The Pirates have selected the contract of right-handed pitcher Chase De Jong, per a team announcement. Fellow righty Roansy Contreras has been optioned to create move on the active roster. Another righty, Luis Oviedo, was designated for assignment to create space on the 40-man roster. (Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette broke the news of De Jong’s selection and Contreras being optioned before the team announced the full slate of transactions.)
A second round pick of the Blue Jays in 2012, De Jong has become a journeyman, also spending time in the organizations of the Dodgers, Mariners, Twins, Astros and Pirates. He’s seen some MLB time in each of the last five seasons but only has 98 total innings under his belt. Last year was his most extensive look, as he made nine starts for the Bucs and logged 43 2/3 innings with a 5.77 ERA. Unfortunately, he was hit on the knee by a comebacker in July, leading to knee surgery and finishing his season.
At the end of the year, he was outrighted by the Pirates, elected free agency and re-signed on a minor league deal. In 13 Triple-A innings so far this season, he has a 2.08 ERA, 37.3% strikeout rate and 9.8% walk rate. De Jong is out of options and will need to stick on the club’s roster or else be designated for assignment. But if he can carry any that Triple-A performance to the majors, it would be a boon for Pittsburgh. The 28-year-old has just over a year of service time and could be controlled cheaply for years if he pitches well enough to hang onto his spot.
As for Oviedo, who turns 23 next month, he started his career in the Cleveland organization. In the 2020 Rule 5 draft, he was selected by the Mets and flipped to the Pirates. He lasted the full year on the big league club (apart from a rehab assignment), throwing 29 2/3 innings of 8.80 ERA ball, which allowed the Pirates to option him to the minors this year. He’s logged 3 2/3 innings between A-ball and Double-A so far this year. If any team were to claim him, he still has options and exactly one year of MLB service time.
It pains me to see Contreras get sent to Triple-A for service time reasons. He needs to be starting. No idea why they didn’t just have him start when he was in the majors, especially if they were going to use him 3-4 innings at a time. Hope Oviedo passes through waviers now.
He was the only guy healthy on the 40 man when he was called up. He has 6 starts in AA and AAA combined which is why they can send him down stretch him out. Ignore the 20 days he needs to be in Indy for service time
Contreras has 13 starts between Double-A and Triple-A.
He still needed stretched out to start. He was on the 40 man so did not have much time in the abbreviated ST to get innings built. In normal circumstances I believe he would have stayed in Pittsburgh. However, he missed a large chunk of time due to a forearm issue last season. That was followed by the lockout with him not getting a full offseason to get ready after the injury. As a fan, I would rather him work a few games as a starter in AAA to err on the side of caution to build his innings to start. I could see him work in the rotation for maybe 3 times through getting the normal starter routine instead of working out of the pen in the Bigs and then coming back up for the rotation.
So the Pirates kept Oviedo on the active roster last year as a rule 5 player even though he clearly was not ready for the major leagues. Though you can tell with development he can be a very dominant bullpen arm. Now that they’ve gained 3 options on him, they DFA him. What was the point of keeping him last year then? I hope someone claims him away from the Pirates.
That’s my EXACT thought!!
Spendnuttinwinnuttinknowsnuttin
They were wrong with there initial evaluation. It happens.
He was not having any success in AA this year., Got beat up in Pittsburgh and AAA last season. He may well pass through and get optioned and they still may have a chance to get him figured out.
Or Cleveland reclaims him and turns him into a 20-game winner. They drafted him for a reason.
He had all of 3 innings this season…..
Apparently the consistent utter suckitude of DeJong is too hard to resist.
This makes NO sense. The pirates select Oviedo in the rule 5, keep him on the team all 2021 and let him just obliterated because he wasn’t refined enough for the majors, but they didn’t want to return him. Then they DFA him to bring on a 28 year old journeyman loser of a pitcher. An Organization with so little hope I swear idk why I’m a fan.
So they have so little hope because they DFA’d a Rule 5 guy who struggled? Not saying that I would have DFA’d him (because I wouldn’t have), but I really don’t get why it’s such a big deal. This team has a ton of hope and it’s just being ignorant and intentionally turning a blind eye to the boatload of good propects if you’re ignoring the talent in the minors, especially at Double-A and Triple-A.
mlb1225, There’s no hope because the way this organization has acted the past 30 years. We’ve been told the system is great before, just to trade them all away for guys like Jason Martin, Chris Archer, Colin Moran….
They were wrong and this tells you what they now think of Oviedo.
@spendnuttinwinnuttin You know, you are probably one of those guys yelling for Oneil Cruz to be play in Pittsburgh instead of AAA this year. I don’t have to say anything more *drops the mic*
as he should be
@darkside830 yeah, errors after errors and maybe one home run with .180 BA and .358 ops. A
WAR of -8. These are all predictions because his AAA numbers are horrible at the moment. With Cruz on the Pittsburgh roster, they would have 4 less wins. Seems smart to bring him up right now or have him on opening day, right? Some of you so called fans, see spring training and think a player is ready. Some of you Pittsburgh fans can be the dumbest in all of sports. Makes me feel ashamed of being a fan of Pittsburgh (but the Steelers) because guys like you lack brains and common sense.
Piratesfan you are the biggest idiot on this whole blog like please go back to 1981. Us fans are TIRED of losing, being the laughingstocks of this city AND baseball.
@spendnuttinwinnuttin painting the kettle black aren’t we? The stuff you spew on this forum, is something from a ‘tard camp fighting over who can sleep with the stuffed monkey that night. I’ve never seen so much nonsense come out of anyone like I do with you. Sad thing is, you believe in your nonsense. You allow this fantasyland consume you and you pretend that fantasy world is a reality. What the Pirates are doing is without question, the right way to go. A guy like you would bankrupt the organization again. I may not approve of Bob Nutting all the time, but he’s the best guy to have that organization. Or else it would be heading to “greener pastures” with someone else like Mike Cuban. Dallas Pirates, makes my stomach turn.
Spendnuttinwinuttindumbnittin
hahah good one. take you long to think of???
Who cares? Like they’re going to lose sleep over a bad pitcher when 3/4 of their staff is bad. Ma;ybe De Jong learned something and will improve, if not, keep moving along.
He’s not pitching well in AA as a 23 year old. This isn’t a great prospect anymore. His DFA means he’s officially a reliever now. He might get back to the majors.
Not quite sure what the thinking is, unless they think DeJong has discovered something. But I really don’t see Contreras as a service-time issue. Fans tend to see that everywhere; Last I looked, O’Neil Cruz was hitting a lusty .210 in AAA, looking clumsy at SS and horrific in LF.
Sometimes players really DO need time.
Cruz definitely needed more minors time. Contreras not sure. Either way service time is important.
Contreras had forearm issues and missed a big chunk of time last year. He prob is better off getting at least 3 starts as a starter in a rotation in AAA to build strength up as a starter. Think they are just being a little cautious with the injury last year.
Contreras’ outings from the bullpen this year were just marginally smaller than any of the starters the Pirates have been using. The only difference is that Contreras was actually getting batters out. They could have easily stretched him out as a starter from his bullpen role piggybacking any other pitcher every fifth day. This is about service time and gaining an extra year of control. Which is fine by the way because that’s how the rules are set up and it’s dumb not to exploit that loophole. Just don’t pretend he needs to be in AAA to get stretched out as a starter, that’s just what the front office has to publicly say to avoid Roansy and his agent filing a grievance.
I hope the Orioles jump all over Oviedo. Sure he got roughed up in the majors but let’s see what happens in the minors.
got roughed in AAA last year and in AA this season.
Contreras ready to pitch in the major leagues, but probably not built up enough to start. They obviously ain’t winning anything anyways this year so I got no problems with him going down. I’m ok with service time being manipulated for a team that’s going to lose a minimum of 90 no matter what. I guess they needed an arm so de jong coming back makes sense. I would think they lose Oviedo. He’s not ready to be on a 40 man, but he could be a decent major league arm in the pen after some work. I mean, he was the only one they could let go, so what are you going to do?
They could’ve brought up Sam Howard instead of De Jong and not be forced to clear a 40 man roster spot potentially losing Oviedo in the process.
Howard was just hurt. He’s more of a lefty specialist type. I say specialist very loosely FWIW. De Jong can at least go out there and take a beating. Maybe they have given up on Oviedo who is a high ceiling but raw type guy. They are very thin on the pitching side of guys who are almost ready. I’m not crazy about the move but sometimes you have to make hard calls. Actually, it’s a good sign they are moving forward that we can be slightly disappointed about a DFA.
I get all that and honestly I think more than anything that they, probably rightfully so, believe Oviedo won’t be claimed. Ultimately though de Jong is going to end up DFA’d too when Underwood and Howard come back to Pittsburgh.
Cleveland lost Oviedo in the Rule V because they were overloaded with talented arms, not because they didn’t like him. I wouldn’t be surprised if they got him back some way and properly developed him as a valuable bullpen arm. He has electric stuff.