The Pirates announced earlier today that they’ve activated left-hander Ryan Borucki from the 60-day injured list and right-hander Colin Holderman from the 15-day injured list. No corresponding moves were necessary, as the club had space on the 40-man roster available. Pittsburgh was able to add two pitchers to the roster when rosters expanded today as opposed to the typical additions of one position player and one pitcher because the club already had 14 position players on the roster after Andrew McCutchen’s recent return from the IL.
Borucki, 30, emerged as one of the club’s most reliable relievers last year when he pitched to a 2.45 ERA with a 3.50 FIP in 40 1/3 innings last year. The southpaw paired a solid 21.7% strikeout rate with a strong 46.8% groundball rate and allowed free passes to just 2.6% of opponents last year. That breakout performance came on the heels of an uneven career with the Blue Jays where he struggled to a 4.47 ERA and 4.41 FIP in 151 innings of work spread across five seasons, and it made the Pirates’ decision to avoid arbitration with Borucki by agreeing to a $1.6MM salary something of a no-brainer.
Unfortunately, the club’s investment in the lefty has not paid off as he has been limited to just four appearances this year due to triceps inflammation. The southpaw has been struggling to work his way back since he first went out on a rehab assignment in late June but finally found some consistency after returning to rehab in mid-August, with a 1.80 ERA at the Triple-A level across five rehab outings. Borucki now figures to join Aroldis Chapman and Jalen Beeks as a left-handed option out of the bullpen for the Pirates down the stretch as he looks to finish the season strong with an eye toward free agency in November.
As for Holderman, the right-hander has been a steady middle relief option for the Pirates all throughout the year. In his second full season with Pittsburgh, the 28-year-old has posted a solid 3.43 ERA in 42 innings, though his 4.43 FIP and an elevated 11.3% walk rate are potential red flags that he may not be able to keep that performance up long-term. Regardless, Holderman figures to rejoin the club’s middle relief corps alongside recently-demoted closer David Bednar down the stretch.
and one of the team’s most productive hitters recently isn’t the playing today but Taylor, one of the least productive players is
Cost them the game
I wouldn’t go that far, Dream, but against Cobb, Cutch was hitting .417. Playing Taylor only adds to the strike out total of the game
They would have had a better chance with Cutch in the lineup than the worthless Taylor
Who cares if his knee swells up to the size of a basketball. Get Cutch in there!
Does it really matter? Blew it again ,again and again. 1979 along time ago. Luckily I saw 71 ,79 wins! We just don’t have hitters produced in this organization! Sad! Like to see what this team could do with Oliver, Parker,Zisk and Hebner in lineup! Hell I would 2 of them. Sad for fans. Mlb should make Nutting sell team. NBA made Donald Sterling sell?
with a hitting coach like Haines, the Bucs probably wouldn’t have won the series in 71 or 79
I believe the reason why the NBA forced Sterling to sell had nothing to do with his refusal to spend money to make his team better
Although Oliver, Hebner, et al are all in their 70s, they’d be more productive than most of the current “hitters” Shelton trots out every day. But blame Shelton’s lineups on Cherington for assembling that roster. And of course blame Cherington’s roster on Nutting, who wants high end production but will only pay for bargain basement castoffs.
Cutch had the 5th highest batting average in all of baseball for the month of August with a .368 average
Cruz was tied with Judge for 2nd place with a .389 average; the highest batting average for the month since Matty Alou in 1966
So the question is simple, why isn’t Cutch playing and why wasn’t Taylor given his unconditional release, Williams demoted and both Cook and Yorke promoted
I was also expecting and hoping to see Cook and Yorke but not this organization. Release some veteran players whose contracts are up this year and bring in the youngsters..
exactly, panj341. It’s not like players such as Joe, Taylor or even Tellez will be on this team next year
Though Tellez is a better hitter than the other two hands down
Not sure why McKinney was not released and Cook brought up.
They need to put Yorke and Cook on the roster this offseason anyway because they would be picked up in the Rule 5 draft and could very well stick on some of the lesser teams.
