The Pirates announced a handful of roster moves today, placing right-handed pitchers JT Brubaker and Duane Underwood Jr. on the injured list, both with right shoulder inflammation. A couple of fellow righties, Kyle Keller and Shea Spitzbarth, are taking their place.
Brubaker has been one of the more reliable members of a Pirates club that is enduring a dismal season. His 124 1/3 innings lead the club by a significant margin, with Tyler Anderson and Wil Crowe being the only other Pirates with more than 80. Anderson, of course, isn’t even with the club anymore after being dealt to the Mariners before the trade deadline. Brubaker’s ERA isn’t great at 5.36, though his 24% strikeout rate and 7.1% walk rate are both slightly better than league average. He had just been activated off the injured list yesterday, after missing some time with a thumb contusion, but left his start after three innings.
Similarly, Underwood has been a solid-yet-unspectacular contributor out of the bullpen, throwing 72 2/3 innings with an ERA of 4.33. His 20.3% strikeout rate is a bit below average, though his 8.4% walk rate is slightly better than the league-wide rate of 8.7%.
With the club well out of contention, they can prioritize long-term health over short-term competitiveness at this stage of the season. Both Brubaker and Underwood are 27 years old and won’t yet be arbitration eligible by season’s end.
Brubaker is never going to be a star but he can certainly be a respectable rotation member going forward, especially if he can figure out a way to allow less homers. And Underwood has been pretty solid overall, it seems to me like he’s had 2 or 3 awful appearances that have heavily skewed his numbers. It wouldn’t surprise me if these two aren’t part of the team next year but I wouldn’t complain at all if they were.
I think that they both will be as they are both decent pitchers.Brubaker has pitched many more innings than in both of the previous years combined.I agree that Underwood’s ERA has been skewed by some really bad outings.They both must do decently next year in order to stay with the Pirates though.
Brubaker is a Musgrove clone. He may develop a little slower than most woukd like, but he’s going to be a very effective major league pitcher.