The Pirates announced that they have placed catcher Joey Bart on the 10-day injured list with a left hamstring strain and recalled catcher Henry Davis, a swap that was reported yesterday. They also reinstated infielder Nick Gonzales from the injured list and designated right-hander Jake Woodford for assignment. Robert Murray of FanSided reported on X that Woodford was being designated for assignment prior to the official announcement. Prior to that, it was noted by members of the Pittsburgh beat that Woodford was clearing out his locker. Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review was among those to pass that along on X.
Woodford, 27, was selected to the club’s roster at the end of July. He has since tossed 22 innings for the Bucs over six appearances, allowing 6.95 earned runs per nine. When combined with his time with the White Sox earlier this year, Woodford has an 8.01 ERA on the season.
It’s the second straight rough campaign for Woodford, who had previously posted some decent results with the Cardinals. Over the 2021 and 2022 seasons, he tossed 116 innings for that club with a 3.26 ERA. His 15.4% strikeout rate in that time wasn’t special but he limited walks to a 7.5% clip and got grounders on 45.8% of balls in play. But his ERA jumped to 6.23 last year, which led the Cards to non-tender him, and his ERA has crept even higher here in 2024.
With the trade deadline in the rear-view mirror, the Pirates will have to place Woodford on waivers. Based on his struggles, the interest is likely to be minimal, meaning he should be a free agent in the coming days. When the White Sox designated him for assignment earlier this year, he passed through waivers unclaimed and then elected free agency, a right he had based on having at least three years of major league service time.
It’s about time
House cleaning time!!!
As a Cardinal fan who watched Woodford at his best, he struck me as a “pitch maker” (Chris Carpenter term) who hadn’t figured it out. Over Wainright’s last 5 years when his stuff was diminished, he became a pitch maker – he’d get himself in trouble, then get the DP ball to get out. In that critical moment, he’d make the perfect pitch to escape (usually). Woodford would pitch himself into situations, but never could throw a 12:6 curve on a full count, or a back foot slider to a lefty. When you can’t do that, a guy like Woodford puts up ugly numbers.
“ a guy like Woodford puts up ugly numbers “
and his era of over 8 proves it
If he’s not good enough for the White Sox, why would any other team want to sign him?
because the Pirates are frugal
Good
Now get rid of the MORON and his whole staff
Hopefully the first of many moves this week. Why is Gonzales still in Indy?
Gonzalez came off of the IL today and should be in the lineup tonight playing 2nd base
Because he just started playing after the IL. He’ll be up soon.
It will be good to see Jared Jones back in the starting rotation.
He is supposed to be pitch 3rd game of series. I assuming a position player goes back before then
probably worthless Alika Williams
“Hi Jake, this is Mike Elias with the Orioles. Do you like crabcakes and short flights to Norfolk?”
It’s somewhat reassuring that they made a couple logical moves today as well as getting Nick back
Why do they need Tellez and Grandal again?
Who else will play those positions? Grandal is fine and has rapport with two of the team’s best pitchers.
Who else?
Davis and Bart, when he returns, can catch
There’s a couple guys on the farm who can play 1st, as well as Joe
Using your logic, they might as well sign Grandal for 5 years thanks to his rapport abilities.
I dunno. If you’re going to give the future a look right now..as they should…why play guys who won’t be here?
Joe sucks, might as well play Rowdy there
Whys Chapman still here? He makes the most $. Are they contending or tanking? If you get rid of Rowdy Grandpal you might as well get rid of Chapman and save some $. Grandpal said don’t give up in them. Cherington must have missed his radio show or there was no good quotes to report so don’t know.
Ah, the snark
I am actually surprised one of the contenders didn’t opt for Chapman.
Your question comes down to their viewpoint. Are they trying to get a look at the future or just piecemeal?
By all accounts, Cook and Yorke are ready to come up. Bart complicates the catching spot but not necessarily 1st base
Are they planning to sign Chapman again or is it goodbye? Still time for a contender to take him
Dream-(1)Nutting does not want to eat $2.1 M
(2)No one has called BC to say they would take him on waivers
(3)he is easily their best reliever as they are still trying to win games
(4) they very well may want to resign him
Again, you were amazingly prescient about the signing of Chapman and the closer role here at the time he came on board
I’ll agree. He’s their best closer option right now. Moving forward however, you wonder
Will they try to sign him again?
Is he looking in the ballpark of $10m?
What did they do with Bednar?
I’m still of the belief that they are trying to transform Nicolas or Mlodzinski into the closer du jour. But it’s hard to see either making that leap heading into next season
What? He would be claimed guaranteed. Nutting wouldn’t have to pay anything. Nutting would save $. How you know no one called? You working the phones at PNC?
who do you replace him with?
Rowdy can’t pitch every game
if they were truly trying to win games, what is a 33 year old journeyman pitcher doing on the roster?
Who plays first base and does the catching when Davis can’t?
Again, they have a couple guys on the farm who can play 1st
When Bart is healthy, Grandal should go
Sorry, you can keep the deadwood
there’s only 32 games left in the season, Bart will miss at least 14 of them and there’s no guarantee he will be well enough to come back this year. He could have a setback but there’s other players that can be dumped to bring up guys from Indy
One, Hayes would go on the 60 day IL
Two, Connor Joe released
Three, Bae back to Indy
Four, Haines is fired
Didn’t know that about Bart. Changes everything
Paul-Bae will have to stay if Taylor is released
Joe may have to go for Cook or Yorke as long as Triolo can play first base
Good idea on Hayes
I wouldn’t mind seeing Nunez for a month to give him a chance.Rowdy would have to go though.
Lamb has come down to earth at Indy. If they didn’t bring him up when he was tearing up the ball, can’t see that happening. I think he’s a lot like Peguero at this point—-wondering where they can hop off this train
Nunez hits in the .250’s. Granted, he’d be right at home if he hit that way here, but it seems none of these guys hit anywhere near as good as they do at AAA
I know nothing about Cook other than others saying he plays anywhere
To me, all are better options than Tellez
I’m kind of wondering what’s going through Suwinski’s mind tonight. Struggled here. Struggling at Indy. If Cruz ends up killing it in CF—-and I think that given time, he will— you can imagine an OF of Cruz, Reynolds and De la Cruz. Shame. Had hoped the kid could work his troubles out.
I think Haines’ instructions to make Jack a contact hitter as opposed to being strictly a raw power hitter screwed up his head and his stats in Indy show that
Should never have started him when there were young kids who could come up and spot start.
Pirates act like they don’t care if they lose a game or two when everyone counts this time of year .
if they truly cared, Haines wouldn’t have a job
They aren’t acting.
I gotta say, dude has been god awful against the Reds, and their offense has stunk at times all season.
So most likely the best move. For his sake, hope he figures it out.
After tonight’s game there are 2 more so called pitchers that should be told to clean out their locker.
They will have to make a few roster moves after last night’s game, both German and Feigl threw too many pitches to be available if needed in Tuesday’s game
It was just one of those games where the opposing team hit everything thrown in their direction
it’s time to send Alika Williams back to Indy and bring up Yorke . He can’t be any worse
I noticed that Davis still hasn’t learned the strike zone in his lone plate appearance in last night’s game
He swung at 2 pitches at least a foot off of the plate