plate.

Kang, 32 on Opening Day, returned to the Pirates in September after missing all of the 2017 season and most of the 2018 campaign due to DUI arrests in his native South Korea, which prevented him from securing a work visa. He’ll likely bring a steadier glove to the hot corner than Moran displayed in 2018 (-8 Defensive Runs Saved, -6.6 UZR), and Kang has also connected on five spring home runs, although he’s also struck out 13 times in 31 trips to the plate. Moran is hitting .214/.303/.357 in his own tiny sample of 32 PAs.

Neither decision comes with permanence, of course. Gonzalez is a mere .263/.292/.389 hitter in 275 Major League plate appearances with Cleveland, and if he’s unable to improve on that paltry OBP, his bat will be enough of a liability that it’d eventually merit contemplation of a switch. This will, however, be his first chance at regular playing time, as he was limited to a utility role with the Indians given the presence of more established players such as Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez.

Kang, meanwhile, appeared in only three big league games last season — his first MLB action since 2016. He’s on a one-year, $3MM contract with the Pittsburgh organization, so he’ll have a bit of a leash early in the season but isn’t compensated such that the organization would shy away from moving on if he isn’t providing value.

NL Central Notes: Kratz, Wacha, Pirates

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The Brewers are facing a decision on veteran catcher Erik Kratz, as Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel details. With Yasmani Grandal and Manny Pina ahead of Kratz on the depth chart, Kratz’s days with the organization seem numbered. The 38-year-old is out of minor league options, and the Brewers only plan to carry two catchers on the roster to open the season. A move to either trade Kratz or attempt to pass him through outright waivers seems inevitable, and president of baseball ops David Stearns was candid about Kratz’s roster status. “We’ve tried to keep him posted on what’s going on,” said Stearns. “…It’s a balance between trying to preserve your injury insurance and trying to assess the market and what’s out there. We’ll continue to balance that, but I imagine that resolution will happen close to the end of camp.” Stearns added that he Brewers are “sensitive to do right by the player” in searching for other opportunities, while Kratz himself had nothing but praise for the professionalism with which the organization has handled the situation.

More on the NL Central…

  • Michael Wacha is very cognizant of the fact that this could be his final Spring Training with the Cardinals, writes Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A free agent after the season, Wacha has already watched the Cardinals extend teammate Miles Mikolas (on a four-year, $68MM deal). Wacha called the contract “awesome” for Mikolas adding that his teammate is a “stud pitcher and great off the field.” As far as his own contract status, however, Wacha stressed the importance of not getting caught up in that sort of thing with the season approaching. The 2012 first-rounder was limited to 84 1/3 innings last season due to an oblique injury, but he was sharp when on the field, working to a 3.20 ERA with 7.6 K/9, 3.8 BB/9, 0.96 HR/9 and a 43.2 percent grounder rate. He’ll be the youngest established starter available in free agency next winter, so a healthy season is particularly crucial.
  • Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette breaks down the Pirates’ shortstop battle between Erik Gonzalez and 2015 first-rounder Kevin Newman. Gonzalez, acquired from the Indians this offseason, is out of minor league options, so he’ll break camp with the club whether it’s as a starter at short or as a versatile utility piece. However, if Gonzalez beats out Newman for the starting role, it seems likelier that Newman would head to Triple-A for regular at-bats. Pablo Reyes and Cole Tucker are both in the mix as well, although Tucker has yet to even play a game in Triple-A and would seem like a long shot at this juncture. If neither Newman nor Tucker breaks camp with the team, Reyes could also be in line to earn a bench role as a utility piece. It’s a roster battle with numerous layers, which Brink discusses with GM Neal Huntington as well as several of the players involved.

NL Notes: Dodgers, Cards, Weaver, Bucs, Newman

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The latest on a few National League teams…

