Pirates trying to re-sign Edinson Volquez

Jon Heyman, who's among those who's reporting that the Pirates have struck a deal with Francisco Liriano, tweets that the Pirates are now turning their attention to re-signing Edinson Volquez.

This makes sense based on what's been previously reported -- Dejan Kovacevic wrote two weeks ago that the Pirates had money to spare and were trying to use it to re-sign both Liriano and Volquez. I'm less of a Volquez fan than some, but the Pirates continue to need rotation depth, and there probably just aren't that many starting pitchers out there they actually like. As I said last week, the Pirates' pitching acquisitions aren't likely to be random talented guys, but rather pitchers who fit their ground-ball-heavy run prevention approach. The list of free-agent pitchers who fit that approach is rather short, which is likely why the Pirates seem to be trying to re-sign two pitchers for something like market value (plus A.J. Burnett, another pitcher they know well), even though they're the ones who helped Liriano and Volquez establish that value in the first place.

Heyman adds, by the way, that Liriano "loves Pittsburgh." That's cool to hear. I'd love it, too, if the baseball team there just offered me the biggest free-agent deal in team history, but still.