The Pirates signed lefty reliever Tim Mayza to a one-year major league contract. The Ballengee Group client is reportedly guaranteed $1.15MM. Infielder Alika Williams has been designated for assignment in a corresponding move.
Mayza, who turned 33 a few weeks ago, was a 12th round pick of the Blue Jays in 2013. He spent over a decade in the Toronto organization. The southpaw got to the big leagues in 2017 and pitched in parts of seven seasons. He had a quietly strong run between 2021-23, combining for a 2.67 earned run average while striking out nearly a quarter of opposing hitters through 155 innings. Mayza limited same-handed batters to a .203/.238/.273 slash in 270 plate appearances over that stretch. He kept the ball on the ground at a huge 58-59% clip in all three seasons.
His fortunes turned sharply last year. Mayza took the ball for the Jays 35 times. Opponents blitzed him for more than eight earned runs per nine innings. His strikeout rate plummeted to 13.2%, while the ground-balls fell to a modest 39.1% rate. There weren’t many signs of encouragement in either the results nor the underlying profile. Toronto designated him for assignment in late June, a disappointing end to his tenure.
Mayza cleared waivers and was granted his release. He signed a minor league deal with the Yankees not long thereafter. He fired 8 1/3 innings of two-run ball in Triple-A to earn a call up in the middle of August. The Yanks gave him 15 appearances, mostly in low-leverage situations, for the final six weeks of the regular season.
The results were dramatically improved from his early-season work but not back to his 2021-23 heights. He allowed 10 runs (eight earned) through 18 frames. He struck out a modest 16.4% of batters faced. Mayza added 2 1/3 scoreless frames in mop-up situations during New York’s pennant run — including a scoreless inning to wrap up their Game 4 win in the World Series. The Yankees non-tendered him in lieu of a projected $4MM salary for his final year of arbitration.
Mayza, like many situational lefties, relies on a sinker-slider combination. His sinker sat in the 93-94 MPH range during his best seasons in Toronto. The velocity was down about two ticks early last season. Mayza rediscovered it during his time in the Bronx, sitting around 93.5 MPH during his final two months. That didn’t result in a dramatic uptick in whiffs, though Mayza recaptured much of his prior ground-ball acumen. He kept the ball on the ground at a strong 55.4% clip during his time with the Yankees.
While not quite a return to form, Mayza showed enough late in the season for the Pirates to give him a roster spot. He has over five years of service time and cannot be sent to the minors without his consent. The major league deal indicates he’s very likely to be in Derek Shelton’s season-opening bullpen. He joins fellow free agent signee Caleb Ferguson (another former Yankee) in that regard. The only other lefty reliever on the 40-man roster is long man Joey Wentz. He’s out of options, so he’ll also need to stick on the MLB roster or be made available to other teams via trade or waivers. RosterResource calculates the Bucs’ payroll around $80MM. They ended last season in the $87MM range.
Alex Stumpf of MLB.com was first on the agreement and the financials. Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Whoa! Go Pirates! I guess part of the LAD’s latest signing boost for the revenue sharing pool will actually be used for a player!
Get ‘em Nutting!
Thank New York New York. They both had higher payroll than Dodgers in 2024.
Also true. I guess I could humbly accept this monumental signing on behalf of the NY teams….
But, the reality is that Nutting deserves a bunch of credit for forgoing a revenue sharing vacation and instead using some of the money.
LA is looking like #1 for 2025. Nutting doesn’t deserve any credit. He only spends enough to get his revenue sharing. Only reason he will spend more is to make more. If spending with a good foundation can increase wins which will increase attendance and give him a shot at playoff revenue he will do it. When he has a 60 win foundation and a 60 million payroll he won’t spend 80 90 million to win 70 games.
His tv deal is available to sell after this season. If there was any time he should spend it would have been now. Guy won’t do any risk no matter what the reward. Last years attendance went up a lil bit so payroll can go up a lil bit. Next year’s payroll will depend on this years results.
Are you familiar with sarcasm? Everyone knows this was a joke comment.
@Your
Because they have $1 billi bring deferred. That kinda matters.
Only matters if it’s going to Nutting.
Now the rest can go in Nuttings pocket
Is he.. nutting in his pants?
Good luck with that (from a Jays fan)
Clearly not a great fan.
From 21-23 he was very quietly one of the most used and best left handed relievers in all of baseball.
Great bounce back signing for the pirates
At the end of the season, he’ll be yet another trivia question here in Pittsburgh
These kinds of pick- ups don’t bounce back here. They get ready for their moves to Asian baseball
Idk, Borucki and Dauri Moreta did pretty well in 2023, Dennis Santana did well last year. Seems like finding decent rebound/breakout relievers is something they’ve gotten better at.
Hope Pirates sign Grichuk and some other decent bat. Not break the bank foolish, but give the pitchers a chance to maybe land a 3rd WC spot.
I promise you. Pinky swear. Guarantee. They won’t break the bank.
