Pirates Trade Rumors: Pittsburgh Should Scale Back Demand for Kevin Correia

After the Pittsburgh Pirates traded for Wandy Rodriguez, someone in the starting rotation had to be sent to the bullpen to make room.

That someone was right-hander Kevin Correia, and he's apparently unhappy about it.

Correia recently said, per Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, "I want to start. For that to happen, I’ll have to go someplace else."

Pirates general manager Neil Huntington recently told Michael Sanserino of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he would prefer to hang on to Correia to maintain depth or in case of an injury to one of the starters.

On the other hand, he also said he would be "open" to trading Correia, per Sanserino. 

The only thing is, Huntington is asking for a whole lot for a guy who has a 4.49 ERA on the season.

Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com tweeted on Sunday:

"

hear #pirates have put a high price tag on kevin correia (8-6, 4.24), one of the better pitchers ever bounced to the pen

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) July 29, 2012"

Cue sarcasm here.

Correia not only has a 4.59 ERA for his career, in his first relief appearance of the season for Pittsburgh on Sunday, he gave up four runs in two innings against the Houston Astros.

Correia isn't a good enough pitcher to be placing a high price tag on. On top of that, it's already evident by now that he'd be unhappy in a relief role this season, judging by his comments and his performance on Sunday.

And Correia would actually have good reason to be unhappy. The 31-year-old becomes a free agent after this season. He has more value if he performs well the rest of this season as a starting pitcher than if he's relegated to the bullpen.

In that sense, it behooves the Pirates to move Correia before the trade deadline, at any cost. The last thing they need is a disgruntled player down the stretch in a winning season for them so far.

Follow me on Twitter. We can talk about baseball together.