The Pirates and right-hander Tyler Chatwood are in agreement on a minor league deal, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Chatwood will presumably receive an invite to major league Spring Training.
Chatwood, 33, spent many years as a starting pitcher but seemed to hit a wall in 2018. He signed a three-year deal with the Cubs going into that season but posted a 5.30 ERA while walking an incredible 19.5% of the batters he faced. Since that time, he’s transitioned into more relief work, with an encouraging increase in strikeouts but without putting the control issues behind him.
In 2019, he made five starts for the Cubs but 33 relief appearances. He got his ERA down to 3.76 for the year while striking out 22.8% of the batters he faced. That rate was just a bit below league average but was a huge improvement for him personally, as he’d come in under 20% in all seven of his previous seasons. He still walked 11.4% of batters faced but proved he could be effective around those free passes.
2020 was a bit of a step back, as he made five starts around a couple of trips to the injured list and finished with a 5.30 ERA. The Blue Jays took a shot on him for 2021, signing him to a one-year deal and installing him in their bullpen. He made 30 relief appearances and increased his strikeout rate to 25.6% but walked 16% of batters faced, leading to a 5.46 ERA. He was designated for assignment and latched on with the Giants, making two further appearances before getting the DFA treatment again.
For 2022, Chatwood went to Japan to join the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball. He made six appearances for their minor league team, logging 24 1/3 innings, before shoulder surgery in June wiped out the rest of his season. He’ll be a real wild card for the Pirates given the shoulder surgery and his previous control issues, but a minor league deals means there’s essentially no risk for the club. Given Pittsburgh’s ongoing rebuild, Chatwood would likely turn into a deadline trade chip if he can return to health and get into a nice groove this year.
He had a couple of elite years in 2013, 2016, and 2019. 2017 was pretty good too, given pitching environment. But now, his control issues are awful. He is like Cody Buckell kind of (former top 100 MLB prospect on the Rangers who would have been traded for Justin Upton a while ago).
Cody Buckel is a name I haven’t heard in a long time, wow
Great response to the Mets signing.
Agreed…and certainly less risky.
The Bucs lost 11 players to the Rule 5 draft but only took 4 so they have 7 more players that will need to either be signed to a minor league contract or promoted from their rookie camp before the start of next season
Minor league Rule 5… big difference. And they let all those fringe-y minor leaguers go so Bottom Line Bob could collect the $24,500 for each lost player.
they still have to add 7 minor league, and that was my point
Should keep Seven Springs open another year
What is the connection here?
As I said in a previous thread, the Pirates now have a large number of pitchers at the MLB level and on the cusp in the minors. I’m just hopeful that management makes good decisions as the season nears
Speaks Entish.
This comment is under-rated and well designed. Kudos.
95% of the low brows on here wont make the connection.
He got the yips
Bucks new #1 starter
Naw. Won’t fit in with Giannis
Chatwood to zGiannis,….Good
If he can’t rediscover his pitching ability, he could always try to DH. He was a pretty decent hitter/baserunner for the Cubs.
I think you’re onto something there. Chatwood can DH for Austin Hedges. He’s arguably a better hitter than Hedges.
My mom, may she RIP,is a better hitter than Hedges
As a Mets fan back to the 1970s, it’s fun to watch Mets’ ownership spend Monopoly money now, but I probably enjoyed baseball as a whole more when teams like Pittsburgh, Oakland, Cincinnatti, and Kansas City were always in the playoff hunt.
If Ray Searage was still the pitching coach in Pittsburgh this could be a deal where you would be excited to see if he could work his magic and make something of Chatwood as he did many times before. Now it’s just a “meh” signing, but interesting to see if Chatwood has anything left in the tank
Ray Searage helped AJ Burnett, Nelson Liriano and Jason Grilli resurrect their careers but no one else.
By the time Nutting started trading away their better players, Searage couldn’t work any more of his magic
So maybe it wasn’t his magic as much as it was the potential of those pitchers mentioned
Francisco Liriano lol
Liriano won 16 games in his first season with the Bucs and was the NL Comeback Player of the Year
Volquez and Melancon were successes too. Plus a whole bunch of lesser known bullpen guys during those 3 good years.
Volquez and Melancon too
Out of all the guys I faced in high school and college chatwood was the nastiest kid I faced. I
Hope he can regain his form, stay healthy and be productive. Goodluck
No risk…all reward. You want to stay in MLB? Here’s your chance. Although the current version of the Pirates barely qualifies.
The Bucs have a better team than you’re giving them credit for, alwaysgo4two.
It’s now a matter of the players maturing
In 2021 when he was on the Jays, the dude was virtually unhittable for the first six weeks or so of the season and was actually being deployed in save situations. After that, however, the wheels completely fell off – I’ve never seen one pitcher give up so many bases loaded walks in such a short period of time.
Rick Ankiel comes to mind. In Pittsburgh, we had Steve Blass. You had to feel for these guys. Ankiel called it “the yips”
Anxiety issue that came out of nowhere
except Blass in his prime was a far better pitcher than Ankiel ever was
Exactly. Ankiel was a kid who was just getting to the majors. Blass was established, a WS champion and star. But the mind governs the body, whether in a conscious or subconscious manner
Low risk signing and if he could get his control sorted out would look like a genius. Watched him with the Jays and have nightmares about the games he blew for us. Most likely this is his last stop before retirement
Wow
Don’t you mean WP.
Never has a player walked in more winning runs than Tyler Chatwood.
He makes 18 starts, gets flipped at the deadline and signs a 2 year 28 million deal next winter.
And by the Cubs no less. They certainly have thrown a ton of money down the cliff in recent years
Love it.
Kind of nuts this guy ever got 3/$38M from the cubs. I know hindsight is 20/20 but even after his last year with the Rockies before they signed him, that seems like a terrible deal.
In any case, not expecting anything here.