The Pirates have claimed left-hander Sam Moll off waivers from the Athletics, according to press releases from both teams. Pittsburgh’s 40-man roster is now at 39 players.
Moll, 25, is a former third-round pick of the Rockies that was traded to Oakland this past August for cash considerations. The A’s designated him for assignment last week when clearing space on their 40-man roster to protect several players from the Rule 5 Draft.
The 2017 season saw Moll make his big league debut in Oakland, though the results weren’t especially pretty. In 6 2/3 frames, the Memphis product was tagged for eight runs on 13 hits (including two homers) and three walks with seven strikeouts.
In 54 1/3 innings between the Triple-A affiliates for the Rockies and the A’s, Moll pitched to a more respectable 3.64 ERA with 7.8 K/9 against 3.1 BB/9. He also registered a promising 50.3 percent ground-ball rate in his 47 1/3 innings with Colorado’s Triple-A affiliate, though that fell to 33.3 percent in admittedly tiny seven-inning sample with Oakland’s affiliate. Overall, Moll has a history of missing bats and inducing grounders at decent clips in the minors. He joins Nik Turley as the second southpaw claimed off waivers by the Bucs since the offseason began.
Typical Pirates move.
ground ball pitcher. searge foaming at the mouth…
Is he? Didn’t seem like it from what we got to see of him…
for real though lol gave up a lot of homeruns for the A’s
Lefty available with some history of being decent so someone was going to claim him to kick the tires and see if there was anything there. Cheap addition with no risk at all. He can be, and may well be released again if they do not like what the see. Many teams will pick up these kinds of guys because it is minimal cost and no risk whatsoever involved.
Wow, Mark Appel’s stock has really fallen. The Pirates used a #8 overall pick on him a few years ago, he went #1 overall ahead of Kris Bryant to the Astros the next and today the Pirates claimed someone named Sam Moll instead of him.
I might have given Searage a chance to fix a guy who most scouts saw as an ace not that long ago. Why not take a chance?
MIght be still having arm issues??