The Pirates are making some changes to their front office, per a report from MLB.com’s Alex Stumpf. Stumpf notes that director of coaching and player development John Baker is moving into a new role with the club that will see him oversee the club’s performance team. While the move has not been announced by the club to this point, Stumpf adds that the search for a new farm director is already underway as Baker vacates the position.
A former player who spent parts of seven seasons in the big leagues, Baker retired from his playing career in 2015 and caught on with the Cubs in their front office that offseason as a special assistant. Baker eventually stepped into the role of mental skills coordinator with Chicago and remained in that role with the club until he departed for Pittsburgh during the 2020-21 offseason to take on his aforementioned role as director of coaching and player development. As Stumpf notes, the Pirates began implementing more individualized development plans for their players under Baker’s leadership.
With Baker now changing roles, the Pirates will need to fill both the farm director role. As Stumpf notes, that’s not the only high-level role that’s as of yet unfilled in Pittsburgh as the club will also need to hire a new director of pro scouting after moving him to a different, unspecified role within baseball operations. Those yet-to-be-named farm and pro scouting directors will join a wave of personnel hires by the Pirates this winter that already includes international scouting director Max Kwan, VP of research and development Kevin Tenenbaum, hitting coach Matt Hague, and assistant pitching coach Brent Strom.
More notes from around the NL Central…
- Cubs fans received some good news yesterday when Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney of The Athletic reported that right-hander Ben Brown has been cleared for a normal throwing program this offseason. The 25-year-old was acquired by the club at the 2022 trade deadline in the deal that sent right-hander David Robertson to Philadelphia but didn’t make his big league debut until this year. The youngster looked quite good for the Cubs early in the season with a 3.58 ERA and 3.11 FIP in 55 1/3 innings of work while swinging between the rotation and bullpen. He struck out 28.8% of opponents faced against a walk rate of 8.6% but saw is time in the majors cut short by a stress reaction in his neck that sidelined him for the remainder of the season. Chicago reportedly plans to add a starting pitcher to the rotation alongside Justin Steele, Shota Imanaga, and Jameson Taillon this winter, which could leave Brown to either compete with Javier Assad and Jordan Wicks for the fifth spot in the rotation this spring or else spend the year in the bullpen.
- The Cardinals are hiring Matt Pierpont as their director of pitching, as Pierpoint himself noted on X (h/t to Adam Jude of The Seattle Times). Pierpont, 33, pitched in the minor leagues for seven seasons before catching on with the Mariners as a coach prior to the 2021 season. Since then, he’s risen within the organization to the role of pitching coordinator. Now, he’s been promoted again as he moves on to St. Louis, where he’ll be tasked with working to improve the club’s internal pitching options. Andre Pallante and Sem Robberse are among the young pitchers at or near the major leagues, while top prospect Tink Hence dominated the Double-A level and could also look to make his big league debut at some point in 2025.
Quinn matthews
Yeah he’s the guy for 2025 to get excited about. But McGreevy should get a shot. Graceffo too. The Cardinals have good young pitching it’s not all elite arms but it’s good and there is a lot of it.
Exactly. He is the ace in waiting, and hopefully soon.
Matthews could become an ace, but there are multiple significant steps before that becomes reality.
Pirates rearranging the chairs on the deck of the titanic
The one that has already sunk
They must be LMGs.
Pirates are on the come up
I agree, they have a good number of MLB ready prospects, and I like them picking up IKF to play SS. Joey Bart had a sneaky good year, they have two of the best catching prospects in baseball in Endy Rodriguez and Henry Davis, could bring back an interesting player at the trade deadline with Bart having a breakthrough season. Their pitching is young, Skenes, Bubba Chandler, Luis Ortiz looked good last season. Good bullpen. NL Central is stacked in ’25.
No big bats outside of Cruz, Reynolds, and maybe Bart. Also, Chandler hasn’t made his major league debut yet.
I’d say no big bats at all. No disrespect to Reynolds or Cruz.
Pirates didn’t have one player with an OPS above 800 and only a few that where positive OPS+. Lots of strike outs, few walks etc.
they need an actual big bat, someone to actually give opposing pitchers pause.
No big bats. Cruz could be. Reynolds is close. Bart was real close see if he can keep it up.
