Morning Rundown: Jack Flaherty rumors, Pirates actively searching for pitchers

A lot of talk surrounding the Pirates and the starting pitching market.

The Winter Meetings started with, well, whatever the opposite of a bang would be. Sunday night, the Atlanta Braves acquired Jarred Kelenic, Marco Gonzales, and Evan White in exchange for two prospects, but that has been it.

In what was a salary dump, the Braves acquired the 24-year-old Kelenic, who is coming off hitting 11 home runs in 105 games last year. Gonzales had a rough 2023 but has four seasons where he won at least 10 games. White hasn’t played in the majors since 2021, when he hit two home runs in 30 games.

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It’s been relatively quiet on the rumor front for the Pirates, that is, until Cardinals beat writer Jeff Jones reported that they are ‘monitoring’ the market around free-agent pitcher Jack Flaharty and are “interested in bringing him in on a short-term deal should he be unable to find a longer commitment.”

The guys at NS9 caught up with Jones at the Winter Meetings to follow up on his tweet.

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Up to Monday, we hadn’t heard much about the Pirates being involved in the rumor mill, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been looking to add to their roster.

According to Robert Murray of Fansided, the Pirates have been very active in the free-agent starting pitching market, which lines up with what Jones said about Flaherty.

Ben Cherington confirmed that in this tweet from Jason Mackey.

"We've talked about just about every starting pitcher on the market. We’ve been pretty inclusive and exhaustive about it."

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The offseason started slow, but you can see the wheels beginning to churn. With just two spots left on the 40-man roster, it might be the busiest Winter Meetings, but it’s starting to look like the chances the Pirates walk away empty-handed are low.

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