As expected, the Pirates' Drew Hutchison experiment has officially come to an end.
The right-handed starting pitcher declared free agency Monday after he cleared outright waivers -- he was waived September 16 -- dropping him off the Pirates’ 40-man roster.
Acquired from the Blue Jays in exchange for Francisco Liriano and two prospects last July, Hutchison spent this season with AAA Indianapolis and was not recalled when rosters expanded in September. Meanwhile, Liriano is on the Astros' World Series roster and the two prospects — catcher Reese McGuire and outfielder Harold Ramirez — spent the season in AA.
Hutchison, who agreed to a $2.3 million salary to avoid arbitration last offseason and was under club control through 2020, competed for a spot in the rotation during spring training, but did not make the roster and had a 3.56 ERA in 156 1/3 innings with Indianapolis. The 27-year-old never received a call to the major leagues, even though Jameson Taillon was lost for almost six weeks because of testicular cancer, and Tyler Glasnow, who was in the rotation to begin the season, had a 7.45 ERA in his first 12 starts before being demoted.
The motivation behind trading Liriano, McGuire and Ramirez to the Blue Jays for Hutchison and cash was to give the Pirates payroll relief and a starter to provide depth to the rotation, but it did not go as planned. Hutchison had a 4.92 ERA in 406⅓ innings over parts of four seasons with the Blue Jays prior to the trade. With the Pirates last season, he allowed seven runs in 11⅓ innings.
Huntington told reporters last month that Hutchison was somewhat of a victim of circumstance since the Pirates used only seven starters this season — tying the club record for fewest used in one season.
They had five pitchers with at least 116 strikeouts for the first time since 1984 and for the fourth time in team history.
"Drew did everything we asked him to this year,” Neal Huntington said last month. “He was a successful pitcher at [Class] AAA again. If you had told me at the start of the season that we were going to use six starters until September, I would have told you Drew Hutchison probably wouldn’t have been in the mix, but if we had used seven, eight or nine, he absolutely would have been.”
McGuire, a first-round draft pick in 2013, batted .278 at AA New Hampshire in 34 games. Ramirez, meanwhile, spent the entire season in AA, where he batted .266 with six home runs and 53 RBI.
Liriano was traded by the Blue Jays to the Astros in July, but he had a 1.67 WHIP in 14 1/3 innings as a reliever with Houston in the regular season. The 33-year-old left-hander has allowed one run in 1 2/3 innings for the Astros in the playoffs this season and is on their roster for the World Series, which begins Tuesday night.