MILWAUKEE — Felipe Rivero thought he was in trouble. He was showering in the Washington Nationals clubhouse Saturday when he heard manager Dusty Baker wanted to see him.
He wasn’t in trouble. He was, however, leaving a division leader to play for a team four games out of a wild-card spot, a team that just got swept by the Milwaukee Brewers to fall to one game above .500.
“I think we can do something in two months,” said Rivero, who reported to the Pirates Sunday after they sent Mark Melancon to the Nationals for him. “I think it’s going to be great these next two months.”
Rivero and minor league left-hander Taylor Hearn represent the Pirates’ additions so far in advance of the non-waiver trade deadline, which is at 4 p.m. today. They’ve looked for pitching help, and in Rivero they got a seventh-inning guy, but it came at the expense of their All-Star closer.
“I know we were steadfast on [Rivero] being a part of the deal,” manager Clint Hurdle said.
Another big name, left-hander Andrew Miller, already moved, from the New York Yankees to the Cleveland Indians. Two big contracts, those of Matt Kemp and Hector Olivera, swapped teams as well. As the Pirates look for controllable starters, one option, Seattle’s Wade Miley, was traded to Baltimore. Still in play: Michael Pineda, Hector Santiago, Jake Odorizzi, Drew Smyly, Matt Moore, Edinson Volquez.
Today, general managers in need of a bat will present final offers for Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy and Cincinnati Reds outfielder Jay Bruce. Held out of the lineup Sunday because of an agreed-upon trade to the Indians that he eventually vetoed, Lucroy pinch-hit in the eighth inning. He tipped his helmet as the crowd gave him a standing ovation.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I thought he deserved that, and I thought the fans deserved that,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said.
Rivero made his Pirates debut Sunday. He allowed a hit and a walk, but struck out two in a scoreless inning.
Most of Rivero’s 2016 performance resembles what he did last season. He has pitched 50⅔ innings in 48 games, near the 48⅓ innings in 49 games he finished 2015 with. His strikeout rate has increased, and his walk rate, while higher, is still good. So why is the ERA almost two runs higher this year (4.44) than last year (2.79)?
“I looked at film from 2015 and this year,” pitching coach Ray Searage said. “There’s some discrepancies in there, because his numbers were really good in ’15. There’s a couple of things that got out of sync, but I’m not jumping on it right now.
“The stuff is there. The consistency of executing is not there. That’s the whole thing. And I can see where the inconsistency is coming from.”
General manager Neal Huntington said he continues to weigh adding to the roster before today’s deadline passes. He saved $2.7 million — $2.2 million when factoring in Rivero’s $516,100 salary — in the trade.
“It allows us to reallocate those dollars on this year’s club and we are in the process of looking to do that,” Huntington said Sunday on his weekly radio show on 93.7 the Fan.
On the show, Huntington dispelled the notion that the Pirates were looking for a return akin to what the New York Yankees got for Aroldis Chapman — a top prospect, a major league reliever and two minor leaguers — by saying it “couldn’t be anything further from the truth.” If they asked for that type of return, Huntington said, “[Melancon] would still be our closer.”
“It was not an easy decision,” Huntington told 93.7. “There were a handful of clubs in. At the end of the day we felt this was our best return. We felt like this was a better option than just holding Mark and letting him walk at the end of the year via free agency.”
Huntington said the fact that Melancon, who was napping with his phone on silent and didn’t answer right away, was “a bit unnerving.”
“I dreaded making the call,” he said. “I dreaded the second I heard his voice on the other end of the line.”
Bill Brink: bbrink@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrinkPG.
First Published: August 1, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
