Among a slew of roster moves this afternoon, the Pirates have designated former top-100 prospect Nick Kingham for assignment. The 27-year-old, who established residence on Pirates top ten lists for much of the decade, has been largely ineffective in 110 big-league innings since his MLB debut last summer.
Kingham’s main issue has been the gopher ball – he’s allowed over two per nine over that stretch – but the 6’5 righty’s also struggled to command the ball and keep it on the ground. His 91.4 average fastball velocity is down from the 92-94 MPH reported range in which he sat before his 2015 Tommy John surgery, and Kingham’s swinging strike rates and overall contact percentage against have also been trending in the wrong direction of late. He still sports some affinity for bat-missing, though, so it’s likely another organization will swoop in and attempt to nab the potential reclamation project.
The Pirate staff, currently minus Jameson Taillon, Trevor Williams, Keone Kela, Nick Burdi, and Chris Stratton, was thin to begin and is now almost in shambles. Both Chris Archer and Joe Musgrove have been hammered in recent weeks, and the S.O.S. calls for Kingham, Steven Brault, and Rookie Davis were met mostly with deaf ears. The club may need to turn for good to top prospect Mitch Keller, who’s lately been lights out for AAA-Indianapolis, and hope for unlikely production from any number of sources if it’s to stay afloat in a very competitive NL Central.
He should be claimed rather quickly.
Prob can find a trade partner.
Pirates would take any pitcher with major league experience
Rays please
Why? So they can again commit legal theft after the Meadows/Glasnow deal? I’m all for it btw. Maybe a simple adjustment such as the Astros with Cole.
However, the Pirates ripped off the Astros in that one getting 4 for 1. Musgrove, Moran, Martin , & Feliz for Cole. Tha adjustment was last year the Astros scored about 6 runs a game, so an average pitcher can will 15 with them
It’s not theft if you willing give something to someone.
Tell me more about the slew please
Hope he makes it to the orioles. Hoping we wave goodbye to Dan Straily.
I’d trade Kingham for Straily. Pirates could use a couple spot starts from him
Cleveland maybe? The rotation is in shambles, much of the depth is on the IL, and they just signed Mitch freaking Talbot…
Former top 100 prospect makes me think he won’t make it past the top 2-3 teams with waiver priority
A team could trade for him before he’d get put on waivers though
They needed to designate him.He is a total mess.Hurdle was trotting him out with worse results each time.Hopefully all other teams will see this and pass on him because he is no where near a ML pitcher right now.He needs a year in AAA to establish himself as the TJ surgery really set him back..
Ty is off on Archer too as his last 2 or 3 outings have been good.
Phillies you can’t pass on this
Why would like 25 teams pass on him for him to even get to Philly?
Phillies would actually be 14th in line. Claims go by League first, then reverse win record. Just sayin’
I think thats only for defunct August trade
He’s out of options and almost totally useless. None of the contenders can gamble. Only the bottom feeders. That said, if I was them, I’d grab him; the arm is still electric.
a yes, a “totally useless, still electric” arm
Lol I could see a trade being worked out for another struggling pitcher.
Change up the scenery
Kingham has an an ERA of 9.61, and his fastball continues to lose velocity, In his past 7 appearances, he has given up 32 earned runs across 24 innings. The pirates are absolutely desperate for pitching, and he is struggling most on the roster. The consensus in Pittsburgh is that he is no longer a Major league talent..
Glasnow was a wash too.. until he got away from Searage who seems to ruin elite arms
I totally see this guy landing in Seattle. Don’t ask me why, but I see Kingham in an M’s uni
Put him in the Nats bullpen.
Give us Rosenthal while eating his contract.
If pirates want to be competitive this year, they need to go out and get a starter. Oh, I forgot the pirates are cheap. They don’t want to compete, but just field a team. Bob is going to buy another newspaper.
Ummmm… what newspaper does Bob own?
First thing I would do from waking up from a 10 year coma would be to get a steak but I guess you chose to comment here.
CEO of Ogden Newspapers. Many, many newspapers.
I’m the jackass
Thought you had him confused with McClatchy
No idea he owned newspapers along with his ski resorts
My sincerest apologies
Welcome to the Orioles!
Wow….lotsa love for Kingham all of a sudden? He’ll never make it to the waiver wire in pitching starved MLB
Agreed. Think buccos get another project pitcher back.
Almost every team could offer some type of rebound/change of scenery candidate so this is actually an exciting DFA.
Also exciting to see what Kingham can do away from Searage who can’t handle elite arms
Ya, the Bucs definitely need pitching. Maybe they should talk to the Rays about Chris Archer…maybe give ’em Glassnow and Meadows, and throw in a lottery ticket like Baz……nah, who’d be that dumb…….
I was willing to do that until you said you wanted Daniel Hudson for Cory Dickerson.
It was and as the years go by it’ll only get dumber.
Amazing how many arm chair gms want to claim this guy when I’m sure he was offered to every team in the league for as little as cash considerations
He wont make it to waivers.
Someone will trade for him.
I can’t believe this many people want him for their team. He completely lost any semblance of what made him interesting in the first place. Velocity down, command out the window. He’s a BP pitcher. One of the guys who never really came back from TJ.
Same was said of Glasnow.
Glasnow never had TJ. Kingham was looking like the next big thing before TJ, bigger than Glasnow, Keller, Taillon, and Cole ever did. It was immediately clear after TJ he’d never be the same pitcher again.
Pirates don’t protect their arms. That’s the big problem.
A year ago, most people would have taken Kingham over Glasnow.
Baseball’s a random game.
If the Pirates knew how to protect and develop elite arms this decade, they’d have the best rotation in baseball this year. For all the good NH has done, development has clearly been one of the biggest failures of the organization in his time. Add the Archer fiasco and inconceivable extension of Hurdle, and I think it’s time for him to go.
As Bob Prince used to say about opposing pitchers,”stick a fork in him,he’s done”!
Kingham needs to go to AAA and learn to pitch again.
He threw a fine game in his first start last year against the Cardinals,and has steadily gone downhill ever since.
I do not see how any team unless it is the Orioles would want this guy at this point,and certainly no team who wants to make the playoffs.He would need to stay on the 25 man roster like a Rule 5 guy almost.
I hope that the Pirates can move him to AAA and let him pitch the rest of the year there to see what he has.He still has potential to be a good pitcher.
He’s been DFA’d. He’s going to be traded or released. He’ll never clear waivers as that’s what will have to happen to be assigned to AAA. A low level prospect most likely in return.
M’s could take a stab at him, Leake is available(and we know M’s willing to eat ALOT of money) could be the perfect swap! Inning-Eater to hold the place for Keller, while pitching-starved M’s can afford a reclaimation project in this downward spiraling season!
Actually,I have never been impressed by Leake but he would definitely be an upgrade and still a respectable pitcher.
I was surprised that the M’s ate all but $3.5M on Bruce’s contract which is quite a steal for the Phillies as he is definitely a streaky hitter but is in a hot streak now.
If there are two years left I could see the Pirates eating $6M which would be worth it as Musgrove is going downhill and Lyles has lost some oomph.
Nothing like competition to bring out the better in ballplayers.
They would not have to rely on the likes of Chris Stratton or Rookie Davis then.