A year and a half ago pitcher Drew Hutchison was called by Pirates GM Neal Huntington as being a “very nice complement to Gerrit Cole” for the present and future.

Hutchison for now will be a nice piece for the Philadelphia Phillies to throw batting practice this spring.

Hutchison, 27, who elected free agency in October, is out of the Pirates organization and today inked a minor league contract with the Phillies.

For the Pirates, the Francisco Liriano trade that also included OF Harold Ramirez, catcher Reese McGuire going to Toronto, didn’t exactly pan out for the organization despite the Pirates believing they had something in Hutchison.


Huntington on Hutchison (July 31, 2016): “Our scouts have liked him a lot in the past; we believe his surface numbers are not reflective of the potential,” Huntington said. “We’ve got multiple years of contribution from Drew. He’s a very nice complement to Gerrit Cole and all the young arms that we have in the rotation as we go forward.”

Huntington on Hutchison (August 6, 2016): “Our scouts like his indicators. We love his pitch mix, and love the stuff. We look at Toronto, we would take any four of their primary starters and plug them right in. Then you have a guy like Dickey, who could be an effective starter on many tams. It wasn’t like this guy was pitching behind a bad starting rotation. So, as we looked forward, we see Hutchison being able to help us this year if needed. We are in a transition in our rotation, and he will be given a look.”