The Pirates have claimed righty Jorge Rondon off waivers from the Orioles, according to the MLB.com transactions page. Rondon, 27, was designated recently to create 40-man space.
Interestingly, Rondon lost his spot with Baltimore to make way for the team’s claim of fellow right-hander Vance Worley from Pittsburgh. The result is a more-or-less direct swap of those two players.
Rondon carried a 2.23 ERA over 60 2/3 innings at Triple-A last year, with 7.4 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9. He was once rated among the top thirty prospects of the Cardinals, and has a track record of solid, if unspectacular, numbers in the minors.
In a rather small sample at the big league level, though, Rondon has struggled. He allowed ten earned runs in just two appearances in Colorado, and permitted eleven more in his 13 1/3 frames with the O’s. In his 15 1/3 total MLB innings, Rondon has struck out only nine batters while walking ten and surrendering 28 hits.
O’s get a possible bottom of rotation or long relief guy that is fairly cheap (for a starter not relief) who fell out of favor with coaches and some fans in Pittsburgh after complaining about this role.
Pirates get a player who probably won’t cut it beyond AAA.
If it where a trade.. not the worst possible trade. considering the pirates probably saved ~2mil/year.