According to Jennifer Langosch of MLB.com, there is less than a 50% chance Paul Maholm returns to the Pirates next season although she’s not ruling it out just yet.

Langosch says that even though Maholm has expressed interest in negotiating a new multi-year deal with the team, they haven’t approached the idea to him. With a slim pitching market this season, an experienced left handed pitcher like Maholm would probably find some good offers.

The lack of interest from the Pirates could be a sign that they’re ready to “move on” says Langosch. She says that if the team was interested in him they would have contacted him before the rest of the league was allowed to do it.

Maholm was 6-14 with a 3.66 ERA in 162.1 innings with the Pirates in 2011.

Image by pmreddick under the Creative Commons License.