Recently the Pirates have been signing some big league players in free agency, however they have failed to get any big time help to the rotation. It's no secret to anyone that if the Pirates are going to compete for a playoff spot in 2011 or 2012, their pitching is going to have to improve a ton. Now, it looks doubtful that the Pirates will sign any pitchers the rest of this offseason, although recently the names of Jeff Francis and
So that means that 2011 will probably be another losing season for the Pirates, although there is a better chance to be competitive this year then last year. However, our hopes are best invested in the 2012 season, when some of the young pitchers in the system will be ready to be full time competitors in the major leagues. Guys like Rudy Owens, Bryan Morris, and Justin Wilson all have good chances to be serious contributors to the 2012 team. However, all 3 of those guys have huge question marks, and with the Pirates track record, there's a lot of reason to doubt.
So that said, there is a very good chance that the Pirates will be looking to spend big on pitching in the offseason next year. So let's take a look at what pitchers will be free agents this time next year, as told by mlbtraderumors.com.
Mark Buehrle (33)
Chris Carpenter (37) - $15MM club option with a $1MM buyout
Aaron Cook (33) - $11MM mutual option with a $500K buyout
Kyle Davies (28)
Ryan Dempster (35) - $14MM player option
Zach Duke (29) - mutual option
Jeff Francis (30)
Jon Garland (32) - vesting option
Aaron Harang (34) - mutual option
Rich Harden (30)
Livan Hernandez (37)
Edwin Jackson (28)
Kenshin Kawakami (37)
Scott Kazmir (28) - $13.5MM club option with a $2.5MM buyout
Hiroki Kuroda (37)
Paul Maholm (30) - $9.75MM club option with a $750K buyout
Jason Marquis (33)
Gil Meche (33)
Sergio Mitre (31)
Scott Olsen (28) - $4MM club option
Roy Oswalt (34) - $16MM mutual option with a $2MM buyout
Vicente Padilla (34)
Oliver Perez (30)
Joel Pineiro (33)
Wandy Rodriguez (33)
C.C. Sabathia (31) - may opt out of remaining four years, $92MM
Carlos Silva (33) - $12MM mutual option with a $2MM buyout
Javier Vazquez (35)
Adam Wainwright (30) - $10MM vesting option for '12, $12MM for '13
Tim Wakefield (45)
Chien-Ming Wang (32)
C.J. Wilson (31)
The big name on there is Adam Wainwright, who has been in Cy Young talks the last few years. He would certainly have a huge price tag and the Cardinals are likely to try and extend him before we even reach the offseason, but an interesting name nonetheless. More reasonable names we see there are Rich Harden, Jon Garland, Gil Meche, C.J. Wilson, Aaron Cook, Jason Marquis, among others.
It's a pretty thin market in terms of top of the rotation starters, but it shouldn't be hard to get a solid 3-4 starter to compliment an already (hopefully) emerging rotation featuring Ross Ohlendorf, James McDonald, Rudy Owens, and Bryan Morris.