Don’t need big bats though. Just remove the negative bats. Cruz in cf instead of black hole Taylor Suwinski is a start. Get a corner outfielder instead or joe Olivares Palacios.
IKF can put it in play, interested to see how he fairs this season. I love Joey Bart’s swing, he could really breakout. Everybody talks about Skenes and rightfully so but Bubba Chandler is a pretty good prospect in his own right, Pirates fate rides on their starting pitching and their bullpen, they have the prospects to add a nice bat or two. Need Luis Ortiz and Mitch Keller to pitch well and if Chandler can pull a Skenes-esque debut, the Pirates can win the central.
Their fate really relies on scratching out runs, not their pitching. That is, it’s going to be an exceptional starting staff but two things occur to you: one, they can’t win games when their hitters can’t drive in runs and two, starters go 5-6 innings anymore and as such, their revolving door of relievers last year make the foreseeable future more problematic
It would be nice to find a corner outfielder with some pop. It would be nice to transition Bart/Endy/Davis into a 1st base slot in a perfect world of all of them hitting. It would be nice to have Hayes become a hitter
Too many “ifs” here
As a bucs fan I was I could be as optimistic. Bart and IKF I agree were great pickups, but how confident are we in Henry Davis given what he’s shown so far? Endy is also a big wildcard coming off an injury. Their bullpen was also one of the worst in baseball last year. They need to sign some relief arms, otherwise it’s crossing your fingers on Bednar and some of the other young guys.
As a White Sox fan who’d like to see an all star caliber player behind the plate, I’d be interested in Henry Davis, and we have two nice catching prospects in Korey Lee and Edgar Quero, but Davis would be the player I’d like in my system.
Would be massive if Davis and Suwinski have good seasons
Pirates rotation is electric. Top to bottom with a ton of upside. Ortiz, oviedo, Falter, chandler for final 2 spots.
Bullpen can improve by default (year-to-year issues)
Not sure what to do with Bednar, arguments can be make for 8 mil or non-tender.
The assumption is some kind of veteran bullpen piece is added. Former closers etc.
Other assumption is they add a vet bat at 1B, one of Santana, Goldschmidt or Bell.
Which, while alone isn’t game changing, but would help deepen the lineup.
Pirates lineup is by no means dynamic, but with decent seasons from Davis or Suwinski and a decent vet 1B added, they can be solid enough 1-9 given their pitching
Final sidenote: Cruz is a massive x-factor.. if he plays all seasons like he did second half, then he’s in for a 30-30 season
I hope they aren’t depending on Endy. And it would be foolish to depend on Davis. Sign a cheap backup catcher. Cheap 1b. Cheap RF. Don’t know why I put cheap. With Nutting it is obviously going to be cheap. Have to with Pirates fans who like to throw out magically fantasy names.
You can have him for a discount. He might still work out but no use betting on it for the right return.
@Goku Cruz is an x-factor for sure but when you say second half.. … it was ~50games if he could stretch that out to 100 games and the pirates are winning he would be a legit mvp candidate. Last season was the only season he was mostly healthy and he struck out 181 times while not being particularly good on defense. If it wasn’t for his gun of an arm and his freakish physique I doubt he would be on defense at all.
There are trade options for 1b/of as well if the price is right (bellinger?) and they need to stack up some pen arms who have proven to be or recently average especially at the setup role preferably someone who can close if needed.
@Dream
Having Bart and Endy should give you a 1/2 with Davis as a 3rd if hitting and having Delay around I think they’re good but yeah getting someone like Grandell again.. but on a minors deal is not a bad thing.
There are a lot of 1b options when you combine free agency and trade market for 1b and OF. I love the idea of Goldschmit Arenado and Bellinger. all three fit what the team needs but trades on players like those can be costly both in talent and cash. I like the Idea of Bell but he is poor defense but his bat is reasonable. I think i’d like it if Cutch doesn’t end up playing giving that DH spot open. I also like MLBTR’s assessment that the Pirates get Conforto. He isn’t a great player any more but even with that he is still an average bat and a non-negative left fielder.
Agreed.
Pressly, Robertson, Holmes come to mind.
Other options maybe Sewald or Graveman.
Cruz should be fine in CF. Was never going to last at SS.
