The Pittsburgh Pirates have placed right handed pitcher Evan Meek on the 15-day disabled list, and have purchased the contract of right handed pitcher Tim Wood from Indianapolis. To make room for Wood on the roster, the Pirates have transferred Chris Snyder to the 60-day disabled list.
Meek returns to the disabled list with right shoulder tendonitis for the second time. That’s not a huge surprise, as his velocity was down in recent appearances.
Wood was signed at the end of Spring Training after being released by the Washington Nationals. He’s been impressive in AAA since joining the Pirates, with a 2.96 ERA in 24.1 innings, along with a 24:4 K/BB ratio. Wood has been hitting in the upper 90s with his fastball, touching 98-99 MPH at times. He also has a hard, high-80s slider that has even hit 90-91 MPH this year. He’s pitched in the majors before, with a 4.32 ERA in 50 innings, with a 26:25 K/BB ratio.
UPDATE 3:58 PM: The 25-man roster and 40-man roster pages are updated with the moves. Also, an additional note on Wood. His numbers in the majors haven’t been good prior to this. He had a good season in 2009, with poor secondary numbers (low strikeouts, high walks). Those secondary numbers might have led to a bad season last year. However, he’s shown a lot of improvement in AAA this year with his walks, putting up a 1.5 BB/9 ratio, compared to a 2.6 last year, and a 3.9 the year before. He’s also putting up his best strikeout numbers since high-A ball. With his fastball/slider combo, hopefully the Pirates have found a sleeper for their bullpen, which would be good in this case, as Wood has five years of control beyond 2011.
