The Pittsburgh Pirates have acquired left-handed pitcher Phil Coke in a minor league deal with the New York Yankees for cash considerations, the team announced via press release. Coke is expected to join the Pirates tomorrow, at which point they will make a corresponding 40-man roster move.
Back when the Pirates traded Xavier Nady to the Yankees, they received Jose Tabata and Ross Ohlendorf, and had a choice between two sets of players in the second part of the deal. They went with Jeff Karstens and Daniel McCutchen. The other option was Coke and George Kontos. Eight years later, they finally added Coke, although at this point he doesn’t look like a guy who has much value, unlike his 2010-2012 seasons with the Tigers.
He had a 2.96 ERA and a 2.97 FIP in Triple-A with the Yankees this year over 70 innings, with a 7.8 K/9 and a 2.7 BB/9. He also allowed one run on six hits and no walks, with 18 strikeouts in 16.1 innings during the Triple-A playoffs. He had three appearances in the majors this year, and they didn’t go well, leading to a 7.54 xFIP in six innings. Those came in May, and he has been solid ever since in the minors.
This is a pretty low-key move, but you wonder why it was made when you consider how many lefties are in the bullpen right now. The Pirates have Tony Watson as their closer, with Felipe Rivero and Antonio Bastardo as their primary lefties. They also added Wade LeBlanc this month in another small deal, and he has put up some good numbers in just six innings. They still have Jeff Locke in the bullpen, and brought up Zach Phillips, who has only pitched an inning. My guess is that Coke will replace Phillips as the 6th(!) lefty in the bullpen.
This wouldn’t be a situation like LeBlanc, where the Pirates can keep Coke around under team control if they like what they see. He would be a free agent at the end of the year. So this appears to be an attempt at a cheap boost late in the season, with the Pirates having the ability to throw a parade of left-handers at any team down the stretch.
Tim started Pirates Prospects in 2009 from his home in Virginia, which was 40 minutes from where Pedro Alvarez made his pro debut in Lynchburg. That year, the Lynchburg Hillcats won the Carolina League championship, and Pirates Prospects was born from Tim's reporting along the way. The site has grown over the years to include many more writers, and Tim has gone on to become a credentialed MLB reporter, producing Pirates Prospects each year, and will publish his 11th Prospect Guide this offseason. He has also served as the Pittsburgh Pirates correspondent for Baseball America since 2019. Behind the scenes, Tim is an avid music lover, and most of the money he gets paid to run this site goes to vinyl records.
Huntington should be fired, give him some financial flexibility and he runs out and buys Coke.
Thanks for bringing up the details of that Nady trade. Seems like longer than 8 years ago. Ah, memories!
So da best we can do for a lefty is Coke?
Does have any pop left in that arm?
Powerball Ticket!!!! Let’s hope it hits!!!
A move to get into the wild card game.
Agree with Tim, Coke better option than Phillips at this point. Just expect a bullpen arm, not starter.
On another note from instructionals, Portareal looks great at the plate.
I sure do love doing player pages for guys like this.
now the Liriano trade makes sense.. Lol
I heard he could start for us down the stretch. It can’t hurt us. As pitiful as the teams are in front of us for the two wildcard spots we still may get in this just yet.
Thank heavens its for cash…NH can’t hurt us again…
I think that it has less to do with Coke being a LHP & more to do with a cheap acquisition RP that can pitch multiple innings as the bullpen has been stretched out & don’t have another off day the rest of the year. He also has pitched well recently in the AAA playoffs.
Schugel hasn’t pitched since 8/30 & Feliz hasn’t pitched since 9/3
Fantastic article
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/baseballs-savviest-and-crappiest-bullpen-managers/
It is an interesting article, and one where Hurdle comes out looking very good (some Twitter users obviously only looked at the tables without bothering to read the text–imagine that, a Twitter user with too short of an attention spant to read anything with depth.)
9/22/2016 headline: NEW YORK DEALS COKE TO PIRATES
9/22/1985 headline: PIRATES DEAL COKE TO NEW YORK! 😉
I didn’t even read the article yet. I went directly to the comments section to look for Coke/Cash jokes!
Very nice!!
I like your sense of humor.
Now THAT is funny!
??? Hopefully it is one of those $1 deals.
This would definitely fall into the category of a $1 deal where the money is just there to complete the transaction. Yankees have no use for him for the last ten days of the season, so they do him a favor and send him to a team that will use him in the majors. Looks good for any incoming free agents.
It was just a year ago that the team didn’t need a lefty besides Watson because they had RH pitchers that could get lefties out, now they have 47 lefties in the pen, what gives, besides that the previous stance was all lip service.
The last three guys they got were acquired for basically nothing and wouldn’t be guys you would keep around before expanded rosters. Bastardo was around last year, so was Locke, and Rivero cost a lot to get.