Dejan Kovacevic has confirmed that the Pirates will non-tender RHP Jeff Karstens, effectively making him a Free Agent.
BREAKING: Jeff Karstens just texted me that he’s being non-tendered. He was just called by Neal Huntington. #Pirates
— Dejan Kovacevic (@Dejan_Kovacevic) November 30, 2012
This is kind of what I was afraid of when the Pirates signed Martin, and as of right now this move screams of cost cutting. When viewed in the full context of the moves made so far it makes the team weaker. The Pirates may replace Karstens with a better, more reliable pitcher, but until that time this leaves the Pirates with little promise in the rotation outside of A.J. Burnett and Wandy Rodriguez.
The fact of the matter is that while Karstens has been good, he has been plagued by injuries. He is almost like the Ryan Doumit of the rotation, missing 355 days due to injury in the past five seasons. He has pitched just 68.1 innings in the months of Sept./Oct. in his five years with the Pirates.
