The Pirates have sent reliever Rob Zastryzny through outright waivers, per the transaction tracker at MLB.com. He was designated for assignment on Friday and apparently went unclaimed.
Zastryzny signed a minor league deal with Pittsburgh over the offseason and broke camp with the MLB team. The 31-year-old southpaw made 18 appearances around a pair of injured list stints. He allowed 13 runs (10 earned) across 17 innings, striking out and walking 13 batters apiece. Those aren’t great bottom line results, although Zastryzny did average a personal-best 92.9 MPH on his fastball.
This is the second straight year and fifth overall in which the former second-round draftee got to the MLB level. He’s logged 55 2/3 career innings of 4.85 ERA ball, striking out a below-average 18.6% of batters faced. The Missouri product has allowed just under five earned runs per nine over 366 2/3 career Triple-A frames.
Zastryzny was previously outrighted by the Cubs five seasons ago. Players with multiple career outrights can decline the assignment in favor of minor league free agency. The Bucs haven’t announced whether Zastryzny plans to do so.
I think based on the timing hes looking for a free agent deal before going back down
I keep hoping to see the Bucs have fired their hitting coach and keep getting disappointed
Kind of amazed that both the Yankees and Mets fired theirs but the Pirates haven’t signed Haines to an extension yet. After all, it’s their way of doing things
Seriously though, the Pirates conducted what I thought was an interesting draft, taking not only Skenes but a number of pitchers, about half from the SEC. Glad that it’s finally occurred to them that their previous drafts seemed to put pitching on the back burner in favor of middle infielders. Now, if they can only trade for some power hitting outfield prospects at deadline time
Announcers throughout MLB were begging their teams not to claim Zastryzny so they wouldn’t have to pronounce his name.