I’m not sure why Taylor wasn’t released either but I can take a wild guess
BC doesn’t want to have to pay someone for not playing and have to pay a pro rated contract for promoting players from the minors
he certainly doesn’t want to cut into Nutting’s profit margins
It would cost them $500,000 and I thought about that but I would hope that BC has more freedom than that.
Now Chapman I understand at $1.75 M.
He may have been scarfed up by someone but their relief pitching has been so horrendous that BC May have been afraid to put him on waivers.
He doesn’t. See the Athletic article Why the Pirates Keep Losing: Comfortable Being Mediocre
2 of the top 5! #XtendHaines
Cutch has the highest average against the Guardians pitcher in today’s game of all the Pirates hitters with a .417. clip, but Shelton decided that Taylor striking out gave them a better chance to win
through 4 innings the Bucs have no base runners and the Guardians have 3 runs
Typical Haines offensive strategy
through 6 and still no base runners plus Taylor has struck out in each of his plate appearances
I hope they get a perfect game pitched against them
Fire the whole coaching staff. Poor decisions still making spring training decisions in Late August.
the hitters know Cobb’s signature pitch is a knuckcurve and they still can’t make good contact even when it comes over center plate
During this of the year for the Pirates, Grandal and McKinney should not be starting a game. This is the time you find out more about Davis and Yorke and players who will be here next year.
Yorke has to be promoted first but I agree,
McKinney, Williams and Taylor should never start another game, but they will keep using Grandal to catch for Skenes because Shelton and Cherington are “ baseball wizards “
Honestly, I don’t care what happens the rest of this year. My only expectations for the rest of the regular season are that no one get hurt to the point where they’re out to start next year and no one gets arrested
down 5 runs in the 8th inning and mastermind Shelton opts against using a pinch hitter to get on base
I know you don’t care what happens the rest of the season but as a long time fan I am disgustingly sick of the lack of any kind of urgency by this piece of garbage manager
Down 5 runs in the 8th the game is over. Who cares. Unless you are playing the Pirates!!!!
I know, Dream, it’s more professional to just give up rather than making an effort to win
Travesty to leave Big bat Alika Williams on the bench and all star Connor Joe.
Even when football teams are down 2 touchdowns with 2 minutes left to play, they make every attempt to score points so don’t hand me this nonsense that the Bucs shouldn’t make an effort late in games
Bringing in scrubs isn’t going to do anything. Other day you wanted Alika sent to Indy now he is going to pinch hit and win the game. Pick a lane.
Why do you always misconstrue my point, Dream?
I never suggested that Williams would hit a grand slam, my point was getting players on base.
According to the announcers Cutch was sat because Shelton wanted to give him the game off, not due to injury
But him, McKinney, Joe and Grandal were available to pinch hit and even had they not succeeded in getting on base, the effort would have been there
Yes a rest day. To prevent injuries. Down 5 runs you don’t ruin a rest a day.
McKinney, Joe and Grandal should be on waivers. Not pinch hitting to win games.
You root for a bad team with bad players bad management and bad ownership. There’s going to be lots of loses. Might as well get used to it.
I’m rooting for the only baseball team this city has had during my lifetime, bad teams, players, management and ownership included
I can never become accustomed to losing, despite the knowledge that they haven’t had a championship in more than 40 years and no, I can’t get used to it, no real Pirates fan should be expected to, you included, Dream
another double digit strike out performance by the Haines led offense keeping them on pace to break the team’s all time record for a season
They are on pace for 1535 strikeouts
A whole 2 hits is also a testament of the horrible hitting coach’s failures to make these players score runs
Nutting lead offense. Listen to him talk. Won’t take long as he only does so every 3 years. But he knows enough about baseball to see what’s going on. Yet no one is fired.
I expect the Cubs to once again wipe the floor with Pirates pitching over the next three games and still no one will be held to account and Shelton will use McKinney and Williams in one game as starters
Haines was a head scratcher to me from beginning? It’s as bad as ESPN 2nd wk poll putting Alabama #2 in college football.Joke!
