Perrotto: Pirates’ New Starters on Opposite Ends of Spectrum (+)
The Pittsburgh Pirates have tried to add some veteran stability to their starting rotation this offseason.
In a way, they have. In another way, they haven’t.
Left-hander Rich Hill’s career has not always been stable. The Pirates will be his 12th team since breaking into the major leagues in 2005.
Yet, as the oldest player in the major leagues, the 43-year-old Hill should help bring an air of calmness to some of the Pirates’ younger starters.
Conversely, right-hander Vince Velasquez is still trying to establish himself in the major leagues as a 30-year-old on his fifth team and entering his ninth season. His career ERA is 4.93 through 183 games, 136 starts and 726.1 innings.
However, Pirates manager Derek Shelton is equally pleased to have both pitchers after they were signed to one-year contracts as free agents. Hill’s deal is worth $8 million and Velasquez’s salary will be $3.15 million.
Shelton is intrigued by Hill, who was willing to take a step back as a 35-year-old in 2015 and play independent ball just to keep his career alive. Last season, Hill was 8-7 with a 4.27 ERA in 26 starts for the Boston Red Sox.
Hill also logged 124.1 innings in 2022. While they may not qualify him as a workhorse, just two Pirates pitchers threw more innings in 2022 – Mitch Keller (159) and JT Brubaker (144).
Shelton feels Hill’s story can be an inspiration to players of all ages.
“He’s a veteran guy who has had to build himself back up,” Shelton said. “It’s not like he’s had a linear career. He’s had downs. He’s had highs.”
Hill has also mastered the art of pitching. His fastball averaged 88.3 mph last year, which is very slow in an era in which seemingly every big-league pitcher throws at least 95 mph.
“Rich is a really good example of a guy, a left-handed pitcher who can do different things with the ball,” Shelton said.
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What impressed Shelton the most during the courtship of Hill is how much the veteran wanted to be part of a young pitching staff. Mitch Keller (26) and Roansy Contreras (23) head a group of young starters that could include Johan Oviedo (24), Luis Ortiz (24), Mike Burrows (23) and Quinn Priester (22) being in the rotation at some time or another this year.
“There’s a lot of opportunities in a lot of different places for him to go play,” Shelton said. “He chose to come play here, which I think is important for us and I think it really symbolizes some of the really good things that our pitching group has done over the last couple years. People are identifying that.”
The Pirates feel they have identified ways to help Velasquez unlock his unrealized potential.
Velasquez had a 16-strikeout game in 2016 while pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies against the San Diego Padres. Yet the best ERA he has managed in a season is 4.12, which also came in 2016.
Velasquez and the rest of the pitchers and catchers report to spring training on Tuesday in Bradenton. However, Pirates pitching coach Oscar Marin has watched Velasquez throw multiple bullpen sessions this winter in their native Southern California.
“A large part of acquiring him was the fact that we did identify some things — because he does have such a good arm — that we felt like we could use to help us,” Shelton said. “We’re very excited to have Vince.”
How excited the Pirates are about having Hill and Velasquez three or four months now remains to be seen. However, after their starting pitchers won just 21 games and compiled a 4.61 ERA last season, the Pirates had to try something.
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