The Pittsburgh Pirates may be close to a deal with free agent left hander Erik Bedard, according to Marc Brassard (h/t to Blitzburgh Blog for the find).
The report is written in French, as is an article translated from a news site in Canada. The translation is a bit rough, but both seem to say that Bedard will sign for $4.5 M plus incentives, and that a deal could be reached today. I only took one year of French, and I remember none of it, so maybe someone can do a better job of translating the above than what Google Translate can provide.
I wouldn’t assume a deal is close until there’s better confirmation.
UPDATE 1:51 PM: MLBTR confirms. Great deal for Bedard. I had him as my #3 option out of the realistic free agent targets back in October. I figured the Pirates would need to give him two years to get him to come to Pittsburgh. It’s surprising that there was so little interest, especially following a year where he was in demand at the trade deadline.