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Yerry De Los Santos

Yankees, Yerry De Los Santos Agree To Minor League Deal

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Nov. 21: De Los Santos indeed signed a minor league deal with an invite to spring training, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post, further adding that the righty would earn $900K upon making the roster. De Los Santos also has out clauses in the deal on June 1 and July 1.

Nov. 20: The Yankees have an agreement with reliever Yerry De Los Santos, his representatives at Epitome Sports Management announced on Instagram. While the agency didn’t specify the terms, it’s very likely a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training.

De Los Santos became a free agent two weeks ago after he went unclaimed on waivers. That ended his career-long tenure with the Pirates. The righty signed with Pittsburgh as an amateur in 2014. He got to the big leagues eight years later, tossing 25 2/3 innings of 4.91 ERA ball as a rookie. He took on a similar workload this past season, tallying 24 1/3 frames over 26 MLB appearances.

The 25-year-old (26 next month) turned in a 3.33 ERA for the Bucs this year. That’s a solid mark on the surface but comes with an underwhelming strikeout and walk profile. He handed out free passes at a 12.5% clip while punching out a well below-average 17.3% of batters faced. De Los Santos had only slightly better strikeout and walk numbers in Triple-A, where he was tagged for a 6.12 ERA over 25 innings.

That combination of middling control and a subpar whiff rate led teams to opt against devoting him a 40-man roster spot when he hit waivers. He’s a sensible target for the Yankees as a non-roster addition, however. New York tends to prioritize ground-ball arms in the late innings. They’ve led the majors in ground-ball percentage from their relief corps in consecutive seasons.

De Los Santos fits the mold. He relies primarily on a sinker that averaged 95 MPH at the big league level. That has resulted in a grounder rate north of 53% in his MLB career. (The league average for relievers sat at 43.6% this year.) De Los Santos has a pair of minor league options remaining. If he cracks the MLB roster, the Yankees could move him between the Bronx and Triple-A without exposing him to waivers.

Braves Claim Angel Perdomo, Outright Jackson Stephens

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The Braves have claimed lefty reliever Angel Perdomo off waivers from the Pirates, according to an announcement from Pittsburgh. Atlanta reliever Jackson Stephens was outrighted from the 40-man roster and elected free agency in a corresponding move. Pittsburgh also announced that Yerry De Los Santos — previously reported as on waivers — went unclaimed and was outrighted from the roster.

Perdomo, 29, has pitched in parts of three big league seasons. He logged a personal-high 29 innings with the Pirates in 2023 after signing an offseason minor league deal. The 6’8″ southpaw showed promise, working to a 3.72 ERA while striking out an elite 37.6% of batters faced. He generated swinging strikes at a solid 13% clip and held opposing lefties to a .125/.205/.225 line in a small sample.

Were he healthy, that likely would have been enough to hold a spot in the Pittsburgh relief corps. Unfortunately, Perdomo landed on the injured list with a season-ending elbow problem in August. Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported over the weekend that Perdomo underwent a Tommy John procedure a month ago. He’s likely to miss all of 2024. With no injured list during the offseason, the Bucs felt it best to let him go.

Atlanta will carry him on the 40-man roster, at least for the moment. Should he stick on the roster all winter, they could place him on the 60-day IL during Spring Training. He’ll step into the spot vacated by Stephens, who made five appearances late in the season. The 29-year-old righty posted a 3.28 ERA over 24 2/3 innings with Triple-A Gwinnett. He’s likely to find another minor league deal this offseason.

Pirates Place Yerry De Los Santos On Outright Waivers

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The Pirates have placed reliever Yerry De Los Santos on outright waivers, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (X link). That will drop Pittsburgh’s 40-man roster count to 36.

