The Pirates have designated right-hander Radhames Liz for assignment, as Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review first reported on Twitter. He’ll lose his roster spot to clear 40-man space for the return of fellow righty Vance Worley.
Liz was a surprising big-league signee this offseason, given that he’d last appeared in the majors in 2009. The 31-year-old has shown the ability to miss bats, with 10.4 K/9 on the year. But he has also struggled to keep hitters from reaching base, surrendering four and a half walks and ten hits per nine.
All told, Liz owns a 4.24 ERA in 23 1/3 innings at the major league level on the year, though he put up good results during a mid-season stint at Triple-A (much of it as a starter). Regardless whether he makes it back to the bigs this year, Liz has certainly shown enough — including a nearly 95 mph average fastball — to draw interest again this coming winter.
Worley, 27, had a bounce-back season last year for the Bucs. While he hasn’t been quite as good in 2015, at least in terms of bottom-line results, he’s been effective enough at the big league level with a 3.78 ERA over 69 innings. And he has been been quite effective against Triple-A hitters since being outrighted this summer.
While the Pirate’s have done many things right this year, their handling of Liz was not one of them.
Liz is not a relief pitcher. He is a starter. He has to follow a set routine and his stats show it. When he was signed, I was of the opinion that he would be a starter. He failed miserably coming out of the pen in the past, rebuilt his career as a starter, so that is how he should have been used. Instead, he was used in relief, failed at it, and was sent down to the minors. There he was a starter, and excelled. They brought him back up, and put him back in the pen where he failed once again. What a shock.
Liz has never been successful as a starter at the big league level. He is one of those AAAA guys.The Pirates couldn’t afford to give a guy like that starts in a pennant race.
Same with Stolmy Pimentel. But in the Pirates defense, if you don’t show the ability to get major league hitters out, you shouldn’t be in the starting rotation.
Good for Vanimal. Hope he can find a spot in the rotation for next year
Glad Vance is back Might not be an Ace but nice to have to eat some innings or spot start and not be the worst at it.