Jun 27, 2013 By John Perrotto for The 3 min read

It is easy to have trust issues with the Pirates after 20 consecutive losing seasons and years of putting profits ahead of wins.

However, the Pirates must be taken at their word when they talk about pitching phenom Gerrit Cole’s immediate future and how money will have nothing to do with it.

Cole is going to be optioned back to Class AAA Indianapolis when the Pirates’ top two starting pitchers, A.J. Burnett and Wandy Rodriguez, return from the disabled list, unless something unforeseen happens. General manager Neal Huntington has been very open about that being the plan.

The first thought, with this being the Pirates, is they will save money in the long term by sending Cole down. If he spends as much as just another week in the minor leagues then he almost certainly won’t accrue enough major-league service time this season to become eligible for salary arbitration after the 2015.

Pushing Cole’s eligibility back a year will save the Pirates millions.

Yet Huntington says money is not the issue and so does owner Bob Nutting. It’s easier to believe Huntington, though, because rather than winning, is what makes Nutting’s world go round.

From a pure baseball standpoint, though, it seems to make no sense to demote Cole.

He is the first Pirates pitcher to win each of his first three major-league starts since Myrl Brown in 1922. Cole also gives the Pirates’ star power by lighting up the radar gun with a fastball that is averaging 97 mph, according to BrooksBaseball.net.

However, the Pirates have logjam of starting pitching, putting them in a vastly different situation than most seasons when they have given opportunities to one rumdum after another.

Even without Burnett and Rodriguez, the Pirates have a solid rotation as left-handers Jeff Locke and Francisco Liriano have exceeded expectations and right-handers Charlie Morton and Jeanmar Gomez have been serviceable.

Of those seven, just Cole and Locke have minor-league options remaining and the rest would have to be exposed to waivers it he Pirate tried to send them to the minor leagues.

Locke isn’t going anywhere and Gomez pitched well in long relief early this season. Thus, Cole is the odd man out, and it does make sense from a roster management standpoint.

Pitching depth is the biggest reason why the Pirates entered Wednesday with the second-best record in the major leagues. They have reached that height while using 11 starting pitchers.

What the Pirates need to do with that pitching depth is leverage it. While Cole toils at Indianapolis, the Pirates should look to trade one of their other starters for a real major-league right fielder.

That way, they can fill the biggest hole on the roster and have their most exciting pitching prospect in more than the resultant whole in the rotation.

Do that and a team already 18 games over .500 will look even more like a legitimate contender.