ATLANTA — The restructuring of the Pirates’ starting rotation began in mid-June, when they moved Juan Nicasio to the bullpen. It continued a month later when Jon Niese followed suit.
The final strokes of the “out with the old” portion of the rotation rebuild occurred before the non-waiver trade deadline when the Pirates dumped Francisco Liriano’s contract on the Toronto Blue Jays, traded Niese back to the New York Mets and acquired Ivan Nova from the New York Yankees. The “in with the new” portion, as of this week, was ongoing. Beginning with today’s game against the Cincinnati Reds, the rotation has exactly one-third of the season – 54 games – remaining to improve.