The Pirates have designated left-hander Antonio Bastardo for assignment, according to a team media release. Infielder Phil Gosselin was called up from Triple-A in a corresponding move.
Bastardo has only made nine appearances out of Pittsburgh’s bullpen this season after spending two months on the disabled list with a quad strain. Even in his limited action, the southpaw has been very ineffective, posting a 15.00 ERA thanks to five homers and nine walks over just nine innings pitched. It’s perhaps unfair to extrapolate too much given this small sample size (and Bastardo’s less-than-healthy status), though the lefty is also coming off a rough 2016 campaign that saw him post a 4.52 ERA and a 1.5 HR/9 over 67 2/3 IP for the Pirates and Mets.
Bastardo has always countered somewhat shaky control (career 4.4 BB/9) with big strikeout totals, though his average fastball velocity has dropped a full mile per hour from last year, down to 90.5 mph. By contrast, he was averaging 92.8 mph on his heater in 2015, Bastardo’s last effective season.
After signing a two-year, $12MM deal with the Mets in the 2015-16 offseason, Bastardo is owed approximately $3.15MM for the rest of this season. The Pirates are on the hook for that amount unless someone claims Bastardo or a trade is worked out, and given Bastardo’s lack of effectiveness, one would think any interested team could wait to see if Bastardo is released after his DFA period expires. Bastardo carried some pretty solid career numbers prior to 2016, so he could certainly draw some looks from clubs in need of left-handed relief depth.
Phillies
Bastardo can help the Phillies hold onto the first pick in next year’s MLB Draft.
…and the city of Pittsburgh rejoices. He was decent at times but never reliable in the past, and he was an unmitigated disaster this year.
I look forward to not getting my post censored because I felt like talking about a member of my Pirates bullpen.
I don’t understand why they never removed his name from the filter. Seems like it would save them a lot of work.
With the orioles lack of lefty bullpen options, I would give him a chance. Can’t hurt much worse than already.
He’s still better than Blake Wood in the reds bullpen lol
Could totally see the Mets being stupid and trying him again lol.
I keep hearing how the Pirates not wanting to keep a 30 something year old second basemen with back issues who is being paid almost $18 million this year when they already had Kang and Harrison under contract makes them “cheap”.
Funny, I never hear how the Steelers are cheap for not wanting to pay the best RB in the league. Or for forcing their war hero starting LT to play for peanuts. I can only imagine if the ball club did those things.
The media here use a rather effective form of mushroom management on the fans.
You ever think that maybe the axe to grind on the Pirates’ front office is actually quite accurate?
They didn’t pay Bell because they wanted to franchise tag him this year. And they’re gonna pay Villaneuva before camp begins.
Bastardo = Long Island Ducks
*City of Pittsburgh: Exhales