This is what Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun wrote this afternoon:
Right-handed pitcher Edwin Jackson, the best free agent remaining on the market, is much more likely to accept a one-year deal and test free agency again after the 2012 season than to ink a multiyear contract, according to an industry source.
And that almost certainly would take Jackson out of the running to come to Baltimore since free-agent pitchers coveting one-year, value-improving deals don’t usually seek out last-place American League East teams or hitter-friendly environments.
You can pretty much replace “Orioles” with “Pirates” in that last line and save the part about the AL East, it would hold true. Jackson, being just 28 right now, can certainly hope that a good season increases his value a bit more over the winter. And I can’t imagine that he’d want that one-year deal to increase his value to be in Pittsburgh. Maybe the Pirates could’ve signed Jackson for something close to his initial asking price (five years/$60 million), but I’ve said in the past that I think a five year deal for Jackson is a risky proposition for the Pirates.
It’s an interesting market for free agent pitchers this winter: a lot of guys have ended up taking quite a bit less than they’re worth because the market is bad, but once guys get cheap enough to put them into the Pirates’ range, very few of those players are actually interesting in taking that money from the Pirates.
