Saturday, February 9, 2013
The Pirates rotation with Liriano
By Jason Catania
Now that the Pittsburgh Pirates have re-worked and finalized their deal with Francisco Liriano, here's how the club's rotation looks heading into 2013.
It took a while to hash out Liriano's signing because after the two sides agreed in mid-December on a two-year deal, Liriano's physical revealed that he had broken his right (non-throwing) arm prior to coming to terms. That held everything up and resulted in the deal to go from $12.75 over two years to one that guarantees the left-hander just $1 million in 2013 with incentives that could increase the value; and there's a vesting option for 2014.
With Liriano now on the roster, he'll be a member of the five-man as soon as he's ready to go. Three of the other four spots are locked up by veterans A.J. Burnett, Wandy Rodriguez, James McDonald. The No. 5 job will be a competition between Jeff Karstens, Jonathan Sanchez, Jeff Locke and Kyle McPherson.
Beyond those names, there's Charlie Morton, who is expected to return by midseason after recovering from Tommy John surgery, and top prospect Gerrit Cole, a 22-year-old right-hander who was the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2011 and will begin the season at Triple-A but could be ready to factor in by the All-Star break.
