Minor League Baseball handed out their monthly awards on Monday afternoon. The Pittsburgh Pirates are represented on that list by Bradenton Marauders pitcher JP Massey, who was named as the Florida State League Pitcher of the Month for May.
Massey started his month with five shutout innings on May 6th. He gave up one hit and four walks, while striking out seven batters.
He threw shutout ball again one week later, once again tossing five scoreless. He allowed two hits and two walks in that game, while striking out a career high nine batters
Massey had his longest career start on May 20th. He pitched six shutout frames that day, finishing up with one hit, one walk and five strikeouts.
He worked around some trouble in his start six days later, allowing one run over five innings, despite seven hits and a walk. He struck out four batters.
He pitched on shorter rest in his final out, going from seven days between starts at the beginning of the month, down to six days/five days for his final two starts. That led to a shorter out on May 31st, in which he gave up one run over four innings. He had three hits, three walks and four strikeouts.
Those five starts gave him an 0.72 ERA, a 1.00 WHIP, a .167 BAA and 29 strikeouts in 25 innings for the month.
Massey was getting a lot of attention this year during Spring Training, but he struggled a bit in April. He had a 6.08 ERA in 13.1 innings that month, though it came with 19 strikeouts.
The 23-year-old Massey was a seventh round pick of the Pirates in 2022 out of the University of Minnesota.
