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Neal Huntington: '2 Fringe Prospects' May Have Been Better Pickup Than Niese

PITTSBURGH (93-7 The Fan) – Pirates General Manager Neal Huntington joined "The Fan Morning Show" on Friday as the second half of the season is about to begin.

Huntington shed some light on the team's latest plans for the starting rotation and explained why Tyler Glasnow will come out of the All-Star Break in Triple-A.

"Glasnow was optioned to add Josh Bell, and there's a provision that provides that you cannot recall a player within ten days unless he's replacing somebody on the disabled list," Huntington said. "Two, we like Chad Kuhl, and believe that he can help us as a quality pitcher, whether it's a starter for the rest of this year or we have guys ahead of him."

When will Glasnow be back up, though?

"We'll see how the rotation shakes out," Huntington said. "Again, he was optioned on [July 8] for [Bell], so in theory, he could come back on the [July 19]. At the same time, again, we want to take this opportunity to get Tyler back on track in terms of pitching consistency, and with all the off days, we're going to juggle this rotation and move some things around."

"We do anticipate that Tyler will help us again at some point this summer, and we'll announce the rotation as things progress. We'll see how things go and how we align this rotation coming out of Washington, and then coming out of the Milwaukee series as well."

Huntington admitted that he's having second thoughts about trading Neil Walker for Jon Niese last offseason, saying that he probably would have been better off acquiring a couple unremarkable prospects instead of Niese.

"We felt that that was our best return, and it has not played out that way, and that's a challenge," Huntington said. "We own that. We accept that."

"In hindsight, maybe the two fringe prospects and trying to figure out where to reallocate the money (that Niese is getting) might have been a better return."

"It did not work out to this point in time," Huntington said. "There are some things that we're working to try to help Jon. He's working on some things at the same time. We'll continue to push forward with him and then see how he can continue to help this club."

Huntington said that there's a lot that goes into managing a rotation this deep, more than most fans can appreciate.

"[It's] unlike fantasy baseball, or unlike when you play PlayStation, or Xbox," Huntington said. "There's no human element to engage in those situations, about keeping guys ready, about keeping guys sharp, and that does present a series of challenges to us…we've got the first three established. We're looking forward to coming out of the off day on Monday and, assuming everything's ready to go with Jameson Taillon, getting him back in there sometime in the Milwaukee series…we'll juggle some things, move some things around, try to keep the guys that are the core on track, and then get creative outside of that."

The interview can be heard here:

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