The Pittsburgh Pirates have signed 29-year-old left-handed pitcher Ryan Borucki to a minor league deal. He was recently designated for assignment by the Chicago Cubs. He cleared waivers and refused an assignment to Triple-A, making him a free agent. The Pirates have assigned him to Triple-A Indianapolis, where he has been placed on the Development List.
Borucki has five years of big league experience, playing for the 2018-22 Toronto Blue Jays, before finishing the 2022 season with the Seattle Mariners. He signed a free agent deal with the Cubs this year, though he only played for Triple-A Iowa, where he got roughed up to the tune of 13 runs and a 2.11 WHIP in nine innings. He was actually on the active big league roster for two games this year without getting into a contest.
He’s had some mild success in the majors, posting a 4.45 ERA, a 4.54 FIP, a 1.40 WHIP and 136 strikeouts in 170 innings. He had a 5.68 ERA over 25.1 innings last year.
Borucki was a starter during the 2018-19 seasons, then moved to relief during the shortened 2020 season and hasn’t started since. He has seen limited work in that role, throwing 65.1 innings over 77 outings.
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.
Davis in RF today
Your comment seems to be an invitation to change the subject. I’ve ‘come down’ from the unexpected ‘hot’ Pirate start but I must say these last ten games are not only disappointing but disgusting. I understand hitters going cold, pitchers, losing command, etc., but I don’t understand playing stupid, sandlot baseball. Above all, this team lacks discipline.
Toronto means Ben C had him when he was in Blue Jays front office.
Add him to Alford and a few others.
so the dfa merry-go-round begins
Dumpster diving at its finest!
Rangers Designate Ian Kennedy For Assignment..How about this one??
These moves should be totally labeled ‘nothing to see here’ as all teams do this. This is not some Ben invention of picking up a body to fill a roster spot.I don’t think Ben is even looking for lightning in the bottle on most of these pickups and you don’t have to squint to see basically every team shuffling bodies at AAA. At some point I assume they are just filling roster spots to fill innings because at some point you can’t always have a prospect available. It is definitely news that needs reported – thank you John – but not worth a lot of debate.
Shuffling bodies should come from within, and if the team does not have the ability then that’s kinda a damning statement of that organization…
I disagree.. basically all teams do this. We will see previous dumpster diving players Ben let go show up on other rosters. Just because Ben signs a player does not mean he sees great long term value. Sometimes it is just filling a roster spot with an available body. We way overthink these non 40 man roster signings and many short term 40 man adds.
Why can’t the available body be from the organization, instead of some putz from some team…
What other teams do or don’t do is meaningless…IMHO
You made other teams a talking point when you said it was a damning statement about the organization when in fact this is just end of the AAA roster body shuffling done by all teams. My point – to more than just you – is this is just normal roster shuffling and not worth the repetitive Ben bashing – save that for when he signs Van Meter again to a major league contract and holds a press conference saying it is a key acquisition for the future of the Pirates.
Keep addressing it before these moves happen, enough…move prospects around to fill the holes or needs, and see what they are capable of…Way too much pampering going on…
If Ben needs to be bashed so be it, 5 years, and for the most part, this team is not much better after all the trades and drafts..yes, I know the prospects are coming but they have been coming for years, how long of a trip is it?
In life, you never know for sure if you can do something until you do it…
Google MLB transactions. You can see on the MLB site transactions by day. There’s 1 or 2 of these signings per day across the league….this activity is not exclusive to the Pirates.
Nor am I saying that, read my statement Why do the Pirates have to do that, and not move from within…
If a lot of people jump off a bridge are you going to follow?
My guess is Borucki is gonna be lost in the development zone for a while. Something went wrong for him this year and I suppose the Pirates think they can do something about it. If they want to give him a dorm room at Pirate City for a bit, I don’t care. LHP who throws 95? Roll the dice.
Why?
Well, this one is really a dozy, you would think sooner or later, these pickups would stop, have to give credit to BC he continues to really know how to pick them…Hard to figure out which is worse his trades or his wire pickups…I guess a case can be made on either…
I get that these type of pick ups are meaningless, but I’m wondering what’s the appeal here, does he have an above average pitch that he hasn’t able to harness? The numbers are atrocious!
He throws 95, but he’s been hurt a lot. Like, more often than not.
That’s what I’m looking for, lefty that throws 95, not rare, but it is something!
The rules require you to have someone stand on the mound and throw the ball towards home plate, even in AAA.
Keep hoping they strike lightning??
I think they did with R5 guy. If he’s all they get with these many LHRPs, I figure that’s a win.
I keep hoping lightning will strike him…
Lol.
Sweet! Wait….. who?
the final piece
cursing us with ex blue jays
who is next? Robinson Diaz
have we ever acquired anything of value from Toronto???
https://history.pittsburghbaseball.com/2020/12/07/pittsburgh-pirates-trade-history-the-toronto-blue-jays-edition/
Travis Snider was pretty productive for a while. Orlando Merced,
Travis snider was productive for 1 season. We gave up a lot in the Merced deal. We did get Craig Wilson in the deal, but Merced, Garcia and Plesac were all productive players. Granted Merced and Garcia did not do much after leaving here, but they were still productive here. Plesac had a very good career after us. We did get Nunez, who couldn’t hit, but became a good defensive infielder, and Silva who never amounted to much.
Let’s not forget the trade that might even be worse than the Archer deal. The Liriano / drew Hutchinson deal.
Nope, try again Ben.