  • The Dodgers are “setting a high bar” on potential reliever acquisitions this month, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal says (video link). In the end, though, Rosenthal doesn’t expect the Dodgers to make any trades for outside bullpen aid, noting that closer Kenley Jansen (on the DL since Aug. 9 with an irregular heartbeat) is among their soon-to-return reinforcements. Further, August deals are generally difficult to make, with Rosenthal reporting that “most relievers are getting claimed on revocable trade waivers, then pulled back” by their teams.
  • The Cardinals have decided to shift right-hander Luke Weaver from the rotation to the bullpen, manager Mike Shildt told Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com and other reporters on Sunday. It’s not clear whether Weaver will return to the team’s starting staff in 2018, but for now, his vacated spot will go to fellow righty Daniel Poncedeleon. The 24-year-old Weaver has been subpar at preventing runs over 125 1/3 innings, as his 4.67 ERA shows, though FIP (4.14), xFIP (4.26) and SIERA (4.37) indicate he has deserved somewhat better results to this point. Poncedeleon, meanwhile, has held his own as a starter in the minors since the Cardinals drafted him in 2014. The 26-year-old made his first and only big league start July 23, when he stunningly held the Reds without a hit in a seven-inning, 116-pitch performance, and has appeared in five other games as a reliever this season. While Poncedeleon has managed to log an appealing 2.04 ERA through his first 17 2/3 major league innings, his K/9 (5.09), BB/9 (4.58), strand rate (91.6 percent), batting average on balls in play against (.133) and groundball percentage (31.9) suggest negative regression is around the corner.
  • Pirates shortstop prospect Kevin Newman earned a promotion to the majors earlier this week, but they’ve been reluctant to use him thus far in the midst of a playoff race, and he’s not a lock to start in 2019. Even though fellow Pirates shortstops Adeiny Hechavarria and Jordy Mercer are set to become free agents in the offseason, that doesn’t mean the team won’t re-sign one of them or bring in another veteran at the position. The club would like to have a vet mentor the 25-year-old Newman for “at least some of next season,” according to Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic (subscription required), who wonders if Pittsburgh will wind up signing a pending free agent such as Asdrubal Cabrera, Freddy Galvis, Jose Iglesias or Jose Reyes over the winter. While general manager Neal Huntington admitted the Pirates are indeed “open to” the idea of a veteran-Newman tandem at short next year, he added that finding a more experienced option is “not necessarily” a must.

Pirates Promote Kevin Newman, Place Jordy Mercer On DL, Designate Casey Sadler

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The Pirates announced a series of roster moves Thursday, most notably placing shortstop Jordy Mercer on the 10-day disabled list due to a calf strain and selecting the contract of shortstop prospect Kevin Newman in his place. To open 40-man roster space, Pittsburgh designated right-hander Casey Sadler for assignment. The Pirates also recalled outfielder Jordan Luplow and optioned catcher Jacob Stallings to Triple-A.

Newman, 25, was the Pirates’ top selection in the 2015 draft (19th overall) and has ranked among the organization’s most highly regarded prospects since. He’s currently sixth in their system, per MLB.com, while Baseball America ranked him seventh on their own midseason update.

It’s been a solid season for Newman at the Triple-A level, hitting .302/.350/.407 with four homers, 30 doubles, two triples and a hefty 28 stolen bases — albeit in 39 attempts. Newman draws praise for his above-average hit tool and speed plus at least average ratings for his glove and arm at shortstop. With Mercer set to hit free agency at season’s end, Newman’s first taste of the Majors will serve as an audition of sorts, as he undoubtedly is consideration to be the team’s shortstop of the future.

Sadler, 28, pitched just 4 1/3 innings with the Bucs this season — his first big league action since the 2015 season. Tommy John surgery after the 2015 season slowed his career, and while he’s posted respectable numbers in Triple-A this year — 3.43 ERA, 7.1 K/9, 3.1 BB/9 in 76 innings — he’ll now be either traded or exposed to outright waivers within the week following a DFA.

Pirates Showing Interest In Keone Kela

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6:01pm: Rosenthal now tweets that while the Rangers have done background work on that quartet of players, they’re actually not a part of the current discussions surrounding Kela.

July 26, 5:29pm: The Rangers are considering right-handed starter Tyler Eppler, outfielder Jordan Luplow, shortstop Kevin Newman and right-handed reliever Dovydas Neverauskas in their talks with the Pirates, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). Those are just some of the names being discussed, it seems, and it’s not clear exactly which combination(s) of those players is on the table.

July 25: As they look to extend an excellent pre-deadline run of success, the Pirates may now be looking into making some roster improvements. According to Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, the Bucs have “legitimate interest” in Rangers closer Keone Kela.

Whether or not Kela ends up on the Pittsburgh roster, the news marks a notable potential shift in that club’s approach. It had long seemed that the Pirates were trending toward at least a light sell-off of some veterans. But now, with less than a week left until the trade deadline, the team has flown back to within six games of the division pace and three out of Wild Card position.

Of course, even if the Pirates decide to push for contention, that does not necessarily mean they will hit the trade market at full throttle. There’s not much reason to expect that the light-spending organization will part with significant young talent to add rental pieces, for example.

Kela, though, would potentially be a reasonable target who’d add value now and into the future. The Pirates already have a quality closer under control for years to come in Felipe Vazquez, and have received excellent production from several members of their relief unit, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t stand to improve.

It’s fair to note, too, that the Pirates have in the past pursued somewhat non-linear approaches to the deadline. There’s time still for shifts in the standings to change their approach. And the club may also be weighing some roster re-positioning that’s not targeted solely at getting better right away. To offer one wholly speculative concept, the Bucs could hypothetically consider trying to achieve value on a pitcher like Kela while also selling Vazquez, if a contender (the Red Sox come to mind) is willing to offer a whopping package for the electric left-hander.