De los Santos, 26 in December, has spent his entire career with the Bucs. He signed with Pittsburgh out of the Dominican Republic in 2015. The right-hander reached the majors seven years later. He has tossed around 25 MLB innings in each of the past two campaigns, including 24 1/3 frames this past season. De Los Santos posted a solid 3.33 ERA but had mediocre strikeout and walk numbers. He punched out 17.3% of batters faced while walking 12.5%.

Over 25 innings with Triple-A Indianapolis this year, De Los Santos pitched to a 6.12 ERA with a 21.7% strikeout rate. He kept the ball on the ground at a strong 51.8% clip. If he goes unclaimed on waivers, he has the requisite minor league service time to become a free agent.

Pirates To Promote Colin Selby For MLB Debut

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3:55pm: The Pirates have now made these two moves official, with right-hands Osvaldo Bido and Yerry De Los Santos optioned in corresponding moves.

11:37am: The Pirates are set to recall right-hander Colin Selby from Triple-A Indianapolis, reports Jason Mackey of  the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. They’re also planning to recall Thomas Hatch, whom they just claimed off waivers a few days ago. Both players are on the 40-man roster already.

Selby, 25, was the Pirates’ 16th-round pick back in 2018 and put himself on the prospect map with a particularly strong showing in Double-A last year, wherein he tossed 32 2/3 innings of 2.20 ERA ball with a 29.7% strikeout rate, 10.1% walk rate and 53.1% ground-ball rate. Baseball America ranked him 26th among Pirates prospects on their latest update, crediting him with three plus pitches — fastball in the upper 90s, slider in the upper 80s, curveball in the low 80s — but below-average command.

The 2023 season has been a strong one for the hard-throwing Selby. After a quick three-inning stop in Double-A, he was bumped up for his Triple-A debut, which has resulted in 30 1/3 frames of 3.86 ERA ball. He’s sporting a gaudy 30.8% strikeout rate and massive 61.2% ground-ball rate in Indianapolis, but he’s also walked 16.5% of his opponents (and plunked three as well). In his 30 1/3 innings at Triple-A, Selby has put 25 runners aboard either by way of walk or hit-by-pitch. It’s a power arsenal, but there’s some clear refinement to be done.

As for Hatch, he’ll be making his team debut and logging his first action with a team other than the Blue Jays, who designated him for assignment earlier this month. Hatch, a 2016 third-round pick, has pitched to a 5.28 ERA in 44 1/3 big league innings, fanning 21.3% of his opponents against a 12.4% walk rate.

While he’s worked primarily as a starter in Triple-A, Hatch has moved to the bullpen for the majority of his work in the upper minors this season. He’s pitched to a 4.40 ERA in 30 games — 45 innings — and notched a 27.8% strikeout rate and 10.8% walk rate. Hatch has typically kept the ball on the ground at average or better rates in Double-A and Triple-A, and this year’s 4.40 ERA in Triple-A is right in line with the 4.45 mark he’s posted in 240 2/3 total innings at that level.

Pirates Select Chase De Jong

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The Pirates have selected the contract of right-hander Chase De Jong, per a team announcement. To make room for De Jong on the active roster, Yerry De Los Santos has been optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis. No corresponding 40-man roster move was necessary to accomodate De Jong, as the Pirates had open space on the 40-man roster, which now stands at 38.

A second-round pick by the Blue Jays in the 2012 draft, De Jong has fashioned a career for himself as a journeyman reliever since his big league debut with the Mariners in 2017, when he posted a 6.35 ERA in 28 1/3 innings of work. Following his time in Seattle, De Jong joined the Twins and Astros organizations before arriving in Pittsburgh on a minor league deal in January of 2021. Since then, he’s pitched to a 2.70 ERA in 43 1/3 innings at the Triple-A level while posting a 4.33 ERA 124 2/3 innings of work at the big league level.

That includes a brutal start to his 2023 campaign, where De Jong posted a 10.61 ERA in 9 1/3 innings of work with identical 10.6% strikeout and walk rates. That led the Pirates to designate De Jong for assignment last month, though he eventually accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A, paving the way for today’s return to the roster. De Jong figures to join Angel Perdomo and Yohan Ramirez in covering the middle innings for the Pirates going forward.

