The Pittsburgh Pirates have claimed left-handed pitcher Buddy Boshers from the Houston Astros. The 30-year-old Boshers has 100 Major League games in his career, last pitching for the 2017 Minnesota Twins. In Triple-A Fresno this season, he has a 3.18 ERA in 51 innings over 41 appearances, with 55 strikeouts, a 1.24 WHP and a 1.16 GO/AO ratio. He has been assigned to Indianapolis.
Boshers has appeared in the majors in 2013 with the Los Angeles Angels and 2016-17 with the Twins, getting a long look each season. In those three seasons combined, he has a 4.59 ERA in 86.1 innings over 100 appearances, with 78 strikeouts and a 1.27 WHIP. He held lefties to a .245/.277/.344 slash line over that time, while right-handed batters put up a .793 OPS against him. This season in Triple-A, noting that Boshers was pitching in the very hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, lefties were hitting .300 against him, though he had a 30:3 SO/BB ratio in 94 plate appearances.
UPDATE: Pirates announced the Boshers move just now, plus they have designated Christopher Bostick for assignment.
Bostick was just with the Pirates last week, appearing in two games before he was sent back to Indianapolis when Corey Dickerson was activated from the disabled list. The 25-year-old Bostick was hitting .295/.351/.436 in 78 games for Indianapolis before he was recalled. He wasn’t yet put back on their active roster, so that will at least be put off for now until they find out if he clears waivers. Bostick has a .727 OPS in 22 games with the Pirates over the last two seasons. He was just ranked 36th in our updated mid-season prospect guide. For those who have it, the last line in his bio looks like a pretty good prediction right now.
