PITTSBURGH — It was somewhat fitting that the Pirates disappointing home 2016 slate ended with perhaps the least-satisfying possible result: a 1-1 tie with the Chicago Cubs Thursday night.
It also showed the reason for the frustration over the way the season played out. After dropping the first two games of the series to the NL Central champs, the Pirates roared back for an 8-4 win against Jake Arrieta of all people on Wednesday and seemed poised to break through with Ivan Nova cruising when the heavens opened up and washed away the finale.
Nova was on a roll, having allowed just one ball to be hit out of the infield and one run on four hits in 6.1 innings while striking out five. Nova finished the Pirates portion of his season with a 3.06 ERA in 11 starts and seems poised to cash in for a big chunk of change — with the Pirates or elsewhere — when he hits free agency this winter.
While the Pirates and Nova have exchanged numbers — according to a report by Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Nova is seeking a five-year, $70 million contract — Nova hasn’t been in contact with his agent about the process.
When he does reach out, though, his message will be that he wants to stay in Pittsburgh.
“I don’t want to leave this clubhouse, to be honest,” Nova said after the game on Thursday. “It’s not up to me. They have to talk to my agent. My agent will call and let me know what’s going on, but if there’s something I can do to stay here, I’ll do it. … Hopefully things work out and I can be back here. Hopefully, that’s the case. We’ll see what happens.”
Nova has made serious improvements since coming to the Pirates. His walks are down, his home runs are down, and his ground ball rate has gone up. I broke down the reasons for Nova’s successes earlier.
One of the things he kept mentioning when I researched that piece was comfort. His deep friendship with Francisco Cervelli lead him to a good place on the mound and he found a kindred spirit in the jovial, laid back Ray Searage. The fun, loose Pirates clubhouse was a welcome change for Nova after coming from the New York Yankees, and he’d like to hang onto that feeling.
“I wouldn’t change these moments for the whole season,” he said. “I think the time that I had here was really, really good and I really appreciate the Pirates organization for giving me an opportunity to be around these guys, the coaching staff and the teammates. It’s amazing.”
While the decision on whether or not to re-sign Nova will ultimately lie with general manager Neal Huntington, you can count manager Clint Hurdle amongst those that would like to have Nova in the fold.
“[Nova] is one of the guys you’d like to put into this rotation as an older, experienced guy,” Hurdle said. “You’ve got Cole, you’ve got some younger guys and then maybe a fifth starter that’s got some experience to bridge the gap — bookends for Cole and whoever else might be in the middle. I do believe we have a mindset going in, we’ve actually talked about, and we’ll start meeting as soon as the season is over about how we put that back together.”
Hurdle said that the team would ideally like to have a pair of veteran starters to “bookend” Gerrit Cole, Chad Kuhl and Jameson Taillon, and that he envisioned Nova being a solid fit based on his ground-ball rate and makeup.
“He’s given us a nice infusion of experience in the clubhouse,” Hurdle said. “He’s all business when he’s on the mound. He understands the importance of the role the starting pitcher carries.”