They may not break 10 mil between 4 to 5 FAs
Another day Another LHP not going to Yankees
That’s where I’ve predicted grichuk to land all off season. He’s a very decent right handed platoon option for any team in need of an outfield boost. Either pirates or back to the d-backs. He’s coming off a pretty decent season, all be it not a full seasons worth of production, but the way the market is moving he may not be signed until after spring training when injuries start piling up. Kind of reminds me of how Brandon belt played pretty darn good but the league said just retire, we don’t need you anymore. Hope that’s not the case though!
The problem is they don’t have a left handed bat to go with him
He’s a everyday player on garbage team like Pittsburgh. Good. Increase his odds of signing. You will get more abs here than anywhere else. And if Jack doesn’t hit you get a ton more.
I’d kill for Grichuk at this point. I still think they’ll make a trade for an OF. Guess we’ll see what happens. Worst case scenario, they go with Alex Verdugo and platoon him with Billy Cook. That might be a good defensive duo, but the offensive upside is fairly limited to say the least.
Why trade when you can claim an OF off waivers?
My prediction for who gets cut
Bae
They are heavy with infielders and after 3 years, Bae still can’t hit major league pitching
They have 10 players who could be cut. 7 on same tier as Bae. Not good enough odds for me to make a prediction. It’s been so many ages since I waa wrong I can’t risk it on something as silly as this.
Seriously? You’re sounding like bright eyes, whose postings come straight from the lunatic fringe of baseball reality
But hey, I didn’t see an A+ rating. Maybe there’s hope for you, grasshopper
Being serious now, but is he better than Wentz? Who may I add has no more options
Neither have options since Mayza was a Major League signee. Mayza has a much better track record than Wentz. 2.67 ERA, 25% K%, 6.3% walk rate from 2021 to 2023. Mayza has significantly better stuff too. Wentz has a career 86 Stuff+ with an identical mark in 2024. Mayza has a 106 career Stuff+ and 103 mark last season. Only thing Wentz has over Mayza is former prospect status, but it’s not like Wentz was once considered a consensus top 10 prospect across all of baseball or anything crazy. Plus he’s younger. Wentz is 27, Mayza is 33.
Wentz has the potential to get better. You’ve already seen the best of Mayza.
Stupid teams should have looked at his career numbers and not what he has done recently! Would have got more than a million.
By looking at what he did recently, they got him for less. How is that stupid?
Don’t mind how the Pirates are building their bullpen. A lot of guys with high ceilings and good in Stuff+. Imo, there’s no wrong way to build a bullpen.
Luckily, most real GM’s don’t subscribe to your opinion of how to build a bullpen. Or a team, in general.
And you know how GM’s view how to build a bullpen how? How good/bad a reliever is going to perform is one of the hardest things to predict. Aim high is probably one of the better ways, but there’s no exact right way either.
Dude, your track record of lauding signings and moves here would make you suitable for Little League, I’ll give you that. I’m still howling over your assertion that Suwinski was all star caliber a couple years back. You’re a legend in the world of pocket protector data freaks, and your own mind
Yeah, because he went into the ASB that year batting .235/.360/.514 with 19 home runs in 297 plate appearances. Was top 5 among NL outfielders in home runs, slugging percentage, and OPS while being 9th in WAR. These aren’t super advanced numbers either. You can find them on the back of baseball cards today.
If you don’t like what I have to say, then so be it, but there’s no reason to antigonize me. I just enjoy commenting on posts.
“Imo, there’s no wrong way to build a bullpen.”
I disagree. Whatever way Cherington used in 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 was the wrong way.
Good bounceback candidate.
Who makes the best frozen pepperoni pizza?
Well you basically have two schools of thought. A purist might say Red Baron or Motor City- and both of those answers would have merits.
But there are those among us that will tell you Totino’s and Hot Pockets have carved out their niche in the snack and single-serving pizza market and should not be overlooked as strong contenders in the frozen pizza wars.
These are godless heathens that only seek to kill and destroy.
While I can’t do Hot Pockets, I have a deep, longtime love for Totino’s Party Pizza. If I’m feeling fancy, it’s Home Run Inn.
Totinos is the sex
🙂 I do
Porta hands down.
French bread pizza ftw
I need about 5 billion of my closest friends all to pitch in a dollar to purchase the Pirates and operate them in that amazing park on front of those longsuffering and solid baseball park.
We’re buying them in cash..then forming a 3rd major league made up of NOTHING but amateur prospects who we’ve spent billions deferred.
We gonna own the OTHER end and dry out the prospect pipeline.
The funny thing is—-the truly hilarious thing is—-local taxpayers paid for that amazing park via their tax dollars. Few people remember the pledge the previous owner made to put a winning team in it. I know the current owner either forgot or simply translated it as meaning “just once in your lifetimes”
Former owner Kevin McClatchey said that if a new stadium was built, the Bucs would be competitive in 5 years
PNC Park opened in 2001.
