Nick Cafrado of the Boston Globe reports that left handed pitcher Erik Bedard is drawing interest from the Pittsburgh Pirates. Bedard is coming off a year where he put up a 3.62 ERA in 129.1 innings, along with an 8.7 K/9, a 3.3 BB/9, and a 1.0 HR/9. He’s had a huge history of injury problems, but when healthy he’s a very strong starter, possibly even an ace at times.
If the Pirates did end up signing him it would be a risky move considering his injury history, but it would come with a ton of upside. Bedard has the potential to easily be the best pitcher in the rotation if he manages to stay healthy. I had Bedard as one of my targets in my preview of the free agent starting pitchers.
Tim started Pirates Prospects in 2009 from his home in Virginia, which was 40 minutes from where Pedro Alvarez made his pro debut in Lynchburg. That year, the Lynchburg Hillcats won the Carolina League championship, and Pirates Prospects was born from Tim's reporting along the way. The site has grown over the years to include many more writers, and Tim has gone on to become a credentialed MLB reporter, producing Pirates Prospects each year, and will publish his 11th Prospect Guide this offseason. He has also served as the Pittsburgh Pirates correspondent for Baseball America since 2019. Behind the scenes, Tim is an avid music lover, and most of the money he gets paid to run this site goes to vinyl records.
1 year/4 million (+1 mill for innings pitched/games started)
club option for a 2nd year if he doesn’t reach his incentives
player option for a 2nd year if he does reach them
Any other ideas?
If NH can pull this off he deserves to stick his chest out and thump it. It’d be quite a coup for the Bucs, but Eric’s price and length of contract will run NH away from the table in a hurry. Francis is far more likely but I’d like to see both grabbed.
He’s a serious upgrade. Here’s hoping it gets done, but I doubt there’s any serious conversations.
I would like to see Bedard and would be excited to see what Searage can do with him. I think a 2 year deal (and an option for a 3rd) at the right price would be a great step for the Pirates. He could really help out the staff and by year 3 of the deal could be a solid number 3 (behind Cole and MacDonald) which would be nice to see.
Depends on the right price, Bedard would be one of my top choices out there but you gotta do a heavily incentivizied contract to protect yourself from his injury history.
If they can get him at a decent price, I’d definitely take a shot at him. He was a number 1 ace when he was 100%, and he’s now had a good year of rehab, which I would consider the whole of last season to have been for him. He looked pretty good at times, but you could tell he was still in rebuild mode. If he ever gets back to 100%, whoever has him will be sitting pretty with him in the rotation. Even at 90% He’s still as good or equal to the rest of the Piarates rotation.
Now if they could get Jeff Francis too, who was quietly one of the better starters in the AL last year, Things could really be looking up for Pittsburgh.
I don’t know if there is room for both of Bedard and Francis. I think I’d rather keep Correia, McDonald, Morton and Karstens in the rotation over Francis for sure. Francis would make a nice insurance policy for if (when) Bedard goes on the DL – but not sure where he fits if Bedard somehow manages to stay healthy.
I’d go for one of the two, and stick with Lincoln, Owens, Wilson, Locke as the insurance plan. Francis seems like the safer bet, but Bedard does have more upside. For me, the interest in Bedard reminds me a lot of the interest in Duchscherer the past couple of years. Sounded really good in theory.
Weren’t the Red Sox terrified of pitching Bedard down the stretch and in the playoffs (if they would have made it) when their other options weren’t really all that attractive anyways?