I like pitching coach,we don’t have enough depth anywhere. Shelton for sure is gone. Wondering who would make good manager for this team. Not sure about Don Kelly. May need to clean house. Not so sure about Ben,like his ability but Bob should be made to spend money for team and fans.
Manager doesn’t matter. Doesn’t have any talent to manage. Can’t make Nutting spend $. Doesn’t matter. Pittsburgh market only allows 110 120 million. That isn’t going to do anything. Need to keep firing gms until you get one capable of putting together a player development staff. Time to win is right now. Need to bring in new GM now. They will probably bring back Cherington. Fire him in few years and new gm will have to rebuild at that point. It’s crucial to hire new gm now. Cherington might scratch his way to some success but it won’t be sustainable. Guys always 2 steps behind. Not cut out for the job.
if the market allows up to $120 million why was this season’s payroll only $85 million
Another $35 million could have been a good investment in several players
if they don’t have any talent how could now be the time to win?
Good player development doesn’t happen overnight
they are privately owned but since the taxpayers funded the construction of PNC Park the state should leverage Nutting to increase the payroll or charge him more to use the stadium
Nutting bad for the game! That’s enough for MLB to run his a…ss off! No fans no game. Where do they think money comes from.FANS.
Cut Woodford, cut Taylor but bring them back under new contract? So if you not good enough to make the lowly Pirate roster but at a reduced contract you are resigned. That explains it all. Give the coaches more time to put lipstick on a pig and sell it to the fan base.
Neither Woodford nor Taylor were they released and had to re-sign. Both passed through waivers with no claims. In Woodford’s case, he was outrighted off the 40-man roster after being DFA’d and opted to go to Triple-A. Taylor was put on outright waivers, which means any of the 29 other teams had a 48 hour window to claim him. He remained on the Pirate’s active roster during that time, and since no other team put in a claim, he just remained in Pittsburgh. He is still on the same one-year deal the Pirates signed him to back in March that will expire at the end of the 2024 season.
Not saying Taylor should be here, and they made the right choice on Woodford, DFA-ing him, but clearing things up for any potential confusion.
because it’s always next year that this team will be contenders but next year always turns into the next year and pretty soon they will be in rebuilding mode again
if Nutting wasn’t so cheap, Taylor would have been given his unconditional release and either Cook or Yorke promoted to take his place on the roster
Taylor brings absolutely nothing to this team’s offense and doesn’t deserve to still be on the roster
there’s an article in today’s edition of the Trib , Cherington goes into great depth about why he fired all of the international scouts, placing blame on the scouting for the failures of player development of those players signed
I read the article and all I could think of when it was finished was
blah blah blah blah it’s someone else’s fault not mine blah blah blah blah
It reminded me of a song by Aerosmith
“ same old story, same old song and dance “
Only took him 5 years to realize they were trying to develop bad players! Wouldn’t matter if they were good players. Look at his draft picks and trades.
“And, to be clear, that is not one person’s responsibility, for sure. We all bear responsibility in that. Certainly I do. But we did feel like, in order to take a step forward — and not just a step forward but take several steps forward — we got to the point where we felt like it would give us a better chance to do that if we made a change in the leadership position.”
Nutting needs to take Cheringtons advice and fire Cherington.
meanwhile at Indy, Nick Yorke, acquired from Boston for Quinn Priester, is hitting .352 in 29 games including 12 doubles and 20 rbi
but but but Michael A Taylor is too expensive to release
every legendary Pirate is turning over in their grave, from Honus Wagner to Branch Rickey, to Clemente to Joe L Brown and every player and manager in between
exactly, Newbucco. Dearly departed Bucs fans have suffered more from the current and pathetic ownership than any other franchise over the last 27 years
as expected, Zero Management’s lineup in tonight’s game has worthless Alika Williams playing shortstop against the Cubs’ Jamison Taillon who will no doubt strike him out as a replacement for the team’s other worthless offensive contributor
and the dismal offensive production led by the worst hitting coach in baseball, scoreless after 5 innings
When they lose again, the most worthless manager in baseball will use his typical excuse that the hitters didn’t execute