The Rays have released right-hander Daniel Hudson, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. Hudson had been acquired in the trade that sent Corey Dickerson to the Pirates earlier in the winter.

With the decision, the Rays will remain on the hook for Hudson’s $5.5MM salary — less the $1MM that the Pirates sent with him. That means the Tampa Bay organization could have saved a fair bit more by simply cutting Dickerson loose — though they also added young infielder Tristan Gray in that exchange.

Hudson, 31, may have started out in the Rays’ plans but turned in a wild spring. He coughed up nine earned runs on eight hits and five walks over his 5 1/3 Grapefruit League innings.

That showing came on the heels of a middling 2017 season in which Hudson contributed 61 2/3 innings of 4.38 ERA ball while compiling 9.6 K/9 and 4.8 BB/9. Hudson still worked in the 95 to 96 mph range and carried a 12.1% swinging-strike rate, but obviously the Pirates were hoping for better results when they gave him a two-year guarantee.