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Liriano deal had to be done this way

PITTSBURGH – This is likely how things happened:

In the run-up to Monday’s 4 p.m. trading deadline, Pirates general manager Neal Huntington gathered his staff and asked a simple question:

“Is this team a championship contender in 2016?”

The answer was probably a resounding “no,” confirming what Huntington already knew.

So while they didn’t overtly give up on this season, they started making moves for next season.

The biggest, and most controversial move, was sending Francisco Liriano to Toronto with prospects Harold Ramirez and Reese McGuire, for pitcher Drew Hutchison. Is Hutchison that good? It wouldn’t appear so. He has major league experience, but he’s pitching at Class AAA, and the Pirates plan to keep him at that level.

The priority here was getting rid of Liriano’s remaining contract obligation. With the rest of this year and next year, that’s somewhere around $17 million. In order to take that on, Toronto demanded the two prospects. To dump a $13 million albatross from next year’s budget, Huntington agreed.

The Pirates are well-stocked in the outfield, but that doesn’t negate the fact that Ramirez could have been dealt for something rather than relief from Liriano’s contract.

McGuire was the team’s first-round draft choice in 2013. He’s considered an excellent defensive catcher, but there are major questions about his ability to hit.

In the short term, the Pirates are OK at catcher with Francisco Cervelli and Chris Stewart signed for next season, and Elias Diaz prepared to move up soon.

Liriano’s career has run hot and cold. He’s been awful this year, one of the worst starting pitchers in the major leagues. With an abundance of pitching prospects on hand, it’s not wrong to give up on Liriano at this point.

The other deals are less stress-inducing.

n Starter Ivan Nova comes from the New York Yankees to help stabilize the rotation for the rest of this season. The Yankees will choose two players (probably B-grade prospects) from a list the Pirates make available.

n Jon Niese goes back to the Mets, and Antonio Bastardo comes back to the Pirates.

Niese was a disappointment who had recently been banished to the bullpen with no hope of parole.

It’s hard to figure what went wrong. He had a profile as a ground ball pitcher and he was coming to a park that favors lefthanded pitchers. He somehow wound up leading the league in allowing home runs until his innings were cut back.

People are saying the Pirates traded Neil Walker for Bastardo, but that’s not accurate. Niese wasn’t good, but he won eight games while he was here and ate 110 innings.

So now the starting rotation will be shaped with an eye on 2017. Opportunities abound, and there are plenty of young pitchers to compete for the spots.

Without the burden of Lirianio’s contract, the Pirates can also trade for at least one starter in the offseason.

It was a dizzying day, with a major hidden meaning behind at least one of the deals, the one with Toronto.

That’s baseball in this era, where revenue potential is so radically different.

Cold reality is he Pirates are getting poor production from center field (Andrew McCutchen), third base (Jung Ho Kang) and first base (John Jaso). David Freese can only cover one of the corner positions at a time. They’re also below expectations offensively at second base (Josh Harrison) and catcher (Cervelli).

They have no chance to win the division. They have little chance to overtake St. Louis and Los Angeles for a wild card spot.

They’re unlikely to win this year. Nobody has to like that it, but it would be foolish not to confront that truth.

If you’re not a championship level team in 2016, better start working on 2017.

Mehno can be reached at johnmehnocolumn@gmail.com

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