The Pirates outrighted hurler Yacksel Rios to Triple-A Indianapolis over the weekend, Adam Berry of MLB.com was among those to report. Rios has not been outrighted previously, and he doesn’t have the necessary service time to reject the assignment, so he’ll stay with the Pirates.
A 12th-round pick of the Phillies in 2011, the right-handed, hard-throwing Rios debuted with Philadelphia in 2017, though he has since had immense difficulty preventing runs at the major league level. After Rios posted a 6.38 ERA/5.64 FIP over 55 innings and parts of three seasons in its uniform, Philadelphia designated Rios for assignment last summer.
When the in-state rival Phillies booted the 27-year-old Rios from their roster, the Pirates took a flyer on him via the waiver wire. Rios went on to throw 10 1/3 frames across 10 appearances as a Pirate in 2019, but he yielded six earned runs on 10 hits (including two homers) and five walks, also totaling 10 strikeouts.
The are four vowels in his name, the same as AAAA.