As for De Los Santos, the 25-year-old returns to Triple-A just one day after being recalled to the roster for his 2023 debut. De Los Santos recorded two outs for the Pirates in yesterday’s game while recording a strikeout and a walk. He’ll return to Indianapolis and act as bullpen depth going forward.

Pirates Designate Chris Owings For Assignment, Select Angel Perdomo

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The Pirates announced a series of roster moves this morning as the club selected the contract of left-hander Angel Perdomo and recalled right-hander Yerry De Los Santos to the big league club. In corresponding moves, infielder Chris Owings was designated for assignment while right-hander Cody Bolton was optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis.

Perdomo, 29, has not pitched in the majors since 2021 after making a 2 2/3 inning MLB debut for the Brewers in 2020. In 19 2/3 career innings in the big leagues, Perdomo sports a 8.24 ERA and 6.43 FIP. While he’s struck out a strong 33.7% of batters faced over that time, his massive 23.5% walk rate has held him back from being a quality big league reliever to this point. While Perdomo has posted a strong 2.47 ERA at the Triple-A level since the start of the 2022 season, it’s been accompanied by continued control issues, as evidenced by his 15.3% walk rate in that timeframe. The Pirates are clearly hoping Perdomo can harness his excellent stuff to contribute to the bullpen alongside fellow lefties Rob Zastrynzy and Jose Hernandez.

De Los Santos, on the other hand, made his big league debut for the Pirates last season, posting a 4.91 ERA and 4.01 FIP in 26 appearances. Now 25, he figures to help the likes of Perdomo and Yohan Ramirez cover the middle innings for the Pirates bullpen.

On the other end of things, the moves likely bring Owings’s time with the Pirates to an end. A former first round pick by the Diamondbacks in the 2009 draft, Owings signed with the Pirates this past offseason on a minor league deal, eventually being selected to the roster in early May after initially being re-assigned to the minor leagues after failing to make the roster out of spring training. Owings appeared in ten games for the Pirates, with 12 strikeouts, no walks, and four hits (all singles) in 25 trips to the plate.

Though Owings has not managed to find regular playing time at the big league level since leaving the Diamondbacks in 2019, he’s appeared in parts of 11 big league seasons thanks in large part to his versatility, which has allowed him to appear in every defensive position throughout his big league career except for first base and catcher.

Meanwhile, Bolton heads to Indianapolis less than two weeks before his 25th birthday. A sixth-round pick by the Pirates in the 2017 draft, Bolton saw considerable success in the lower levels of the minors and was considered one of the better prospects in the Pirates organization early in his professional career. Unfortunately, he struggled with his command in 2022 at the Triple-A level, with a 12.4% walk rate in 75 2/3 innings split between the rotation and the bullpen. Nonetheless, he made his big league debut earlier this season, but in five appearances in the majors, Bolton has struggled to a 12.83 ERA in just eight innings of work. He figures to act as depth in Triple-A going forward as he tries to get things back on track.

Pirates Outright Six Players

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The Pirates have outrighted Peter Solomon, Beau Sulser, Jason Delay, Blake Cederlind, Eric Stout and Zack Collins off their 40-man roster, per a team announcement. Both Stout and Collins have elected free agency. The made the moves after reinstating Canaan Smith-Njigba, Colin Holderman, Yerry De Los Santos, Cederlind and Max Kranick off the 60-day IL.

Solomon, 26, was claimed off waivers from the Astros in September. He never made it to the majors in Pittsburgh, staying at Triple-A for his brief stint with the Bucs. Across both team’s Triple-A affiliates he threw 109 2/3 innings of 5.58 ERA ball, striking out eight batters per nine innings and walking 4.4. He did make it to the majors in 2021 for the Astros, throwing 14 innings of 1.29 ERA ball, although that was held together by an 88.9% LOB rate.

