Pirates reliever Chase De Jong has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Indianapolis, according to the transaction log at MLB.com. He’s gone unclaimed on waivers multiple times in his career, giving him the right to elect minor league free agency.
De Jong has spent parts of three seasons with Pittsburgh. He started nine games with middling results in 2021 but found more success upon moving to the bullpen last year. De Jong threw 71 2/3 innings over 42 appearances for the Bucs, compiling a 2.64 ERA. It was mostly low-leverage work and De Jong’s peripherals weren’t aligned with his strong run prevention.
The right-hander struck out a below-average 20.1% of batters faced while walking 10.2% of opponents. De Jong’s run prevention and ability to work multiple innings nevertheless secured his 40-man roster spot throughout the winter. The Bucs kept the out-of-options De Jong in their season-opening bullpen, but he lost his roster spot with a slow start. Through 9 1/3 frames, he’s allowed 11 runs on 13 hits and five walks. De Jong’s swinging strike rate fell from a serviceable 10.5% rate to a modest 5.2% clip.
De Jong will now decide whether to report to Indianapolis or scour the market for other opportunities. He’d likely be limited to minor league offers as a free agent but could look elsewhere for clearer paths back to the MLB roster and/or a potential opt-out date in a non-roster contract. De Jong has pitched parts of seven seasons in Triple-A, working to a 5.59 ERA with a 19.3% strikeout percentage over 211 innings.
Chase De Job.
they should have outrighted Nuttimg
Then who would you obsess over?
Not you because you’ve been muted ronnsnow
I remember when Pittsburgh was a great, blue collar, knowledgeable sports town. Now it just seems like a bunch of weak-kneed old man crying about how Bob Nutting hurt their feelings.
@todd
Yeah seems like some people’s only answer for anything Pittsburgh is “Nutting is bad’ even if everything is going well..
Predictable no one wanted him. He was the first pirate to get DFA for performance reasons this season and it took 36 games. That’s an accomplishment considering it happened almost every week last season.
Nutting didn’t hurt my feelings, instead he’s so tight he’s hurt the local economy where restaurants and other businesses close to the stadium aren’t getting customers that a better than half filled ballpark would provide to their profits
Only drawing roughly 10l fans to home games will do that
Unfortunately there are other players that should also be DFAed but their farm system can’t compensate to replace these players
All the talk about how good of the hitters such as Mathias, Palacios, Andujar yet none have brought their decent Indy numbers to the majors
And I’m also concerned about whether Endy can hit major league pitching
Andújar is getting close to DFA. They have 14 bats and 12 arms. Have to think he’s next
I wish you would go away. Nothing but a miserable troll.
A man unhappy in his surroundings. Is a man unhappy in others surroundings. Just a miserable bitching person
I agree Buccrazy but that still doesn’t help an offense that has lost 8 of their last 9 games and is having trouble scoring runs
Chase was one of their best pitchers last year and an even better human being. The highlight of the year was when he shut down the Dodgers in LA for 2 innings and got the win. Hopefully he can find a west coast team closer to home. He throws the straightest fastball in the majors. He deserves another chance.
This team is horrible. Why Bae doesn’t use his speed to bunt for hits is beyond my comprehension.
Suwinkski swings at everything no matter where the pitch is located, Hayes is a horrible lead off batter and the list goes on and on
I see another loss and perhaps another sweep by an American league team