It seems that the fire sale continued for the New York Yankees today. They traded Andrew Miller, Aroldis Chapman, Carlos Beltran, and Ivan Nova. It was reported at 4 pm that the New York Yankees had traded the 29-year old pitcher to the Pittsburgh Pirates for a player to be named later.
The Pirates will have to lean on Ivan Nova to help theirs under-performing season. He has not had the best season himself, posting an ERA of 4.90, 6.9 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 in over 97 innings. The appeal according to sources of Nova to Pittsburgh was that he has a ground ball rate of 54.3%. This is significant for the Pirates whose pitchers have given up a ton of homers.
Nova is a free agent at the end of the season, so the assumption is he is going to be a rental for the Pirates. The problem the Yankees were facing who are at. 500 entering play tonight against the New York Mets was that they felt limited downside in dealing him. The Pirates will have a limited time to improve Ivan Nova, but they are known for helping struggling pitchers and did well last season’s deadline with JA Happ. The Pirates rotation will look much different as many of the pitchers were traded over the last few weeks. Being that they traded a majority of their pitching by trading for Nova, they are still trying to improve their chances of winning a Wild Card spot this season. Entering play tonight, the Pirates are four games back of the second Wild Card Spot.