Brandon Cumpton has Tommy John surgery

Dr. James Andrews recently performed Tommy John surgery on Brandon Cumpton, Bill Brink writes. Cumpton visited Andrews last week.

Obviously, this means Cumpton will be out about a year, putting a dent in the Pirates' starting pitching depth. His loss will be felt immediately, since Vance Worley and Jeff Locke are both out of options and it now will be difficult for the Pirates to do much of anything but keep one of them in the rotation and move one of them to long relief. I'd previously described Locke as a trade candidate, but unless the Pirates can get a big-league ready starter with options in return, that would be a risky move now. And as David Todd has pointed out, putting someone like Locke in the bullpen isn't good, because then it's hard to keep him stretched out to make starts when necessary.

The Pirates' need to keep Locke (I'm assuming Locke would have been the odd man out) on their 25-man roster will also limit the chances of guys like Stolmy Pimentel, Arquimedes Caminero, Jared Hughes and John Holdzkom making the team. Hughes and Holdzkom can be optioned; Pimentel and Caminero can't.