Giants trade RHP Morris to Pirates for OF Davis

LOS ANGELES (TICKER) —The San Francisco Giants traded veteran righthander Matt Morris to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday for outfielder Rajai Davis and a player to be named.

Morris, who made his final start in a Giants uniform Sunday vs. the Florida Marlins, owns a 7-7 mark with a 4.35 ERA in 21 starts for the Giants this season. He is in the second year of a three-year deal worth $27 million.

“Matt brings a veteran presence and durability to our rotation that should complement our current group of young starters,” Pirates general manager David Littlefield said.

Pittsburgh has some talented young starters in Tom Gorzelanny, Ian Snell, Paul Maholm and Zach Duke - none over 25 years of age. Ironically, the youth movement in San Francisco made Morris expendable. Righthanders Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain along with lefthander Noah Lowry and Jonathan Sanchez - all but Lowry younger than 25 years of age.

An All-Star in 2001-02, Morris is 118-84 in his 10-year career with a 3.83 ERA over 291 big league games - 260 starts.

Since 2001, only Roy Oswalt (108) and Greg Maddux (100) have won more games in the majors than Morris (96), who spent the first eight seasons of his career before signing with the Giants as a free agent on October 28, 2005.

The 26-year-old Davis is hitting .271 (13-for-48) with two doubles, two RBI and five stolen bases in 24 games for the Pirates. The righthanded hitting speedster was recalled from Class AAA Indianapolis on June 5 and made 12 starts in center field for Pittsburgh.