The Pirates have designated reliever Ernesto Frieri for assignment, Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports on Twitter. Frieri, 29, came to Pittsburgh in a swap of struggling closers at the end of June.
While his trade counterpart, Jason Grilli, has thrived in his new environs, Frieri has continued to struggle since the swap. Frieri has allowed 12 earned runs in 10 2/3 frames with the Bucs, while striking out ten and walking five batters. Frieri had at least shown with the Angels that he was still capable of missing bats (11.0 K/9) and limiting walks (2.6 BB/9), even if the results were still poor, but obviously those marks too have taken a downturn.
Frieri is earning $3.8MM in his first year of arbitration eligibility. This likely means two things: First, he seems fairly likely to get through waivers, and the Pirates could well welcome a claim anyway. And if he is instead stashed at Triple-A for the time being, Frieri will likely end up as a non-tender after the season.
I guess the Angels officially won that trade.
Yeah, maybe, but it wasn’t like Grilli was going to turn it around here anyways. He was a change of scenery candidate if there ever was one.
Honestly we would have won even if we just let go of Freiri. Looks like Pirates still got a minor victory.
They did, but I don’t think too many Pirate fans regret the deal that much (except for the part about getting Frieri). Grilli was an absolute mess and probably needed to start over elsewhere. The Bucs were trading a 37 year old for a 28 year old. The trade made a whole lot of sense… it just happened to not work out at all.
Punishment for getting Cutch injured?
More like punishment for just being terrible. He’s gotten progressively worse (granted limited inning sample) since coming over from the Angels
Does not surprise me … Needed a roster spot for Pedro & could not see either Martinez or Nix being designated for assignment
certainly not as long as Neil Walker is still out
About time. Not that Frieri still can’t be salvaged and would be a good option for rebuilding teams to take a chance on, the Pirates are just in too good of a division to have a reclamation project in the pen
About time, Frieri is terrible, one of the most overpaid guys in baseball.
He certainly make much more than he is worth, but he is nowhere near the Vernon Wells/Ryan Howard range or even in the Edwin Jackson range. He is more of the Bobby Bonilla range, getting paid $1.2M a year until 2035 to watch the Mets from his couch
Had to happen. Frieri has just been an absolute disaster.
Too late. Trade cost them ‘Cutch.
Grilli lost the closer’s role with the Pirates. But i didnt want him to be traded. Nice to see him doing well with the Angels. Frieri was doing equally bad on both teams he got a good fastball but has no control what so ever. I dont know why NH chose to trade Grilli to get him but a new team doesnt fix a bad pitcher. Thankfully he’s gone but NH messed up this year by getting rid of 2 good bullpen pieces in Grilli and Bryan Morris.
Gee, Grilli was just as bad with worse peripherals, but a change of scenery benefited him, just as it did around this time two short years ago.
Burnett went more than a year without a win, but a change of scenery benefited him.
Two teams wanted rid of Liriano, but a change of scenery benefited him.
Grilli is old. Frieri is in his prime. Both were struggling. Grilli was in the last year of his contract. Frieri still has two arbitration years. It made sense. Frieri had a few terrible outings but also some good ones. They at worst will non-tender him in the off-season.
Morris was a mop-up guy with not much stamina who posed as a mediocre reliever. He’s dime-a-dozen and the Marlins gave a high draft pick for him.
What else ya got, yinzer?
I think Frieri will turn into James McDonald. Nobody wants him.
Pssst… Theo…
We’ll take Straily or Turner and you can have Frieri. Good luck.
Wonder if the Arizona Diamondbacks will pick up Ernesto Frieri?
The DBacks can have him. I have zero respect for them after the McCutchen incident so they can go ahead and have more terrible pitching, if they want.
And I’m not a Pirates fan, by the way haha
*Tabernacle choir begins singing the Hallelujah chorus*
Well, that trade didn’t work out for Pittsburgh.
No, it DID work out for Pittsburgh. They don’t have Grilli (win) and now they don’t have Frieri (win). It’s a win-win trade. Now if they can pull of the same thing with Alvarez…
Frieri’s stuff is still very good, he just completely lost control of it somewhere along the line. He *could* possibly find it again, but he needs some minor league time to figure it out.
He’s got Dombrowski written all over him. Hannrahan, Johnson,… Frieri?
Detroit doesn’t need anymore “washed up closers” Their current one (Nathan)
fits that description. Almost blew another save last night.
It’s the right move. If by some odd chance a team decides to take a flier on Frieri at $3.8m, have at it. If not, he goes to Indy and tries to work it out. I still think he has potential in the future, just needs to clear his head for a while and get back on track. He’s got a few years of control, so maybe the trip down will get him on track for 2015, or maybe he end up released. Either way, it was a trade that needed to happen and I’m glad Grilli is doing well out there. He’s an awesome guy and just needed a change of scenery. You won’t hear one real Pirates fan say a bad word about Grilli, he was such a huge part of the turnaround here.
so this is the Pirates big move
9 games above .500…1st WC as of 8/9, 1.5 out of first in central…sure seems like a team that needed a “big” move. What current ML ballplayers did you want to trade for David Price? It’s been said around the industry that teams were wanting ML players for ML players…I’m all about bashing the management when it comes to Free Agency and not spending…but we don’t have the players right now if teams want established ML players for established ML players.
Why don’t they pick up someone like Chone Figgins far cry better then Michael “Can’t hit” Martinez
Angels suffered through Scott Kazmir being terrible and released him and enjoyed Frieri being terrific his first year with them. I don’t get it but I would bet Frieri is effective again. When and who deals with it in the mean time is for others to figure out.