Pirates believe Drew Hutchison may yet still be a ‘quality major-league starting pitcher,’ but he won’t be the fifth starter now
BRADENTON, Fla. 鈥� Pirates general manager Neal Huntington is a man of his word.
On Tuesday, when asked about the perception that right-handed pitcher Drew Hutchison was getting preferential treatment because he was acquired in a controversial trade for Francisco Liriano and two prospects in 2016, Huntington strongly denied the assertion.
鈥淗e蘑菇视频 going to have to earn what he gets here just the same way our other guys are,鈥� Huntington said. 鈥淗ow we acquire them is not one of the factors that we鈥檙e weighing at all.鈥�
Tuesday night, Hutchison had his worst performance of the spring, giving up nine runs on 10 hits to the Boston Red Sox while taking 92 pitches to get through 3 2/3 innings. Wednesday morning, he was optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis.
Huntington said the decision reflected both Hutchison蘑菇视频 most recent outing and his entire body of work in the spring. Hutchison got off to a fine start but allowed 21 earned runs in his past three appearances. In each of his past two starts, he gave up five or more runs in the first inning.
鈥淥ne of the challenges we鈥檝e had since he蘑菇视频 been with us, and one of the challenges over the course of his career are multiple run innings,鈥� Huntington said. 鈥淩ather than making a quick adjustment, and giving up a single run inning, especially in our time, it蘑菇视频 turned into a two or three, or as it did last night, a six-run inning. We鈥檝e got to be able to help him slow that down, be able to make the big pitch when necessary, and instead of a crooked-run inning, have it be a single-run inning.鈥�
Hutchison is expected to joint the starting rotation in Indianapolis, and Huntington is hopeful that he can work through his issues at the minor-league level and help the Pirates at some point in the future. The Pirates are still on the hook for all of his $2.3 million salary for the season.
鈥淲e still believe he can be a quality major-league starting pitcher and need to do some work to get him right,鈥� Huntington said. 鈥淚n our minds, the best way to do that is to send him to Indianapolis and give him consistent work, give him some bullpens and see if we can get him back to what we believed we were getting when we traded for him.鈥�
The competition for the fifth spot remains, with right-handers Tyler Glasnow and Trevor Williams continuing to battle. Williams made his final appearance of the spring Wednesday, throwing four scoreless innings and striking out six. Glasnow will pitch Saturday in Montreal, in the second of the team蘑菇视频 two preseason games there against the Toronto Blue Jays.