The Pittsburgh Pirates activated third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes from the 10-day Injured List prior to Thursday night’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. To make room on the 26-man roster, right-handed pitcher Roansy Contreras has been optioned to Indianapolis.
Hayes was placed on the IL on June 28th, but he was eligible to come off yesterday due to the move being made retroactive to June 25th. He was out due to back soreness.
Hayes is hitting .254/.290/.397 through 74 games this year. He’s been worth 1.4 WAR this season, with 1.2 dWAR to his credit.
Contreras was dropped from the starting rotation earlier this year after struggling in the role. Things haven’t been any better with the move. He has a 6.59 ERA over 68.1 innings this year, with 55 strikeouts, a 5.22 FIP and a 1.57 WHIP.
In his 11 starts, he had a 6.13 ERA over 54.1 innings.
In his eight relief appearances, he had an 8.36 ERA over 14 innings.
Indianapolis Places Duane Underwood Jr and Daniel Zamora on the Injured List
The Pittsburgh Pirates placed two pitchers on the 7-day Injured List of the Indianapolis Indians, while adding three pitchers to the active roster.
Right-handed pitcher Duane Underwood Jr was placed on the IL. He has struggled since being sent to the minors a month ago. In that time, he has a 9.90 ERA over eight games, with a 1.70 WHIP and five strikeouts in ten innings. He posted a 5.18 ERA over 24.1 innings with the Pirates earlier this year.
Left-hander Daniel Zamora was placed on the IL as well. He has spent the entire season in Indianapolis, where he has a 4.97 ERA and a 1.83 WHIP over 29 innings.
Indianapolis brought guys back from everywhere. Brad Case was promoted from Altoona. JC Flowers was activated off of the Development List. Geronimo Franzua was activated from the IL.
Case had a minor Spring Training issue that caused him to start the season late. He rehabbed with Bradenton and Greensboro, before joining Altoona. So he’s getting in work with all of the full-season affiliates. He was pitching well until a recent hiccup ended a string of a 2.30 ERA over 27.1 innings. He has been used as a starter and long relief.
Flowers has really struggled as of late, after a nice start to this season. He decimated his ERA by allowing 20 runs over 4.1 innings in a four-game stretch. He had a 3.63 ERA up to that point. He was briefly placed on the Development List, so he missed almost no time.
Franzua was injured during Spring Training, then started his rehab work a month ago today. He had seven outings with no earned runs between the FCL Pirates and Bradenton, while giving up eight runs over four innings in his other three games.
**UPDATE: Franzua was reassigned from Indianapolis to Altoona since this was posted.
Raymond Mola Update
The Pirates signed two top 30 international prospects on January 15th and both of them are injured. I was told about ten days ago that the injury to Jun-Seok Shim was “nothing” and they were just being extra cautious. He left a start with what appeared to be a pectoral issue, but wasn’t showing any sign of pain, so it appeared to be minor to those who were there (Wilbur Miller being one of them).
Outfielder Raymond Mola was the other top 30 prospect. He injured his wrist during Spring Training in the Dominican. He was just transferred from the 7-day IL to the 60-day IL, which is rough when the DSL season doesn’t even last 90 days.
I was told today that “he is probably done for the season”, but that’s not 100%. At best he could return late in the season for some games.
If any other moves come up today, we will add them here.