They didn’t become competitive for another decade
He lied
Or he was just a idiot who knew absolutely nothing about building a baseball team.
Pirates need most of their financial allocation in picking off the best baseball side people they can hire…scouts…coaches…whatever else. Then spend on the finishing trinkets.
Truth is most won’t even try to run like the Rays or even like the Cardinals have forever.
There not for sale. Bob ain’t going nowhere!
Oh, come on now….cash is king.
Is Mayza a Yinzer?
He’s going from youse to yinz.
That’s absolutely amazing
dumpster diving, a Pirates specialty for over 30 years.
Broadly nonnegative relief arm up until 2024. Not a bad pickup but they still need a moderate splashy move. A bat and a pen arm.
The spacious left field at PNC Park should help his recent HR problem
Very legal and very cool.
Big spenders smh
Unlike many cities, we have three pathetic teams with three pathetic owners, but carpetbagging Bobby outdoes them all on a consistent basis.
Congrats, Bob.
You’ll be making your annual “Losing is not acceptable” speech soon, bringing tears to the eyes of area eternal optimists and the intellectually constipated everywhere
Kudos, sir. Kudos
I prefer the we have the ability to add payroll and I expect to be active now a month before the trade deadline.
you forgot about the gullible rubes who will dress in their Pirate costumes just to watch the Pierogi races and Saturday night fireworks
Another lefty off the market. So, Yankees, what’s up?
Tim Hill.
Maybe, but there’s some other dudes out there as well that are sorta interesting. Like I feel like Jalen Beeks is the type of pitcher Matt Blake could do something with.
They need at least two lefties. I’m fine with one Blake reclamation. DRob is also out there but I think Cashman will trade for one.
Fine signing I suppose. But if they keep ignoring the planet sized hole in right field, it won’t magically go away. Just sign Grichuk already. That’s about as good as you can hope for as a fan of this team sadly. Then pray for some breakouts from Horowitz, Gonzales, and maybe Davis or Yorke carving out a role.
My guess is they won’t be making any significant changes to right field and give Jack another chance at winning the position
Yeah, I don’t get it, same thing they did last season.
I still think something is there with Suwinski and maybe Davis, but you can’t just give them a job at this point. Like someone else said with Grichuk, he’s a part timer who could move into more full time if they others don’t work. And on the other end, if Davis/Suwinski do prove their worth, they can get more playing time and move someone else.
This means that Borucki will not be back,at least on a ML deal.
The Pirates have four pitchers who can easily lose their 40 man roster spot for this addition.
They just signed him to a minor league contract. They won’t have to make a 40-man roster spot for Borucki since it wasn’t a guarenteed deal, but that probably puts Joey Wentz in DFA limbo. Imo, I’d rather have Borucki than Wentz.
Depends on whether Borucki is completely rehabilitated from that nerve issue.
Wentz pitched very well for the Pirates in granted just a few games.
Unlike their position player development team the pitching coaches seem to have at least a decent idea of what they are doing.
They have 11 infielders on their 40-man roster. I could also see them making a trade, even just a minor one, involving like Tsung-Che Cheng, Liover Pegeuro, or Alika Williams instead of DFA-ing Wentz.
No reason for Williams or Bae to be on the 40 man, even those other two. Peguero wasn’t given enough of a shot but those two are worthless imo.
The optimistic side of me likes that they seem to be targeting pitchers with a track record of getting ground balls since the infield defense should be much better with IKF and Horowitz replacing Cruz and Tellez, second base is still a big question mark though. The bigger issue is that pitching isn’t nearly as big of a problem as their offense. They desperately need a breakout season from at least one of Gonzalez, Yorke, Cook, Horowitz, Davis or Endy. The top half of the batting order isn’t imposing but at least it’s respectable. The bottom half is just ugly.
I’m just hoping the offense is average. I think even an average offense will play as long as the pitching and defense plays like expected. Need Matt Hague to live up to his repuatation and get some of those players turn up. I think Gonzales, Yorke, and Endy have the best chance of breaking out under Hague’s tutledge. Idk if I’d consider Horwitz a breakout candidate. he did pretty well in his rookie year, so even if he produces like he did in 2024, he’ll be fine.
I agree. They hung around until August last season with a horrible offense until the bullpen imploded and the 4th and 5th starters bombed out.
I like the pitching depth they have for the most part. Really no room to bring in anyone else unless they trade Bednar or another starter, which id prefer they keep the rotation intact.
There has to be something there with a few of these young guys to at least give them a league average offense.
Knowing he won’t be in the Yankees bullpen this season is cause enough for me to cease taking my blood pressure medication
Tim Hill is still available, and he wouldn’t be expensive. Maybe Cashman gets him closer to Spring Training?
Stumpf
I always liked Tim Mayza he was better then most lefty’s. he played in some pretty high leverage games sometimes before he was hurt
safe signing.
Still no splash move and no bat
Lose one trash for another piece of trash. World Series bound our Buccos are this year!
What a dumpster fire this organization has become.