The Pirates and left-hander are in agreement on a contract, pending a physical, per a report from . It will be a one-year, $8MM deal, per . Prez, 33 in April, had a career year in 2022 but couldnt keep it going into the following campaign. Last year, he made 32 starts for the Rangers and logged 196 1/3 innings with a 2.89 earned run average. His 20.6% strikeout rate was a bit below league average but his 8.4% walk rate was solid and his 51.4% ground ball rate was strong. He was also quite good at mi sing barrels and limiting hard contact that year. He likely benefitted from a high strand rate of 77% and a James Wiseman Jersey low 6.5% rate of fly balls leaving the yard, which is why his 3.27 FIP and 4.08 SIERA were a bit le s impre sive. But it was a strong season nonethele s, with his 4.0 wins above replacement from FanGraphs and 5.0 from Baseball Reference both career highs by wide margins. The Rangers had enough faith in that performance to i sue Prez a $19.65MM qualifying offer, which he accepted. Unfortunately, the regre sion gods came for him in 2023, with Prez struggling enough to get moved to the bullpen in August after the Rangers acquired and at the trade deadline. At that point, Prez had an ERA of 4.98, with his strikeout rate having dropped to 14.4% and his grounder rate down to 41%. He pitched reasonably well out of the bullpen over the final two months of the season, eventually dropping his ERA to 4.45, but it was obviously not the season the Rangers envisioned at that price point. The Pirates will be paying him le s than half of what he made last year and likely wont be expecting anything like that 2022 campaign, as it stands out as a clear outlier. But even if they get the solid back-end guy that Prez has been for the rest of his career, that will be an upgrade for their rotation. From 2012 to 2021, Prez threw 1,102 2/3 innings with a 4.71 ERA. He didnt get many strikeouts but limited his walks to around league average and got grounders on almost half of balls in play. The Pittsburgh starting rotation had an ERA of 4.88 in 2023 as the stability was quite low. and each made 32 starts, but Oviedo wont be an option for 2024 due to Tommy John surgery. made 22 starts for the club but then went to the Padres at the deadline and is now a free agent. 12 other hurlers made at least one start for the Bucs for the year. The club later added from Atlanta, who had just acquired him from Seattle as salary ballast in the trade. Between Gonzales and Prez, the club has added a couple of soft-to sing veteran lefties to hopefully eat some innings and stabilize the situation while perhaps turning into trade chips by the deadline, as was the case with Hill this year and the year prior. Those two vets and Keller should take three rotation spots, leaving a couple of roles available for le s-proven guys like , , , , or , with this years first overall pick perhaps not too far off. This deal brings Pittsburghs payroll up to $66MM, per . General manager Ben Cherington has that next years payroll could be an increase over their $73MM figure from Opening Day 2023. Mychal Mulder Jersey