What should the Pirates do with Correia?

Kevin Correia has been a lot of things for the Pittsburgh Pirates over the past season and two-thirds. He went from veteran innings-eater to temporary ace to All-Star. Prolonged struggles after the break last year and the A.J. Burnett acquisition in the spring meant that he was potentially becoming little more than rotation depth. After some early-season rough patches this year, he settled in as a solid back-end starter who kept his team in the game. It was a mild surprise he stuck in the rotation over Brad Lincoln when Jeff Karstens got healthy, but it was no surprise to anyone following this team that he was eventually bumped to the bullpen when GM Neal Huntington acquired Houston ace Wandy Rodriguez via trade. Now, he sports a new title: malcontent.

Certainly, Kevin Correia has every right to be disappointed about his move to the pen, but since it's the right move for this team and since it provides rotation depth with the promise of spot-starts during a brutal stretch of games without a breather in August, you'd hope that he would eventually move past it and work hard to help this team make the playoffs. After all, isn't that why you play the game: to win? Isn't the goal to find an opportunity to make the playoffs and fight for a spot in the World Series? Perhaps not for everyone. Correia is a free agent after this year and he knows the demotion to the pen will likely decrease his market value. He would rather start for a non-contender than be the swing man for a contender because he wants other teams to think of him as an effective starting option once his contract expires. To that end, he has requested a trade from the Pirates.

So, given all of that, what should the Pirates do with their discontented pitcher? Well, the best-case scenario at this point would be to include him in a trade for a major-league player who's going to help the team this year. Despite trading away some of our rotation depth by including Rudy Owens in the Wandy Rodriguez deal, we still have Jeff Locke in AAA, plus Brad Lincoln in the major league bullpen. If it came to that, I'd prefer to give Locke a shot since Lincoln has been lights-out in the bullpen and has shown the ability to succeed in late-inning pressure situations.

Beyond that scenario, I'd keep Correia as depth and hope his attitude improves. He has the potential to be a good long man (though he struggled mightily in his first bullpen appearance yesterday) and, as previously mentioned, the Pirates have a lot of games in August without an off-day, so spot-starts are a real possibility. It's just not likely that the Pirates will be able to get anything of equivalent value for Correia on the market since he's a back-of-the-rotation starter whose contract expires at the end of the season. If the choice is between getting a Grade C prospect in a trade or keeping Correia, I'd definitely keep him. If Correia's attitude gets worse, though, it may force Huntington's hand.