With Matt Capps likely picking between the Cubs and Nationals within the next few days, the Pirates have a few bullpen spots to fill, and the PG's Dejan Kovacevic reports today that the club is talking to veteran right-hander Octavio Dotel. While terms aren't known, Dotel would likely serve as the closer, were he to sign. He could prove an excellent stop-gap addition to the bullpen.

There's a plethora of other relievers available, and with the market for closers more saturated than it's been in recent years, the Pirates could make significant additions to their bullpen with the money they've acknowledged they have to put toward next season's payroll. Kovacevic runs down a list of available bodies here.

Subtract from that list lefty Jack Taschner, who the Pirates signed to a minor league deal today, and who will compete for a bullpen spot in spring training.

Fangraphs, which is always good for interesting analysis, has a breakdown of the club's decision to non-tender Capps.

The Pirates will likely still wind up being players for free-agent outfielder Rick Ankiel, though general manager Neal Huntington has said that the club will wait until later in the winter to see how the market pans out before pursuing any larger names.

Former Bucs' right fielder Raul Mondesi, who did a three-month stint with the club before deciding to quit and go home, is emerging as a politician in his native Dominican Republic, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The hot stove continues to slowly warm for your Pirates. Recent moves:

• The Pirates removed pitcher Jeff Karstens and catcher Robinzon Diaz from their 40-man roster. Karstens was outrighted to Class-AAA Indianapolis, and Diaz was released by the club. The Pirates also released veteran pitcher Tyler Yates, who is still recovering from his latest elbow surgery.
• To fill the vacant slots on the 40-man roster
• Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the Pirates are interested in trying to sign free-agent pitcher Justin Duchscherer. Duchscherer missed last season after undergoing hip and elbow surgeries, as well as battling his recently-diagnosed clinical depression. Duchscherer, who has spent most of his career as a reliever, worked his way into the Oakland Athletics' rotation in 2008, and had an outstanding year, posting a 10-8 record, 2.54 ERA, and a stellar 1.0 WHIP (walks+hits/innings pitched, essentially equating to earned base runners per inning). If the Pirates manage to land Duchscherer, he'd be in for a bullpen spot -- likely long relief -- but could be pressed into rotation duty if both Kevin Hart and Daniel McCutchen fail to secure the fifth spot in the rotation. This is, of course, if Duchscherer declines the arbitration offered to him yesterday by Oakland.
• The Pirates are also rumored to be interested in Kansas City's Jamey Wright, San Francisco's Noah Lowry. ESPN's Jerry Cransick has also reported that the Pirates have inquired about free-agent reliever J.J. Putz, most recently of the Mets, and that the Toronto Blue Jays could be interested in acquiring catcher Ryan Doumit. 
• Ross Ohlendorf, the Pirates' best pitcher last season and probably the smartest guy in any Major League dugout, has spent his off-season as an unpaid intern at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
• TBS has put a merciful end to the Chip Caray era.
• Oh, and the Pirates just signed a left-handed pitcher who, according to Wikipedia, once disassembled and ate his own hat in the dugout.

We have off-season action!

The Pirates traded righty reliever Jesse Chavez to Tampa Bay for second baseman Akinori Iwamura.

The notable thing about this trade is that it's the first trade GM Neal Huntington has made that has gone against the grain of the previously established organizational philosophy of stockpiling players whose rights the organization would control for longer periods of time. Chavez, 26, did a pretty solid job out of the bullpen last year, and for whatever it's worth, he led all rookie pitchers in appearances (73). Iwamura, 30, was a fan-favorite in Tampa, but ultimately lost his job last year to injuries and the emergence of the younger and cheaper Ben Zobrist.

This will effectively relegate Delwyn Young back to a bench role -- one with which he's likely none too pleased after working his tail off to learn to play second base during the last three months of the season.

The number crunchers over at Beyond the Box Score -- a site that does some phenomenal statistical analysis of things like this -- says the Pirates came out on top in this one.

The Seattle Mariners announced today that they have signed shortstop Jack Wilson to a two-year contract after declining his 2010 option. Pirates management had been amenable to the idea of bringing Wilson back in the off-season after dealing him to Seattle in July.

As reported by both the Post-Gazette's Dejan Kovacevic and MLBTradeRumors.com's Tim Dierkes, the Pirates do intend to pursue outfielder Rick Ankiel once the free agency signing period begins.

The following Pirates players are eligible for arbitration this off-season (2008 salary in parentheses):

Closer Matt Capps ($3.05M)

Starter/reliever Jeff Karstens ($0.4015M)

Shortstop Ronny Cedeno ($0.8225M)

Starter Zach Duke ($2.2M)

And finally today, the Pirates would be open to trading Ryan Doumit. They discussed swapping either Doumit or Capps for shortstop J.J. Hardy with Milwaukee, before the Brewers ultimately traded Hardy to the Minnesota Twins for center fielder Carlos Gomez. Capps remains a candidate to be dealt, though the current market for closers is somewhat saturated.

Good day, yinzers y yinzeristas!

I'm Matt and I'm Network Pittsburgh's Pirates blogger. If all goes according to plan, this blog will be a place where you can keep up with all the collected reported goings-on with the ball club, on the field, off the field, good, bad, contentious and, if we're lucky, hilarious. 

You can reach me at wein.matthew@gmail.com, and my Twitter alias is GoneQuiet.

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