Pirates Might Be Interested In Carl Pavano

John Perrotto writes that the Pirates might be interested in Carl Pavano, and since it'll probably be a quiet day otherwise (UPDATE: oops, besides the 40-man roster business, which should be resolved within a few hours), we can talk about that here. Pavano has pitched 420 decent innings in the past two years, and he's a free agent. I'd probably avoid him. The potential problem with him is that he's about to turn 35, and he apparently wants a three-year deal in the range of the one Jorge De La Rosa got for the Rockies. The Pirates probably shouldn't be giving three-year contracts to any pitcher in his mid-30s right now - there's just too good a chance that the pitcher won't be effective by the time the third year of the contract rolls around, at which point the Pirates could be a competitive team.

Also, Pavano isn't as good as De La Rosa - his strikeout rate has been pretty low recently, and if it drops much further, he probably will struggle, particularly with the Pirates' defense behind him. His recent numbers remind me a bit of the last years of David Wells' career, which wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, but De La Rosa has a lot more upside than Pavano does.

Finally, the Pirates would lose their second-round pick if they signed Pavano, because he's a Type A free agent and he turned down arbitration from the Twins.

If it's true that the Pirates are pursuing Pavano, though, it's interesting. They already have a ton of starting pitching. Much of it isn't great starting pitching, but still. If they were to sign Pavano, one would think that would increase the chances of them trading Paul Maholm in the next few months.