Sulser was a tenth round draft pick in 2017, and made it to the majors for the first time in 2022. He had a 3.72 ERA across 9 2/3 innings in Pittsburgh, before the Orioles claimed him off waivers in May. There, he spent much of the year in the minors but threw 12 2/3 innings of 3.55 ERA ball in the bigs. Altogether, Sulser would strike out 19.1% of major league batters and walk 9.1% in 2022.

The Pirates used no fewer than eight catchers in 2022, and despite Delay spending the first few months of the season at Triple-A, he wound up as their starter by season’s end and his 57 games at catcher were the most on the team. Across those appearances, he hit just .213/.265/.271 with one home run. The bat was never Delay’s strength, and he does grade out well defensively behind the plate.

Cederlind came through the Pirates system as a strong relief pitcher, but injuries have derailed his career in recently. After making his major league debut in 2020 and tossing four innings out of Pittsburgh’s bullpen he underwent Tommy John surgery in early 2021. That is never a quick recovery, but Cederlind had to undergo a second surgery this year to remove loose bodies from his elbow, and as such never pitched in either 2021 or 2022.

Pittsburgh purchased Stout from the Cubs midway through the 2022 campaign, and wound up throwing 18 2/3 innings out of their bullpen. His 5.79 ERA doesn’t show much promise, and Stout will need to find a way to limit the walks, after he gave up 15 free passes this season in Pittsburgh.

The sixth man to be outrighted was Collins, a former top-100 prospect out of the White Sox system. It never worked out for the catcher in Chicago, and the White Sox shipped him to the Blue Jays for Reese McGuire at the start of the season. He struggled there, hitting .194/.266/.417 with four home runs across 79 plate appearances. The Pirates claimed him off waivers in September, but he picked up just a solitary hit across 29 plate appearances.

After these moves, and Pittsburgh’s earlier acquisition of first baseman Ji-Man Choi from the Rays, their 40-man roster is full.

Pirates Select Austin Brice

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The Pirates announced they’ve selected right-hander Austin Brice onto the major league roster. Pittsburgh placed righty Yerry De Los Santos on the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move.

Brice is back for a second stint with the Bucs. He made two appearances, tossing 3 2/3 innings of two-run ball, before being designated for assignment. Brice passed unclaimed through waivers and accepted an assignment back to Triple-A Indianapolis, where he’s logged the majority of the season. The 30-year-old owns a 4.41 ERA through 34 2/3 innings of relief there, fanning batters at a quality 27.2% clip against a solid 8.6% walk rate. Brice has also induced ground-balls at an above-average clip in the minors to earn his way back.

A former ninth-round pick, Brice has gotten to the majors in each of the last seven years. He’s pitched for the Marlins on two separate occasions, along with stints as a Red, Red Sox and Pirate. In 165 2/3 career innings, he owns a 5.16 ERA with slightly worse than average strikeout and walk rates. Brice is out of minor league option years, meaning he’ll have to stick on the active roster or again be designated for assignment.

De Los Santos, 24, made his major league debut this season. He’s come out of the bullpen 26 times, posting a 4.91 ERA but showing more interesting peripherals. He’s averaged north of 95 MPH on his fastball, induced grounders at a very strong 52.8% clip and posted a league average strikeout rate (albeit without many whiffs on a per-pitch basis). That’ll unfortunately be his entire body of work for 2022, as he’s dealing with a lat strain in his throwing shoulder. With less than 60 days remaining on the regular season schedule, De Los Santos’ season is over.

Pirates Outright Austin Brice

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July 11: Brice has cleared waivers and been assigned to Triple-A Indianapolis, per Justice delos Santos of MLB.com. It’s unclear if Brice has accepted the assignment or elected free agency.

