MILWAUKEE — Jon Niese is a New York Met again, Antonio Bastardo is a Pirate again, Ivan Nova is in black and yellow and someone’s going to need a new apartment.
These moves qualified only as an opening act Monday to the Pirates’ biggest deal before the non-waiver trade deadline — the packaging of two top-10 prospects with veteran pitcher Francisco Liriano so the Toronto Blue Jays would assume his entire salary — but they contained their own entertainment. The Pirates returned Niese, whom they acquired from the Mets for Neil Walker, to New York in exchange for Bastardo, a former Pirate who left via free agency, and cash. They also brought in right-handed starter Nova from the New York Yankees in exchange for two players to be named later.
The Pirates essentially turned Walker, their hometown second baseman whom they traded entering his walk year, into Bastardo, whom they could have re-signed. By sending Walker to the Mets in December, they got Niese, who in 18 starts, a 5.13 ERA, .300 batting average against and 20 homers allowed.
“In hindsight, it doesn’t look like we made the right call,” general manager Neal Huntington said on a conference call Monday.
When the Pirates couldn’t find a trade partner for Niese last month, they moved him to the bullpen. Also in July, Huntington referred, in a radio interview with 93.7 the Fan, that perhaps the Pirates should have traded Walker for two fringe prospects instead of Niese.
“It did not work out the way we thought it was going to,” Huntington said Monday. “Quite candidly, the players that we could have gotten for Neil in the offseason, nobody would be thrilled with them, either.”
Walker is living in Niese’s Manhattan apartment, so that’ll be interesting.
At the 2014 winter meetings, the Pirates sent minor league left-hander Joely Rodriguez to the Philadelphia Phillies for Bastardo, a left-handed reliever who had a 2.98 ERA and 10 strikeouts per nine in Pittsburgh in 2015. He left the Pirates via free agency and signed a two-year, $12 million deal with the Mets. This year, the 30-year-old has a 4.74 ERA.
“In Bastardo, it’s a different fit for us now than it was then,” Huntington said.
In acquiring Nova and moving Liriano, the Pirates moved to reshape a rotation that has a 4.77 ERA, 23rd in Major League Baseball. Only one starter from the opening-day rotation, Gerrit Cole, is still there. Liriano and Niese are on different teams, and Jeff Locke and Juan Nicasio are in the bullpen.
Nova will join Cole, Jameson Taillon and Ryan Vogelsong in the rotation. Nova previously pitched Friday, making Wednesday — the day Locke was slotted into the rotation — his next scheduled start. Vogelsong will start Thursday, pitching for the first time since May 23, when a hit-by-pitch fractured bones in his face.
“With Vogelsong and everything that he’s done and everything that he’s been through and everything that he has done in that clubhouse, we wanted to give him the ball and see where he can take it,” Huntington said.
As for a fifth starter, it could be Chad Kuhl, who pitched well for Class AAA Indianapolis Monday after leaving his previous start because of a triceps injury; Tyler Glasnow, who is on the disabled list because of shoulder soreness but threw off a mound Sunday; Steven Brault or Trevor Williams, both of whom have pitched well for Indianapolis this year; or Locke.
Nova, 29, is making $4.1 million this year and reaches free agency after this season. In seven seasons with the Yankees he had a 4.41 ERA. His best year was 2013, when he had a 3.10 ERA in 139⅓ innings, with 7.5 strikeouts per nine.
“We’ve liked Nova for a while,” Huntington said.
In 2012, Nova missed time because of an injury to his rotator cuff. He went on the DL in 2013 because of a triceps injury and had Tommy John ligament replacement surgery in April of ’14. Since returning from the surgery in June 2015, Nova has a 4.99 ERA in 191⅓ innings. In 21 games, 15 starts, this season, he has a 4.90 ERA and 19 homers allowed in 97⅓ innings.
Bill Brink: bbrink@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrinkPG.
First Published: August 1, 2016, 8:18 p.m.
Updated: August 2, 2016, 2:32 a.m.
