Jenifer Langosch/MLB.com

Some thoughts coming out of GM Neal Huntington’s afternoon session with the members of the Pittsburgh media:

• On whether the Pirates continue to pursue additional starters: “We’ll always continue to try and find a way to upgrade. Maybe it takes one of our established pitchers and making them available in a trade and we can acquire some prospects or acquire some other pieces for our Major League club. Maybe we can add something to our club via Major League free agency. Maybe we can add via trade.”
• On what the team is looking for as it targets starters: “At this point, we’d like to find some stability in the rotation. We need a guy who we feel comfortable with, who is going to take the ball every fifth day. You never know with pitchers. But we’ve looked at track records. And maybe there is a guy out there that’s got some upside that is coming back from injury in the last couple of years that may be a fit or maybe we have two stabilizers. We need to eat some innings. We need to lighten the load on our bullpen. We need to get deeper into the games as a rotation. We need to give ourselves some options.”
• On how he is looking to build the bullpen: “A little bit of everything. We’re exploring the free agent market. We’re exploring the trade market. We’re looking at the 4-A free agent market. We’ve got a lot of internal options as well. If we add more starters than we need, we’ve got some additional bullpen options. Maybe then that pushes a guy who has had some success as a starter, maybe it pushes him back in the bullpen again and we deepen our bullpen. Maybe it pushes some of our internal options to come into camp in a little bit better shape. Too many options is never a bad thing, and that’s where we’re trying to go. We’re trying to add depth. We’re trying to give ourselves choices to make. We love power with strikeouts, but short of that, sometimes a variety of looks and a variety of stuff can help give a manager options.”
• On whether he expects to come out of Winter Meetings with upgrade at short: “Maybe not out of the Winter Meetings. We have laid some groundwork on some things that we can improve upon defensively.”
• On Ronny Cedeno and his future: “Ronny is still the guy, but at some point you have to stop talking about potential and you have to talk about performance. We’re getting to that point with Ronny. The consistency was there for a good portion of the year. He struggled at the end, no question.”
• On whether there is still interest in re-signing Chan Ho Park: “We’re leaving the door open. There hasn’t been a ton of dialogue. Chan Ho, I think, is exploring his options. We’re exploring potential fits. With the quality of person that he is and what he did with us, absolutely have to keep an open mind to it. But I’d say things are not imminent at all.”
• On rehab status of Jose Ascanio, Jeff Clement, Steve Pearce and Kevin Hart: “Everybody is on schedule. Nobody has had any significant setback. Everyone is on schedule for where we thought they would be. As we sit here today, yes, [all will be ready for Spring Training].”
• On internal bullpen options: “I think a lot of people are beating up our bullpen because of the unknown. There is some power there. There is also some risk. It makes us feel like we don’t have to go seek an upgrade. But if there is one there that makes sense for us, we’ll certainly look.”
• On whether Sean Gallagher is projected to be a potential starter next season: “In a strange way, being able to outright Sean may actually help his career. We’d love to see him start. But he was caught in that no-man’s land of being out of options and not wanting to lose him so you keep him on the Major League club. In Sean’s case, this may actually help. We’d love to get him stretched back out. We love the arm. He started in winter ball. He wants to start. He’s going to be given every chance in the world to make our club. There is open mindset to him being  a starter.”
• On Kevin Hart’s best fit being in bullpen: “Given Kevin coming off the injury, it looks that way. It would be awfully hard to stretch him back out and expect him to eat 200 innings. We want to see where he is physically. We want to see where he is as his rehab continues to progress. Sitting here today, it’s a lot harder to envision him as a 200-inning starter next year. Maybe somewhere back down the road, but his quickest path back may be as a reliever. He’s also out of options, and that’s going to be the other challenge.”
• On discussions to re-sign Donnie Veal and Brian Burres: “Continuing good  dialogue and continuing to remain optimistic on both fronts. Nothing tangible at this point.”

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