Whatever the case, Kela’s remaining contract rights make for an interesting asset on this summer’s trade market. The Rangers are surely focused first on moving more expensive or less controllable players, to the extent possible. But now may also be a good time to cash in a pitcher who has had plenty of ups but also some downs (arm health and some off-field issues) in recent seasons. And the Pirates could perhaps be amenable to sending some controllable starting pitching depth in a trade, which is just what the Rangers appear to be seeking.

Since he broke into the big leagues, the 25-year-old Kela has mostly been a high-quality hurler. He owns a 3.42 ERA over 168 2/3 career innings, with 11.0 K/9 against 3.4 BB/9, and the bottom-line results would look much better were it not for a forgettable 2016 campaign. Though he blew his first save of the current season just last night, Kela has locked down 23 victories for the Rangers this year.

Cost is always a factor, of course, and Kela is earning a budget-friendly $1.2MM this year. He entered the current season with exactly three years of MLB service, so he comes with two more years of arbitration control after the present season. While the save tallies will boost his earnings, Kela figures to remain rather affordable until he reaches the open market.

Pirates Notes: Deadline, Rotation, Middle Infield, Bullpen

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The Pirates have fallen to earth since a solid start and now sit a game below .500 (35-36), but general manager Neal Huntington told reporters before Sunday’s loss to the Reds that he still has a buyer’s mindset as the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline approaches. “We’ve had more conversations about adding players at this point in time than we’ve had about subtracting players,” Huntington said (via Adam Berry of MLB.com), adding that “our intent is to continue to give this club every chance in the world to show us that we can continue to do the things that we did the first six weeks, eight weeks to put ourselves nine games over and that we can dig out of this hole that we’ve dug ourselves over this tough stretch of 30 days.” The Pirates are sitting in fourth place in a tough NL Central, seven games behind first-place Milwaukee, but they’re only 3 1/2 out of a wild-card spot. With several playoff-contending teams on their schedule in the next several weeks, the Bucs will have an opportunity to make up ground on their competitors and end up as buyers. But if the Pirates drop out of the hunt pre-deadline, they could ultimately market some of their shorter-term players, as Jon Morosi of MLB.com reported this week.

More from Pittsburgh…

  • Right-hander Trevor Williams has scuffled of late, as he recorded a 5.51 ERA in May and then allowed seven earned runs in six innings in his only June start thus far. Nevertheless, there aren’t any plans to pull him from Pittsburgh’s rotation and replace him with impressive rookie Nick Kingham, who’s currently in the minors, Huntington said (via Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). “Our focus with Trevor right now is to get that secondary stuff back to being effective, to get the four- and the two-seam fastball command back to being effective, and [we] believe that we’re going to be able to do that and work from there,” stated Huntington, who noted it’s unfortunate for Kingham that “we’ve got six guys that we believe can help us win major league games as starting pitchers right now.” In Huntington’s estimation, that group includes the 26-year-old Williams, who, to his credit, has been a respectable starter since debuting in 2016. Williams has combined for 216 innings of 4.15 ERA ball and posted 6.6 K/9 against 2.95 BB/9 in 40 starts.
  • The Pirates are considering promoting middle infield prospects Kevin Newman and Kevin Kramer, but call-ups don’t seem imminent, Brink suggests. Starting middle infielders Josh Harrison (second base) and Jordy Mercer (shortstop) have been reasonably effective, and Huntington expressed confidence in reserve Sean Rodriguez, even though he has hit just .159/.286/299 in 126 plate appearances. Playing time would be hard to come by for the prospects, then, and the Pirates don’t want to promote them unless they’re going to see regular action. Both Newman, MLB.com’s seventh-ranked Pirates prospect, and Kramer (No. 8) have logged above-average production at the Triple-A level this season. Neither Newman nor Kramer is on the Bucs’ already full 40-man roster, though, which stands as another roadblock in the way of the “Seinfeld” tandem.
  • More from Brink, who writes that Huntington took some of the blame Sunday for the woes of Pittsburgh’s bullpen. “The general manager didn’t give the manager a legitimate eighth-inning guy or seventh-inning guy, speaking in conventional terms,” said Huntington, whose team entered Sunday tied for 25th in the majors in bullpen ERA (4.56). As Brink points out, the Pirates’ season-opening plan to have Michael Feliz and George Kontos set up closer Felipe Vazquez didn’t work. Feliz, whom the Bucs acquired over the winter from Houston as part of the teams’ Gerrit Cole trade, has registered a 6.18 ERA over 27 2/3 innings. And Kontos managed a subpar 5.03 mark in 19 2/3 frames before the Pirates released him last month.
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