The Pittsburgh Pirates announced on Thursday afternoon that they have sent right-handed pitcher Michael Feliz to Indianapolis. With the day off today, a corresponding move, which will likely be a hitter, will be announced before tomorrow’s game in Milwaukee.
Feliz was recalled by the Pirates on August 11th after spending two weeks in Indianapolis. Over the last 12 days in the majors, he made just one appearance, allowing three runs in one inning against the Braves on Tuesday night.
The interesting part about sending Feliz down is that they didn’t burn an option by sending him down last time. A player has to spend 20 days in the minors to use an option and he was at 15 days. Unless an injury occurs in the next four days and they can bring him back up, they will use his final option up this year. That means he would need to make the Opening Day roster next year. This might not really matter with the way he has pitched this season, but still seems like an odd move right before the rosters expand.
The Pirates switched Clay Holmes with Jordan Luplow earlier this week, so you would expect them to add a bat back to the bench tomorrow. That’s especially true with the day off now to allow the bullpen some time off.
UPDATE: Feliz will still have one option left after this year if he stays down. Long story short, his time sent down at the beginning of 2016 didn’t count against his service time or towards the 20-day limit because it was before the season start. He was sent down three times total, but only the second two times counted. What we also learned is that he is now at 2 years and 170 days for service time (show as 2.170 in baseball terms). You need 172 days for a full service year, so if he doesn’t come back up this season, then the Pirates still have four years of control left. They might be trading his second option for a year of control, hoping he can work things out. Considering that he has a 6.05 ERA in the majors, it might not be out of the question that they do that.
