Brault's cut leaves rotation all-righty, but Huntington doesn't sound worried

BRADENTON, Fla. — It's no surprise that Steven Brault was one of four players cut from the Pirates' major-league camp Tuesday, along with fellow pitcher Josh Lindblom and infielders Gift Ngoepe and Jason Rogers. But it's got to be at least a small surprise, in the broader scope, that the rotation will be without a left-hander.

The first four spots are set with Gerrit Cole, Ivan Nova, Jameson Taillon and Chad Kuhl. The No. 5 spot will go to one of Drew Hutchison, Tyler Glasnow or Trevor Williams, all right-handed.

Not that Neal Huntington sounded remotely worried about that when asked following his moves.



"Uh, what'd we have last year, four lefties?" the GM asked with a small smile in response. "We weren't afraid to have four lefties, and we're comfortable with this. We want the five best starting pitchers who we feel give us the best opportunities to win games, and then depth behind that. If we get through this year with five starters, chances are it's been a good year. So we need to keep guys rolling. We have complete confidence that Steve Brault can come up and win games for us."

If the Pirates go through the season without a lefty in the opening day rotation or making five-plus starts along the way, it'll mark the first time for that since 1958. That year, the all-righty rotation was Bob Friend, Vernon Law, Ron Kline and Curt Raydon. Another righty, Red Witt, made 10 starts. The only lefties on the entire staff, Don Gross and Bob Smith, made seven combined starts but mostly pitched out of the pen.

The moves Tuesday formally saw Brault and Ngoepe, members of the 40-man roster, optioned to Class AAA Indianapolis. Lindblom and Rogers were reassigned to minor-league camp and will be with Indianapolis, as well.

Though Kuhl has yet to be announced as having made the team, both Clint Hurdle and now Huntington have said he's targeted to pitch the third game of the opening series next week in Boston.

In six appearances this spring, Brault, 24, went 3-0 with a 3.45 ERA, second to Williams' 2.63 among the original competitors for the fifth spot and far better than Glasnow's 5.65 and Hutchison's 7.41. His 1.34 WHIP was also second best to Williams' 1.02 with Glasnow at 1.74, Hutchison at 1.76. Brault was last in the group with eight strikeouts over 15 2/3 innings, with Williams at 12, Hutchison 15, Glasnow 23.

Hutchison allowed six runs in each of his past two starts. He's the starter tonight against the Red Sox at LECOM Park.

Huntington was asked if Hutchison is being favored because he was part of the Francisco Liriano trade last summer that saw the Pirates dump Liriano's salary and two top-10 prospects to the Blue Jays.

"It is not," the GM said, referring to whether the trade is a factor. "He's going to have to earn what he gets here just the same way our other guys are. As we've talked, there have been positives from each one of these guys in camp, and there have been challenges. We're looking into a wide variety of reasons as to why Pitcher X takes that spot in the rotation and why someone else goes to the bullpen. Each guy has things we like. Each guy has reasons why they should be in the rotation or part of the bullpen. How we acquired them is not one of the factors we're weighing at all."

Brault appeared in eight games for the Pirates last season, finishing 0-3 with a 4.86 ERA and 1.86 WHIP, striking out 29 and walking 17 in 33 1/3 innings.

Ngoepe had a surprising 18 hits in 42 at-bats this spring, batting .429/.500/.500. Just two hits were for extra bases, but a new approach drew the eyes of management.

I asked Huntington what he and his staff saw: