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Pirates Designate Steven Brault For Assignment

By Anthony Franco | November 29, 2021 at 3:03pm CDT

The Pirates announced they’ve designated southpaw Steven Brault for assignment. The move clears space on the 40-man roster for José Quintana, whose previously-reported one-year deal has been made official.

Brault had been eligible for arbitration, so today’s DFA will function as an early non-tender. He’d been projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a $2.2MM salary. That’s not an exorbitant sum, but Brault’s coming off a tough season — one in which he missed a few months on account of a forearm strain. The 29-year-old ended up making just seven starts, working 27 2/3 innings of 5.86 ERA ball with a below-average 15% strikeout percentage.

That tough 2021 showing looks as if it’ll bring an end to Brault’s six-season tenure in Pittsburgh, but he’s only a year removed from being a capable member of the Bucs’ rotation. He started ten of his eleven appearances in the shortened 2020 season, pitching to a 3.38 ERA across 42 2/3 frames. That strong run prevention mark wasn’t entirely supported by ERA estimators, which pegged Brault as more of a back-of-the-rotation type. The sinkerballer induced grounders on nearly half the balls in play against him that year, though, and he’s typically done a solid job keeping the ball on the ground over the past few seasons.

Pittsburgh will now have to trade or waive Brault in the coming days. If another team were to acquire him via one of those avenues, he’d remain under control via arbitration for the next two seasons. If he passes through waivers unclaimed, Brault would have the right to refuse an outright assignment in favor of minor league free agency.

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Pittsburgh Pirates Transactions Steven Brault

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View Comments (43)
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43 Comments

  1. Metsin777

    4 years ago

    Mets please pick him up. I think hes gonna have a 2021 Musgrove year for whoever picks him up

    Reply
    • koz125

      4 years ago

      k

      1
      Reply
    • lemonlyman

      4 years ago

      Based on what?

      1
      Reply
      • Kruk it

        4 years ago

        Always thought he’d look good on Phils

        Reply
    • YourDreamGM

      4 years ago

      Musgrove in 2020 made changes and the results were a high SO rate. Brault improved as well with the new regime but doesn’t have the same talent as Musgrove. Coming off injury he may not be the same player. Certainly didn’t look to be.

      Reply
      • trout27

        4 years ago

        The “dreaded forearm strain is a precursor to TJ surgery. That’s a hard pass for me.

        Reply
  2. User 2952162988

    4 years ago

    Angels should put in a claim, Brault can hit!

    2
    Reply
  3. bucsfan0004

    4 years ago

    Credit to the author for digging up a sample size where Brault was mildly effective.

    2
    Reply
  4. Herc33

    4 years ago

    Let’s bring him home to San Diego!

    3
    Reply
  5. dabrewcrew

    4 years ago

    No shot he doesn’t get claimed

    3
    Reply
    • Robertowannabe

      4 years ago

      I dunno…..He is Arb eligible still. Has had injury issues. May not be there the arb figure he gets.

      1
      Reply
  6. Bonesinis

    4 years ago

    This has Cubs rebuild all over it

    1
    Reply
    • keysox

      4 years ago

      Why – he’s horrible. Well 2/10 Cubs

      1
      Reply
  7. Highest IQ

    4 years ago

    Welcome to the Rays

    Reply
  8. DanielDannyDano

    4 years ago

    It’s funny. I think going forward Brault would be far more valuable than Quintana

    3
    Reply
  9. Orel Saxhiser

    4 years ago

    Major League Baseball set a new record for pitchers used in 2021, with most teams utilizing at least 30 pitchers. The number of pitchers used goes up every year. That virtually guarantees that Brault will be picked up by someone.

    Reply
  10. thats it fort pitt

    4 years ago

    I would’ve cut Banda or manhole instead.

    Reply
    • thats it fort pitt

      4 years ago

      Ain’t autocorrect something? Manhold.

      2
      Reply
      • Robertowannabe

        4 years ago

        LOL! Think you mean Hanhold……. Pitches about the same quality of a manhole anyway…. 🙂

        Reply
      • Gwynning

        4 years ago

        The blackmail has been sent, now your wife will know you talk about manhole with strangers on the internet.

        1
        Reply
  11. rec567

    4 years ago

    Sure sounds like a Farhan project. Especially since he has stayed true to his strategy in not signing any of the high-priced (long-term) FA pitchers who have come signed in the last few days.

    1
    Reply
    • GASoxFan

      4 years ago

      Doubt he makes it that far in the claim priority. Cubbies may like him though

      Reply
  12. tedtheodorelogan

    4 years ago

    And in swoops Farhan to begin the great dumpster dive since he doesn’t seem to like signing free agents who have track records of success.

    Reply
  13. YourDreamGM

    4 years ago

    Depending on medicals he could be a solid backend starter. Is he just slow to return from injury or was injury career ending?

    Reply
  14. cptitan10

    4 years ago

    DFA’d by Pittsburgh? Sounds like Arte Moreno’s type of pitcher. Look for the Angels to swoop in and grab him. Who needs Stroman anyway?

    1
    Reply
  15. dvmin98

    4 years ago

    Time to bring another Foothiller home to SD. Join Musgrove.

    1
    Reply
  16. toddk-2

    4 years ago

    He won’t get claimed, he made over 2 mil last, and with arbitration he will get a raise. Teams will wait til he clears and sign him for less than 2 mil, maybe 1 with incentives

    2
    Reply
  17. Monkey’s Uncle

    4 years ago

    My prayers have been answered. Even the Pirates can do better than Brault.

    Reply
  18. Duffy S. Cliff

    4 years ago

    Rockies should pick him up. Reunite him with Diaz as his catcher, and would be a good fit in Colorado as his problem isn’t so much the long ball.

    Reply
  19. Karp62

    4 years ago

    It’s too bad he wasn’t able to develop another pitch. Basically, he’s a two pitch pitcher, heavily FB dominant, which is tough when your fastball sits at 91 mph. Tough to have a career when you’re .270 .363 .440 v RH. Not fooling many hitters with that combo.

    3
    Reply
    • Baseball 1600

      4 years ago

      I think the Giants can make a guy like him work. Gausman was essentially a two pitch pitcher with an occasional slider/changeup outside his fastball split combo. They also helped Drew Smyly do well while only using a Fastball/Curveball combo during his time in SF.

      Reply
  20. bobtillman

    4 years ago

    Isn’t this that guy who sings?

    He must be seriously hurt. I can’t see the Bucs running with Quintanna., whose essentially toast, instead of Brault. And I can’t see his arb-number being that much of a deterrent.

    We’ll see with the waiver activity.

    Reply
  21. jimmyz

    4 years ago

    Interesting move considering that the Pirates need pitching. Brault gets a lot of flak from fans but he’s a decent 5th starter. The problem was that for his whole tenure in Pittsburgh he was a de facto mid-rotation arm and as should have been expected he performed as a back end arm. I wouldn’t be surprised if he never makes it to waivers and some team works out a minor trade for him. Personally I think he’d be the type of pitcher who would benefit by moving to a relief role since command is his biggest issue.

    Reply
  22. mack423

    4 years ago

    Would love to see the Cardinals pick him up as the 6th/7th starter from outside the organization that they’re apparently eying. Would not look forward to Dan McLaughlin referring to his fish tattoos over and over again, though.

    1
    Reply
  23. Bob Thompson

    4 years ago

    Lots of pain as a bucs fan. He’s gotta be seriously injured and we aren’t being told, if not this makes no sense. I guess just trade Reynolds and put the sword through our chest at this point please. #raisetheflag

    Reply
  24. tiredolddude

    4 years ago

    He had a start here and there in which you thought he was coming along nicely and then would have the next two or three where he would get lit up. And he’s fragile. Just never seemed to put it together here

    Reply
  25. jimmyz

    4 years ago

    The human element to this has to suck. I can’t imagine being in DFA limbo for a week is a fun time but he’s basically in DFA limbo indefinitely until the labor issues get resolved.

    Reply
  26. panj341

    4 years ago

    He became too expensive for Nutting, just like Moran and Stallings.

    Reply
  27. Buccrazy

    4 years ago

    Not surprising

    He never really got it going for the Pirates

    Wouldn’t be surprised if he goes somewhere and plays decent though

    Reply
  28. BloodySox

    4 years ago

    Hmm

    Reply
  29. dcahen

    4 years ago

    Doesn’t anyone understand the concept of a rebuild? If you have players like Moran @ $4 mil/year & Brault @ $3 mil/year, & they’re not going to be part of the future young team; even that $7 mil is more money than needed to spend on stopgap players. It’s not rocket science.

    1
    Reply
    • jimmyz

      4 years ago

      Pretty much the only thing Pirate fans understand is a rebuild, certainly not sustained success. The thing is Moran was replaced on the roster by Yoshi Tsutsugo at an identical 4 million that Moran was projected to make in arbitration and Brault by Jose Quintana for 200k less than Brault’s projection. The team didn’t save 7 million, they saved 200 thousand and considering Brault and Moran had an extra year of control through arbitration than the one year free agent deals Quintana and Tsutsugo received the team literally just spent 6 million on stopgap players. Also Scherzer alone is making about 5 million more than the entire Pirates roster just as a reference point.

      Reply
      • Buccrazy

        4 years ago

        In Morans case, tsutugo can get flipped more easily if he has a hot start. He has shown more power and better reverse splits in his short sample.

        Brault and Quintana is a different situation. I think pirates have just given up on the former. Quintana could be decent and flipped with a better defense and a better pitchers park. Even though the money lines up, I don’t see that so much as Quintana replacing brault. They are just trying to get lucky for 4 months on quintana so he can be traded.

        I always thought brault should have been a reliever. I think he goes somewhere else it will be in that capacity.

        Reply

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