The Pirates have selected the contract of left-handed pitcher Rob Zastryzny from Triple-A Indianapolis, the team has announced. To make room on the 26-man roster, they have optioned right-handed pitcher Yohan Ramirez to Triple-A. In addition, to open up a spot on the 40-man roster, left-hander Angel Perdomo has been transferred to the 60-day IL.
Zastryzny, 31, signed a minor league deal with the Bucs in the offseason and cracked the Opening Day roster. He’s been on and off the roster since then, having twice landed on the injured list, once due to discomfort in his throwing elbow and another due to forearm inflammation. He made 18 appearances around those trips to the injured list with a 5.29 earned run average and was designated for assignment at the end of his second IL stint.
He cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A. He has thrown 16 1/3 innings at that level this year with a 4.41 ERA but better peripherals. He has struck out 23.9% of opponents while issuing walks at a tiny 1.5% rate and keeping the ball on the ground at a 45.8% clip, leading to a 2.80 FIP at that level. That will get him another shot on the big league roster on a non-competitive Pirates club. He has between one and two years of service time, meaning he’s yet to reach arbitration and can be cheaply retained by the Bucs for future seasons, but he’s out of options and will need to stay on the active roster or else be removed from the 40-man again.
Perdomo, 29, landed on the injured list just a few days ago due to left elbow discomfort. The club hasn’t released any specifics on his condition but it seems it’s serious enough that they don’t expect him back this season, as this transfer eliminates any chance of him returning before the middle of October. He posted a 3.72 ERA in 29 innings this year, striking out 37.6% of hitters while walking 9.4%. Like Zastryzny, he has less than two years of service time and can be cheaply retained for next year if the Bucs so choose, but he’s also out of options.
They should be optioning hitting coach Andy Haines to the garbage pit instead.
With only 30 some games remaining, hopefully the last game of the season is also his last day as employed by the Bucs
They are last or close to it in average, runs scored and home runs
Perdomo has been a pretty solid pick-up. For a minor league signee, you can do a lot worse than a 123 ERA+ and 3.03 FIP.
While they are dumping Haines, take Shelton along for the proverbial ride
The current hottest player on the team, Andrew McCutcheon, is not playing in tonight’s game against the Cubs.
SMH
Thankfully the Steelers are also playing tonight
It would at least give us some hope for next year if Shelton and Haines were relieved of their duties before the season ends.
The bucs aren’t putting their best 9 out there. Rob Z opening tonight is not a competitive ML pitcher. Shouldn’t be on the roster. Rivas and Capra should not be on the field. Will be in last place by end of weekend
I did not get. a good feeling when I saw Perdomo’s and Carmen M’s injury locations.
Shelton and Haines should have been gone this time last year but in Shelton’s defense he has no starting pitchers which is not on him.
Not having legitimate starting pitchers doesn’t excuse Shelton using has beens or never will be’s in his starting lineup day after day.
Endy has played first base in the minors so on games he’s not catching, he should be at first.
Capra is not part of the future, he should only be used as a late inning replacement
Rivas is also not part of this team’s future and surprisingly or maybe not, Suwinski hasn’t played in any capacity in the last 4 games
Not even as a pinch hitter or defensive replacement
This is a Cherington’s screwup.
First of all,the hitters aren’t getting better because of Haines.That is totally on Cherington who does many things well but cannot manage his employees.An article a few days ago said that Haines tells everyone to take pitches.Is this why Suwinski looks at so many called strike threes and is walking away from the plate before the umpire makes the call.
Suwinski isn’t playing because he strikes out too much and has lost his confidence just like last year.He was bad in AAA last year when sent down and is one of many like Davis who should have played there in order to get better.
The biggest failure of Cherington this year has been not bringing a first baseman up who has almost a 1000 OPS in AAA at a position that is desperately needed by the Pirates.
Cherington does some of the tough parts of being a GM well but his blind spots have become obvious to me and several other posters.
Okay the offensive failures are on Cherington and Haines, you don’t think Shelton offers his opinions to both?
And not every player takes pitches, I’ve seen guys swinging at first pitches and doing so often. Endy, Hayes and Reynolds in particular but I do agree, Andujar should be on the parent club and since they traded Choi and Santana
Hayes and Reynolds are more established hitters.
Endy and Peguero are aggressive hitters.
Anyone who has followed Pirate articles and posts over the last several years knows that I am not a Shelton fan.As a former hitting instructor he should know what he is doing better than Cherington.All I am saying is at this late point he is not the only culprit.It is a triumvirate,but Haines‘ main job is to get these young players hitting.
If Cherington is too stupid to fire Shelton then he ought to at least fire Haines.
Like yesterday.
Like after the 2022 season. They wasted a yeat’s worth of progress on the core players of this team
I totally disagree on Mendoza blaming cherington for everything. Only thing I blame him for is hiring a total moron as a manager. I don’t blame him for not firing the moron, that’s on NUTting. He doesn’t want to pay 2 managers not to manage.
The MORON is to blame. And I hear people saying, well if only he had the players. That’s BS. The MORON could have 25 Clemente’s and he would finish 20 games under.
I hear people say, well his pitching sucks. Injuries hurt the pirates pitching staff. But that doesn’t mean that is no excuse for the MORON. Tonight he’s playing Achilles heel Williams at short. Jason Deload at catcher. HES A TOTAL BUFFOON. AND I GET NAUSEATED WHEN I HEAR HIM ON AN INTERVIEW. I HATE HIM AS MUCH SS I Hate THE ORANGE JACKAL
Tell us how you really feel, Buuba!
