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The Pirates have signed reliever Daniel Hudson to a 2-year, $11 million deal, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports. Hudson passed a physical Monday.
Hudson is the latest reliever to get a multi-year guarantee on the free-agent market, joining Mike Dunn, Junichi Tazawa and Brad Ziegler, who came off the board last week. Passan reports that the Yankees, Dodgers and Rays were among the other teams who showed interest in Hudson, who was widely viewed as a strong bounce-back candidate.
Hudson will join Tony Watson, Felipe Rivero, Juan Nicasio, Antonio Bastardo and Jared Hughes in Pittsburgh’s bullpen, taking the place of free agent Neftali Feliz, who is expected to sign elsewhere. Hudson is the first offseason addition for the Pirates, who have already lost Sean Rodriguez, Matt Joyce and Jeff Locke to free agency.
Hudson, 29, ended last season with a 5.22 ERA in 60.1 innings for the Diamondbacks after allowing 31 earned runs in a 9.2 inning stretch over five weeks. As Passan notes, his ERA for the other 50.2 innings of his season was 1.60, leading many clubs to believe that he would be an effective reliever in the future.
Hudson, who underwent Tommy John surgery twice and appeared in only 12 games from 2012 to 2014, is the owner of a career 35-23 record and 3.94 ERA in seven major-league seasons with the White Sox (2009-10) and Diamondbacks (2010-16).