Pirates reportedly put Juan Nicasio on outright waivers

This is, to put it mildly, mind-numbing:

This means if another team claims Nicasio, he’s gone with no return. There’s really no rational way to explain this. If they can’t get any return for him, why not play the season out with him? They don’t have a problem with John Jaso wandering out to right field on a semi-regular basis? If this report is accurate, it should be a firing offense.

UPDATE: The Pirates have also placed Wade LeBlanc on irrevocable waivers.

The difference, of course, is that Nicasio is an actual, good player and LeBlanc is replacement level and needs to be replaced by younger pitchers anyway. Putting Nicasio on waivers is obviously an effort to save a mere $600K in salary, which is indefensible. And if it means so little to win games the rest of the way, why on earth are John Jaso and Chris Stewart starting over Jordan Luplow and Elias Diaz (not that Jaso and Stewart increase the team’s chances of winning, either)?

Some sort of threshold of incoherence has been passed this year, of which this is just the latest example.