Pirates interested in Daniel Hudson

The Pirates are interested in free agent righty reliever Daniel Hudson, Bill Brink tweets.

Hudson looks like a candidate to be next year's Neftali Feliz -- a reliever who's fallen on hard times but has the sort of stuff and pedigree to reemerge. Hudson was once an interesting young starter, but he missed most of the 2012 through 2014 seasons after having two Tommy John surgeries. He pitched pretty well out of the Diamondbacks bullpen in 2015, but had a 5.22 ERA last year.

Underneath that ERA, though, are some promising signs, including peripherals that are significantly better than that ERA and an average fastball velocity of 95.7 MPH. He also won't turn 30 until March. The Pirates likely don't expect Hudson to emerge as an elite reliever, but they probably do see him as a good candidate to turn in a modestly successful season at a reasonable price, sort of like Feliz did.