When the Pirates put right-hander Juan Nicasio on outright waivers this week, they opened the door for 29 other teams to claim him without giving the Pirates anything in return.
The team with the very first crack took them up on it.
The Philadelphia Phillies, who have the worst record in Major League Baseball and thus the top waiver priority, claimed Nicasio Thursday, saving $600,000 and ending a bizarre series of events that Pirates general manager Neal Huntington acknowledged as an “unusual step.”
Aside from closer Felipe Rivero, Nicasio is the Pirates’ best relief pitcher. He leads the major leagues with 65 appearances and has a 2.85 ERA with 60 strikeouts in 60 innings. Rivero was unhappy with the move.
😭😭😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/arSNsOT2Tt
— Felipe Rivero (@Rivero43) August 31, 2017
The Pirates had previously put Nicasio on trade waivers, something every team does with its players after the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. A team Huntington described in a statement as “playoff caliber” claimed Nicasio and told the Pirates they did so to block them from trading him elsewhere. So the Pirates rescinded the trade waivers, which are revocable, and kept Nicasio.
But then they put him on outright waivers, which are irrevocable and operate under slightly different rules. Claims on trade waivers are awarded in order of the worst winning percentage in the league of the team that requested waivers on player. If no team from the National League had claimed Nicasio, the American League team with the worst winning percentage would win the claim. Outright waivers operate independently of leagues.
“We chose to take the chance to see if by placing Juan on outright waivers he would end up with a different playoff contender, preferably one in the American League,” Huntington said.
That didn’t happen. The Phillies are 49-83 and have an MLB-worst .371 winning percentage. They were the one team guaranteed to win a claim on Nicasio, and they did. Now, the Phillies could turn around and trade Nicasio, possibly to the very same “playoff caliber” team at which the Pirates balked.
And even if the Pirates had traded Nicasio to a “direct competitor,” as Huntington also referred to the claiming club, Nicasio, who turned 31 Thursday, is a free agent after this season. After getting swept by the Chicago Cubs in Wrigley Field this week, the Pirates are 63-71 and 10 games back of first place. They are 9½ games back of the second wild-card spot. The playoffs are all but out of reach, and the Pirates acknowledged as much by putting their second-best reliever on outright waivers, so why worry about helping a competitor?
Huntington also said the move indicates the team intends to look toward next year.
“Given our recent record and regression in the standings, we intend to give the higher leverage innings to other pitchers that may or will impact our 2018 club,” he said. “We acknowledge the minimal amount of money saved by making this move, however, as a result of our decision and Juan’s pending free agency at the end of the season, we felt it appropriate to attempt to move Juan to a better situation for him.”
When the Pirates resume play Friday against the Cincinnati Reds at PNC Park, it will be interesting to see if this means young catcher Elias Diaz will start ahead of Chris Stewart; if Jordan Luplow gets time in right field rather than John Jaso; or if one of the Class AAA Indianapolis pitchers such as Tyler Glasnow (or Steven Brault, who started for Indianapolis all year before being promoted to work out of the Pirates’ bullpen) gets some starts, possibly in place of Ivan Nova, who had yet another bad outing Wednesday night.
The Pirates rank 25th in attendance with an average of 24,307 per game, down more than 3,000 per game from last year. The $600,000 in savings, which represents the final month of Nicasio’s $3.65 million salary, is pennies in the grand scheme of things but could be part of ownership’s desire to offset the revenue lost from decreased attendance.
Bill Brink: bbrink@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrinkPG.
First Published: August 31, 2017, 7:17 p.m.
Updated: August 31, 2017, 8:17 p.m.
