The Pirates have claimed right-hander Sean Poppen off waivers from the Twins, Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic tweets. Pittsburgh designated infielder/outfielder JT Riddle for assignment in a corresponding move.
Poppen, whom the Twins designated earlier this week, saw brief action with the team in each of the past two seasons, but the 26-year-old Harvard alumnus struggled along the way. He’ll join the Pirates with a 6.19 ERA (but a far better 3.33 FIP), 10.69 K/9, 5.06 BB/9 and a 48.8 percent groundball rate over 16 big league innings. Poppen was effective during his Triple-A debut a year ago, though, as he threw 61 innings of 3.84 ERA/3.92 FIP ball, notched 10.03 K/9 against 3.98 BB/9, and posted an excellent 56.9 GB percentage.
Riddle joined the Pirates on an $850K deal last offseason after logging significant at-bats with the Marlins from 2017-19. The 28-year-old recorded a woeful line with the Bucs, hitting .149/.174/.224 with one home run and a 4 wRC+ in 69 plate appearances. Overall, Riddle has batted .222/.261/.355 with 19 HRs through 787 PA in the majors.
DarkSide830
suprised he made it through the whole AL
JonnyMLB
Waiver claim order is based on record with no preference to league starting last year
DarkSide830
source? not saying you are wrong, but i haven’t been able to find anything online to that effect.
JonnyMLB
thecubreporter.com/07052019/two-2019-mlb-rules-changes-note
JonnyMLB
Second section, 4th paragraph. If the link doesn’t work, my apologies. I am an old man trying to learn new things.
JonnyMLB
thecubreporter.com/07052019/two-2019-mlb-rules-cha…
Mendoza Line 215
Jonny-You are not an old man if you still love baseball like you did when you were a little kid.
On the other hand,you are an old man with computers if you are over 35.
sch1989 2
I think he could end up being the Sam Howard of the team next year IF he makes it all offseason on the 40 man.
bobtillman
He hasn’t logged a lot of innings, so I guess you can say he’s Poppen fresh.
leefieux
Lol
tim815
d’oh
Monkey’s Uncle
Things are Poppen in Pittsburgh today.
leefieux
Just another mediocre RP. Cherington has his work cut out.
meadowlark96
His stats are definitely not eye poppen
flansbaum
Just another dumpster dive. When will it end?
Mendoza Line 215
I reviewed their 40 man roster and they are going to have to get rid of a lot of guys if they want to abide by the rules and get to 40 with the DL guys coming off it.
I had it at 40 or 41 with just the guys that they have with reductions for guys like Riddle.
clemente3000
There are several that they could get rid of that would not be a big deal. There are several JT Riddle like.
Mendoza Line 215
I think Archer,Bashlor,Neverauskas,Holland,Rios,Murphy,Kramer,and Martin are all gone,plus a couple more.Those named above will not hurt but any more will be cutting some potentia,if only small amounts.
I think that they should resign Kela to have him and Burdi and Rodriguez act as closers.Shelton is afraid to pitch any of these three on back to back days,nor before the ninth inning when another reliever screws up.
Goku the Knowledgable One
What’s archer’s option? Like 11 Mil?
If hes flipped at the trade deadline, what’re they on the hook for? 7.5 Mil ?
I’d say its worth it