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Pirates Have Shown Interest in Jason Hammel

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Jon Morosi reports that the Pittsburgh Pirates have shown interest in right-handed pitcher Jason Hammel.

Morosi mentions the Cubs, Royals, and Braves have also expressed interest in the right-hander. I’d imagine the Pirates will be connected to a lot of starting pitchers with A.J. Burnett’s situation being uncertain. As we saw with Bronson Arroyo, showing interest doesn’t mean the Pirates are going to sign the player.

Hammel profiles as a number four starter at his best. From 2009-2011 he pitched about 170 innings per year. In the last two years he has dealt with injuries that have limited him to 118-139 innings. His ERA has always been worse than his advanced metrics, although it certainly didn’t help him that he spent most of his starting career in Colorado and Baltimore, two hitter friendly parks. He has a 45% ground ball rate in his career, although he saw a spike to 53% in 2012 after leaning more on a two-seamer. He stuck with the two-seam fastball in 2013, although his ground ball rate dropped to 40%. The 2012 season was the best of his career, with a 3.43 ERA in 118 innings, along with an 8.6 K/9 and a 3.2 BB/9. He might be worth picking up on a smaller deal with hope that he could get back to those levels.

Back in early November I listed Hammel as one of my bounce back starting pitching candidates.

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Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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