July 6: The Pirates have designated right-hander Austin Brice for assignment and optioned lefty Cam Vieaux to Triple-A Indianapolis, per a team announcement. That pair of moves creates space for right-hander Yerry De Los Santos to return from the Covid-related injured list and for newly acquired southpaw Manny Banuelos to be added to the active roster.

Brice spent a couple weeks in the majors, having been selected to the roster in late June. Signed to a minor league deal over the winter, the 30-year-old earned a brief look with a strong showing in Indianapolis. Across 26 2/3 innings, Brice posted a solid 3.04 ERA while striking out a lofty 27.2% of opposing hitters and inducing grounders on more than half the batted balls he allowed. Since adding him to the MLB staff, Pittsburgh has deployed him on only two occasions for low-leverage relief work.

While a limited look, that did mark Brice’s seventh consecutive year stepping onto a major league mound. He’s also played for the Marlins (a pair of separate stints), Reds and Red Sox. He’s typically racked up grounders at a solid clip and sports a fastball in the mid-90s, but he’s generally had issues keeping runs off the board at the highest level. Brice has allowed fewer than four earned runs per nine innings just once in a season, and he owns a 5.16 ERA through 165 2/3 career MLB innings.

The Pirates will presumably try to send Brice through waivers over the coming days. His quality Triple-A numbers may earn him a look from another team, but he is out of minor league option years. That means any team that claims him would have to keep him on their active roster or designate him for assignment themselves. Brice cleared outright waivers twice last season with Boston, meaning he’ll have the right to refuse an assignment back to Indianapolis in favor of minor league free agency if he goes unclaimed again.

Pirates To Select Yerry De Los Santos, Promote Roansy Contreras

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The Pirates are planning to add two new arms to their pitching mix, as Z101 Digital’s Hector Gomez (Twitter links) reports that the Bucs will call up right-handers Roansy Contreras and Yerry De Los Santos from Triple-A.  De Los Santos isn’t on the 40-man roster, so the Pirates will need to make another corresponding move to create space.

This is the second time that Contreras has been on the big league roster this season, as he posted a 3.52 ERA over 7 2/3 innings of relief work in April.  Pittsburgh then sent Contreras down to the minors to get him stretched out as a starting pitcher, and it would appear as though the Bucs will now use Contreras in their rotation.  With his last Triple-A game falling on May 19, Contreras would seem to be lined up to start Tuesday when the Pirates host the Rockies at PNC Park.

After also tossing three innings in a single appearance with Pittsburgh in 2021, Contreras may finally be set for more of an extended look in the big leagues.  A consensus top-100 prospect in preseason rankings, Fangraphs was the most enthusiastic about Contreras’ potential, ranking him as the 42nd-best minor leaguer in baseball.  Contreras added a lot of velocity to his fastball in 2021 and now sits around a 94-96mph average.  His slider and curveball are also considered plus pitches, and his changeup has potential, though lacks some consistency.

Contreras was acquired from the Yankees as part of the Jameson Taillon trade package in January 2021, and has now become the most MLB-ready of any pitching prospect in the deep Pirates farm system.  Getting Contreras into a starting role would not only be a good sign that the Bucs’ long rebuild is turning a corner, but it is also quite possible that he could provide immediate help.  Aside from veteran Jose Quintana, Pittsburgh’s rotation has struggles, so there is plenty of opportunity for Contreras to claim a regular turn.

After signing with the Pirates as an amateur free agent in 2015, the 24-year-old De Los Santos is now getting his first taste of Major League action.  While De Los Santos isn’t ranked within the top 30 Pittsburgh prospects by either MLB Pipeline or Baseball America, it isn’t uncommon for relievers to be omitted from those lists, even when a reliever posts De Los Santos’ kinds of eye-popping numbers.  Since becoming a full-time reliever in 2017, De Los Santos has a 1.63 ERA and 32.3% strikeout rate over 115 2/3 innings — this includes a 1.72 ERA, 34.5% strikeout rate, and 3.4% walk rate over 15 2/3 frames at Triple-A this season.

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