With three days left in the big league season, the Pittsburgh Pirates recalled relief pitcher Nick Mears and optioned Luis Ortiz to Indianapolis. Ortiz made his final start of the season on Saturday when he allowed six runs without getting out of the first inning. He had a 1.17 ERA in three games prior to that start. Mears has been either injured or on a rehab assignment for a large portion of this 2022 season. His Indianapolis stats show a 4.74 ERA and a 1.46 WHIP in 24.2 innings, but he had a lot of trouble during his first rehab stint and then when he returned. In his last five appearances, he threw 6.1 shutout innings on three hits and one walk.
Pirates Recall Nick Mears; Option Luis Ortiz
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.
