The Pirates have interest in free agent starting pitcher Justin Masterson, Travis Sawchik reports.
Like Trevor Cahill, Masterson would be a reclamation-project type and would hopefully not be the Pirates' main pitching acquisition this winter. Masterson does have something to offer, though. Like Cahill, he's relatively young was once a very good and very ground-ball-prone starter.
I actually thought the Pirates might identify Masterson as a target last winter, after he followed a terrific 2013 season with the Indians with an awful year in Cleveland and St. Louis. Fortunately, they didn't -- Masterson had injury troubles and suffered another decline in velocity (after already having had a pretty significant velocity decline in 2014), and was terrible yet again.