Karstens has to have at least a "two low minors live arms" level of trade value. Why the hell wouldn't you tender him and them shop him around? I don't get it.

The only plausible answer to that question I can think of is along the lines of "because his {shoulder|elbow} is in tatters and he won't pass a physical", but I haven't heard anything to suggest that.

He is a perfectly cromulent pitcher. I'd say he would provide an instant improvement to about 25 other teams.

He's currently rehabbing from injury. I have no idea when he's expected back. If it's not the beginning of the season, this starts to make sense. Maybe they intend to sign him after the non-temder.

TFA says they tried to trade him, and I guess got no offers. I guess other teams are concerned about his injuries too, and didn't want to give up prospects and $4 million or so for him.

There are dozens of freely available pitchers out there who can put up Karstens' numbers for the league minimum. Why sould the Pirates take a chance on getting stuck with him if he is hurt?

“It was a tough decision for us,” general manager Neal Huntington said. “We worked hard to reach a (contract) agreement with his agent and were unsuccessful. Our next step became trying to trade Jeff. We were unsuccessful. We’ve reached the decision to let him leave.”

source

The Pirates also traded Chris Resop to Oakland and Yamaico Navarro to Baltimore for minor league fluff. Resop was going to be non-tendered as well and Navarro had been designated for assignment to make room for Zach Stewart.

Karstens had shoulder and hip problems last year, also a groin pull. I get that the Pirates don't want to pay him $5 million when they aren't sure they can get 25 starts out of him. But I can't help but contrast this to their willingness to pay $8.5 million per year for two years to a catcher who had a .660 OPS as late as September 3 a year ago. There were at least two other guys out there (Ross and Laird) who could have helped them as much as Russell Martin is likely to help them for far less than $8.5 million per year.

-- MWE

Veteran Leadership, though, Mike. Yankee Magic.

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing your next starting pitcher for the Chicago Cubs.