Seriously, I agree with your assessment of the 3 stooges you mentioned and my beef with Shelton from last night’s game, Keller is pitching a shut out against one of the bedt teams in the league, has been efficient through 8 innings and wouldn’t let Mitch try and get a complete game shut out, giving way to Bednar who nearly cost them a win
Shelton is a horrible manager
I agree with you Man. I had a gut feeling the feeble minded MORON wouldn’t let the kid finish. He was pitching the best game of his career. Fortunately they won. But how many times has Keller been taken out with the lead, only to have the bullcrapen blow it.
No wonder why Keller turned down the team friendly contract. He’s already played for a little league coach. Now he’s playing for a little league manager.
And the MORON keeps playing Joe, Williams and Deload. Nutting has to pull the plug on their piece of garbage.
It also burns my rear end that Shelton doesn’t use Endy at first when he puts Delay as catcher. Endy has played first in the minors and his offensive potential is needed on a team that ranks close to last in runs scored
Pegerro should be playing every game at 2nd base for the rest of the season. He’s earned the starting job or at shortstop and put Bae at 2nd. Williams hasn’t shown that he deaerves to play in every gane, has no power and strikes out too much
It’s almost as if Shelton doesn’t care about winning anymore.
Allowing Bido to give up 8 runs in 2 innings is my reason. Bido walks 5 in the process, yet Selby pitches a scoreless one inning and is lifted for Bidos
Palacios is not part of the future of this team yet continues to not only play but does so against lefties
And as usual the majority of the offense comes from Hayes and Reynolds
When has Shelton really cared about winning?He uses a script and in it Bido has to pitch three innings.Shelton shows no flexibility.
Who knows how this game would have gone but Bido should have been pulled as soon as he got into trouble,especially in his third inning,which is all that he is capable of even on a good day.
Shelby pitched two innings which would be his limit.But why wouldn’t Shelton have Bido start which he is used to doing?
They are playing Palacios because at this point they do not have anyone else and he has some power.I say put Bae in CF and play Peguero at second if they are going to keep the fine fielding but light hitting Williams at SS.
Cherington has almost run out of time in producing good ML players.
And,yes,it is only his fault in keeping Shelton and Haines as Nutting is a distant owner who really only cares about the bottom line.He clearly does not otherwise get involved in making decisions or Shelton would have been gone during the season last year.Most teams give their managers two or three years to turn it around but the Pirates give twice that much because winning is not the main priority.
Andujar is wasting away at Indy and is a better hitter than Palacios.
Otherwise, Bidos is in my opinion worthless and while they are pitching deficient, promote Contrares. He can’t be any worse than Bido
I also do not get the derision shown on here of Delay.He has some of the best hitting stats of any Pirates which granted is certainly damning with faint praise but they are also some of the best for a backup catcher in baseball
.If Cherington’s first overall draft choice Davis is not a catcher shouldn’t Cherington have known that when he drafted him?It is not like Davis was a high school project player.The backup catcher is a very important position and on a team as bad as the Pirates they have a luxury in Delay.And I am also surprised that Davis cannot hit a slider.He needs to get tutored on that in the off season or this may be a big bust in Cherington’s bag.
And who is playing first in today’s game?
Another player who isn’t a part of the future
Rivas
Endy should be at first in games that Delay is at catcher
SMH
Shelton’s lineup tends to make opposing pitchers look like the reincarnation of Cy Young while Haines apparently doesn’t teach the hitters to swing at pitches close to the strike zone
And this needs said, the home plate umpire in this game is giving borderline pitches by the Cubs pitcher as strikes and gives the same pitches by Pirates as balls
While Shelton never utters a peep
The MORON is at it again. Deload at catcher and copperhead joe playing. Shelton is nothing but an idiot.
And again I disagree with Mendoza. It’s not cherringtons call to fire the moron. It’s all on nutter butter nutting. It’s his decision.
Any other team would have fired the MORON two years ago. The MORON is the most nauseating person to listen too and watch.getting to be more nauseating than the fat orange jackal
Buuba-Do you think that Bob Nutting knew who Derek Shelton was before they hired him?
Do you think that Cherington basically gave his recommendation to hire Shelton and Nutting basically automatically approved it?
Do you think that Nutting gets involved in day to day operations?
Do you think that if Cherington said that Shelton deserved to be fired that Nutting would not do so?
Do you think that the reason that he got involved in the fires of NH and Hurdle in 2019 was that both were fired?
Finally,who the heck is the “fat orange jackal”?
today’s line against the Cubs
4 hits, 1 run and 12 strikeouts.
Jack now has 140 for the year, to go along with his 69 hits. I have grown tired of the announcers describing his power when he hasn’t hit a home run since July 24.
Shelton pinch hit for Joe in the 9th using Vinny Capra who proceeded to swing at 3 pitches nowhere close to the plate
Lastly, Shelton prevented Cutch from playing, he wasn’t in the lineup but could have been used as a pinch hitter and in a game where base runners were scarce. He is by far the worst manager in baseball and doesn’t have any desire to win games. I am 68, retired and hold out hope to witness anothet winning season before I die, but fear that as long as Shelton is manager, Haines is the hitting coach and Cherington is the GM, my hope will never happen