Bye Bye, Bedard

By John Franco

The Pirates brought the Erik Bedard era to an end Monday, night, releasing the 33-year old lefty and ending his  tenure with a record of 7-14 and a 5.01 ERA. Prior to the 2012 season, the Pirates signed Bedard to a 1-year deal worth $4.5 million, which seemed like a good gamble at the time. Bedard battled injuries throughout his career, but owned a career ERA+ of 112 and posted a 3.62 ERA in 24 starts during the 2011 season. The Pirates were gambling that Bedard would be effective when he was healthy, even if he wasn’t healthy all year. That wasn’t what they got, but when you sign Bedard, you don’t expect healthy and bad.

There haven’t  been a lot of positive moments for Bedard this year, but it’s hard to call his signing a mistake. Charlie Morton missed most of the season with a variety of injuries, and it’s only recently that the Pirates have had six healthy starters, so Bedard provided innings that the rotation needed. It’s possible that Jeff Locke could have matched Bedard’s performance this year, but Bedard’s presence has allowed Locke, Chris Leroux and Kyle McPherson to get some additional development time.

At the time of Bedard’s signing, I don’t remember a lot of teeth gnashing over Locke missing the rotation; any complaints were about the loss of Edwin Jackson when he spurned the Pirates’ multi-year offer. Bedard was the best the Pirates could get at the time. In retrospect, maybe the right move would have been Paul Maholm 2.0, but I don’t think anyone saw that coming.

Moving Bedard aside now, hopefully for one of the Pirates’ young pitchers and not for Kevin Correia, seems like the right move for the Pirates. At the end of the season, hindsight might show us that this move should have happened a month ago, but prior to Bedard’s last three starts (14.1 innings, 8.79 ERA), he had three quality starts out of four (25 innings, 3.60 ERA despite allowing 8 runs to the Cubs).

Of course, if Clint Hurdle does insist on giving Bedard’s spot to Correia, and Correia gets bombed, Pirate fans will be lamenting the loss of Bedard. Correia is a known mediocrity at a point where the Pirates need to gamble on finding something better than that. Using one of their young pitchers would also allow the Pirates to start figuring out next season, even while they’re fighting desperately to save this one.