With rumors floating around the past few weeks including Chris Archer – wasn’t going to happen – Nate Eovaldi and Matt Moore, the Pirates landed a pitcher before the 4 p.m. non-waiver trade deadline on Monday, as they acquired pitcher Ivan Nova from the New York Yankees.
nova traded to pirates
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) August 1, 2016
Umm, sure.
The return is a player to be named later.
Nova, 29, has a 4.90 ERA, with a 5.09 FIP and a 1.35 WHIP on the season. Nova is primarily a two-pitch pitcher, relying on his fastball 66.4 percent of the time, while throwing his curve 28.2 percent of the time this season. He also mixes in the occasional cutter and changeup. He also has a 9.3 swinging strike rate, and a has a soft-contact rate of 19.4 percent, up slightly from his 17.1 percent career rate.
Could Nova be useful for the Pirates? I mean, maybe? But for a guy whose contract is up at the end of the season, I frankly don’t see it.
The Pirates also moved Jon Niese on Monday, sending him back to the New York Mets in exchange for Antonio Bastardo. No, I wish I was making this up.
