Right-hander Ben Heller went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment by the Pirates and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Indianapolis, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. He’s been outrighted previously in his career, which will give Heller the right to reject the assignment in favor of free agency if he so chooses.
Heller, 32, signed a minor league deal with the Bucs in the offseason and was selected to the big league roster after punching out an eye-popping 43% of his opponents in 18 1/3 innings down in Indianapolis. His brief big league look with the Pirates could scarcely have gone worse, however. The former Yankees and Braves righty was rocked for five runs in an inning of work during his team debut and struggled even more considerably in his second appearance, yielding seven runs (six earned) in another inning. Heller’s ERA with the Pirates sits at a stratospheric 49.50.
Stunning as that number is, Heller entered the 2024 season with a career 3.06 earned run average in 50 innings. That includes 18 2/3 frames of 3.86 ball with Atlanta just last season. He’s fanned 20.4% of his big league opponents against an 11.3% walk rate and has generally kept the ball on the ground at an above-average level (45.1%). The Milwaukee native also has had plenty of success in the upper minors, pitching to a sharp 3.15 ERA with a 32.5% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk rate in parts of six Triple-A campaigns — a span of 163 innings.
why not just give him his unconditional release?
Are the Bucs that desperate for a worthless AAA pitcher
Bailey Falter was ‘worthless’ two months ago…. haha.
Dumb analogy. On his worst day, I don’t think Falter was as bad as this guy. And I don’t think he could drill three guys in one inning if he tried
But yeah. Good one
Bailey Falter hasn’t exactly set the baseball world on fire in his last few starts but he certainly didn’t give up 13 runs in two innings either like your favorite pitcher, Ben Heller
Have him walk the plank with no safety net.
Don’t want to ever see him again in a Pirate uniform. Why waste a spot in Indy on him.
Bring up a young guy.
Watch the NYYs pick this guy up, put him with The Pitch Whisperer, Matt Blake and…success.
Watched him hit three batters in one inning vs the Twins in his first outing. Dude had no idea where the ball was going while throwing 95-96, but Shelton couldn’t pull him because they were out of pitchers.
Skelton couldn’t pull himself out of the toilet if he fell in
What the Heller
It’s embarrassing that Steve Adams has a professional writing job. “Stunning as that number is” is NOT PROPER ENGLISH. You can’t just leave “as” out at the beginning of the sentence. Grammar isn’t optional.