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Pirates keeping open mind in hunt for hurlers
- Updated: December 7, 2016
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The Pirates’ top priority this offseason is improving their rotation. Step one, general manager Neal Huntington quipped on Tuesday afternoon, is having a pitcher qualify for the ERA title next year after failing to do so this past season.
Step two?
“We’re looking to get some combination of what we feel is production and eating innings,” Huntington said on the second full day of the Winter Meetings. “But eating innings with a 5.50 ERA doesn’t do us a whole lot of good.”
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To that end, the Pirates are keeping their options open as they evaluate the market for starting pitching. They need at least one new arm behind top starters Gerrit Cole and Jameson Taillon, preferably a veteran to slot in alongside Chad Kuhl and one of Tyler Glasnow, Drew Hutchison, Trevor Williams or Steven Brault.
The Bucs could add two starters, as they have been linked to a handful of contractually controllable pitchers since the Trade Deadline. But with several internal options, they won’t add an arm simply for the sake of making a move.
“It’ll depend on where the market allows us to go. We’d be comfortable adding one. We’d be comfortable adding nobody if it’s just not there,” Huntington said. “We don’t feel that we are driven to force it. If …
