Meek as closer

I doubt Meek is really ready yet — he only has 41+ innings at AAA. let’s see him dominate AAA for (most of) the year. I think he’s close, though, and could move into the Pirates bullpen later this year.

re: trading Capps — with no chance of contention in 2009, a (potentially) elite closer like Capps is a luxury the Pirates really cannot afford, but could ‘cash in’ to a desperate contender at the trade deadline. (if it wasn’t for his injury, I wouldn’t have been surprised to have seen Capps traded last year.) that said, it seems likely that Grabow would be traded before Capps.

a potential catch is that Capps is only signed thru this year, with 2 arbitration years left before he can become a free agent. thus, at the moment there is no “cost certainty” with Capps, beyond his 2009 salary, which might deter potential suitors.

Let’s see if Meek can retire hitters in the regular season before giving him the closer’s job. Plus, it can’t hurt to have depth. The bullpen could, believe it or not, be a strength this year. A Capps-Meek-Ohlendorf-Grabow-Yates pen might work out well.

…but probably not this year, unless they get a knockout package. He’s still under team control for three years, as noted above, and while Meek has been strong in the early going, the bullpen as a whole is shaky at best.