The Pirates and right-hander Daniel Bard have agreed to a minor league contract, per reports from MLB.com’s Adam Berry (links to Twitter) and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Rob Biertempfel (Twitter link).
Bard, now 30 years of age, was once a lights-out setup man for the Red Sox but has pitched just a single inning in the Major Leagues dating back to 2013 due to a landslide of injuries resulting in severe control problems and, ultimately, surgery to relieve throacic outlet syndrome. Bard has been largely absent from baseball since 2013, throwing just 17 1/3 innings across multiple minor league levels, the Puerto Rican Winter League and the aforementioned one inning with Boston.
From 2009-11, Bard was outstanding, however, posting a 2.88 ERA in a considerably more hitter-friendly era than today’s game even a few short years later. That 2.88 ERA, when adjusted for the league and Bard’s home of Fenway Park, resulted in a 154 ERA+, indicating that he was 54 percent better than a league-average pitcher. He averaged 9.7 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 in that time to go along with a well-above-average ground-ball rate and a fastball that averaged better than 97 mph.
Bard told Berry that the Pirates’ history of reclamation projects with pitchers made Pittsburgh an appealing destination for him as he seeks to revive his career. “They seem to help out the Pirates a lot, and the Pirates seem to help them out a lot,” said Bard of pitchers that have revitalized their careers with the Bucs. Among the most notable names to have turned their careers around in Pittsburgh in recent years are A.J. Burnett, Francisco Liriano and Edinson Volquez.
Setup man of the year right here since he’s going to the Pirates
I’d love to see him succeed, he was lights out in Boston.
Side note – did he get a ring for his one inning in 2013? Not sure what the minimum requirements are.
I’m sure he got a ring, he was on the 40 man wasn’t he?
You”d probably have to ask him. From what I’ve read it seems to be entirely up to the team. There have been cases of teams commissioning a couple hundred rings for players and staff, so it would seem possible that Bard received one even with his very minor contribution to the season at the major league level.
I know that everyone who works at Fenway did. Be surprised if Bard didn’t.
Ditto. This isn’t Charlie O’s Athletics and Stu Sternberg’s Rays we are talking about. Boston has gone out and rewarded attendants, secretaries and people most would have ignored since at least ’75. Sternberg and O’Finley both skinned players that had active time on the MLB roster, much less non playing personnel.
Daniel Bard received 2013 World Series ring from Red Sox in the mail
very good, low risk high upside signing.
Here Danial Bard’s combined stats from his last 7 appearances, three games for the Criollos de Caguas, and four games for the Hickory Crawdads.
1 IP, 0 H, 20 ER, 18 BB, 10 HBP, 4 WP, 1 K | 180.00 ERA
LMFAO that’s impressive. Still no hits though.
I want to say this can’t be true but since I did look it up and it says it on bbref it must have some truth behind it, even if its hard to believe. The crazy part about this is, if it is true, is he didn’t allow any hits in this (so at least he has a no hitter going on).
Flat out unhittable.
Wow. That is an insane line. I looked up th game logs on bbref. 18 batters faced: 9 walks; 7 hit batters, a strike out; and a ground out. It was al in A ball – those poor 18-19 year olds must have been scared when he came in the game.
Bard’s greatest injury is the one between his ears. All kidding aside I hope he can get it together and be a reliable reliever for the Pirates. But at this point he has a long way to go to climb back up.
I agree, I’m a diehard Red Sox fan this is the first I’ve ever heard an injury attached to his poor performance, I had always heard it was between his ears as well
I have heard of the injury. It’s just that he was so bad for so long between his implosion with the Red Sox and the injury, that it’s really hard to say the injury had anything to do with his performance.
Never understand why the Red Sox made him a starter the very same year Papelbon left. Worse than what the Yankees did with Joba because at least they still had Mariano in the bullpen.
Because he wanted to start. It was a desire to make more money in arbitration coupled with the inability to close. The guy has always had issues between his ears, and likely would have had a similar meltdown if he was put in the closer’s position.
Love the red sox to death and bard was one of my favorites i mean as soon as it gets in your head as a pitcher at that level your done
One thing makes you wonder though, Andrew Miller and Bard were #1 and #2 at North Carolina and both of them have struggled mentally at times
I say mates has the Pirates stolen another hi den treasure. Only them scavengers can make it work.good luck arrrre I was pulling for Bard when those Cubbie’s . Set sail ‘s to get the Skelly wag. Now he’s a Pirate. Hohoho