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Pirates Announce that Nick Burdi is Out for the Season After Surgery

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The Pittsburgh Pirates announced that right-handed pitcher Nick Burdi is out for the season after undergoing surgery today to relieve symptoms of neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome. He is expected to be ready for full baseball activities by Spring Training.

Burdi was a Rule 5 pick prior to the 2018 season, but he was in the middle of recovery from Tommy John surgery, so he didn’t join the Pirates until September. Rule 5 picks need 90 days on the active roster to stick with their new team. He picked up 30 days last year and another 26 this year on the active roster, which means he will need to stay with the Pirates for the first 34 days of the 2020 season before they could option him to the minors. Despite that lack of playing time, he will have two full years of big league service time/pay at the end of this season.

Burdi will be 27 years old next spring, with only 125 innings of pro ball in six seasons. He has a 10.80 ERA in ten innings and 13 appearances with the Pirates, though he has picked up 19 strikeouts already.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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