So the Pirates signed Armas Jr. today for one year with a club mutual option for a second year. Armas is relatively young for a free agent (28). He should be good for 150 innings.
This is a good low-risk signing with upside. We hope the other guys will pitch well enough (and stay healthy enough) to make Armas unnecessary. But you never know.
Now the lame hand of the gang of four can work as the fifth starter, and Chacon can start the season as a swing man or as a AAA starter. That's how I'd play the cards.
DK reports $3.5M for one year or $8M for two years. That is a good contract for the Pirates.
... 2/2 6:30am ... D. Kovacevic reports Armas has been hired for the job I more or less just described. It was not hard to predict:
Earlier this month, the Pirates retained Shawn Chacon with a one-year deal worth $3.8 million. And their plan, as general manager Dave Littlefield confirmed last night, is to use spring training to determine which of those two [Armas or Chacon] -- and, possibly, Shane Youman or Marty McLeary -- will start and which will work in long relief.
Burnett, Van Benschoten, and Bullington should start as often as they can, on a regular starter's schedule, either in Pittsburgh or in the minors. Chacon and Armas you do not demote; one or both can do the Terry Mullholland swing-man job.
It's no surprise or crime that the fifth starters will make eight or nine times more money than the front four. Salary is primarily about service time and secondarily about performance.
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