The core in Pittsburgh is actually really good. Hopefully they can supplement it well enough.
Honestly they just need some solid vets and to not totally punt any positions like they usually do.
Looks like a good off-season for veteran 1B & RP luckily
Paying fans love Cutch. He can still play. Will be back. No reason not to want him back. They can easily afford him and he is their at worst 4th best bat. They aren’t bringing in half a dozen better guys.
Arenado has no trade cause. Reason he is a Cardinal is because they didn’t spend $ to win. Think he wants to be Pirate? I have my doubts. Bellinger over payed has another option. Complicated. Would Cubs want to trade him in division what if he has a great year and fans see they helped Pirates. I don’t think they should worry about it but teams do.
Conforto could be had. I would bet on Nutting going cheaper. Winker maybe. But probably even cheaper. Canha can replace Connor Joe. Heck maybe even cheaper they bring Joe back! Rowdy too! Can’t put anything past these clowns. They brought Shelton and Cherington back. Santana would be a nice get though. Goldy maybe even better. These clowns might get cute put Reynolds at 1b and instead of dumpster diving for 1 outfielder they get 2. Or still maybe just 1. “We feel our in house options are better than what was available”
Core really good? The 3b with no jelly in his back? The very average utility man who is free agent in 1 year playing ss? The average 2b options? The no 1b? The no rf? The ss who strikes out and can’t hit lhp who just got thrown in cf? He’s the 1st or 2nd best piece. Reynolds who defense is so weak they want to move to 1b where his bat doesn’t play as well? Maybe the best piece. Bart we need more sample size but will see. Not the greatest catcher but the bat plays.
Only good core is the starting pitching. You can look at other teams and find someone you rather have. Many times 2 3 4 guys.
You sound like Cherington. This team is not that good. They have to do better than that at first. And Davis, Suwinski, Triolo, and Hayes all need to start hitting or get replaced. Not likely they all figure out. I do agree that there is a lot of potential in Starting pitching, but we will not see Chandler as early as we did Skenes and likely to see regression out of a few of them. And Bednar, wow what happened there? I’m done being optimistic about this team. So far there’s no reason to believe they will be better than last year.
Here again, your optimism is too reliant on “hopes” and “ifs”. Maybe Nutting will have some epiphany and decide to open the vaults this year. I guess stranger things have happened
But more than likely, you’re gonna get some minor add-ons—maybe a guy or two you make note of—and the standard “Losing is not acceptable” speech we get at Bradenton every year.
And yes, all of sudden we are being treated to the ideas of Suwinski and Davis somehow finding the magic. You have to wonder who planted those seeds with media. But it’s yet another instance of the Pirates front office asking you to not believe what you’ve seen.
I mean, come on now
The Pirates have one legitimate stick in Reynolds and a guy who can catch fire in Cruz, but who strikes out way too much and is just too aloof. Maybe he’ll grow up. Maybe he’ll improve. But beyond these two guys, they don’t inspire a great deal of optimism at present
Wish I shared your thinking. Would actually be refreshing
What happened with Bednar? Elementary.
Big league hitters adjust real quickly to one trick ponies. I like the kid, but if all he has is a heater that all too often drifts dead red, he’s going to get hit
He lost command of spin pitches, never really had much of a change up. And in losing command, he lost faith in those pitches and tried to muscle the ball by hitters. Unless he’s hitting 102 or 103 on the gun, it’s problematic
Too early to give up on him. I hope he finds it this spring
I agree with Dream.
Team’s core is iffy at best.
No 1b
2b is iffy
SS is iffy Cruz isn’t there.
3b is always injured
C Bart continue? Endy an MLB hitter? Davis find a bat?
OF Reynolds is bad at CF passable at LF. Cruz needs to learn, RF best fit. That’s it.
SP could be the best but still some uncertainty on the back end. Skenes, Jones and Keller are all MLB rotation arms with a handful of options to finish out.
RP: nothing exciting, Bednar gets “fixed”?
to many ifs to say that there is a good core. They do have a lot of talent that hasn’t been shown.
1B empty – this is where they need Santana/Bell/Goldy
2B Nicky G – no complaints there
3B Hayes – if healthy is major leaguer
SS IKF – lot of upside, enjoying his role as more than a bottom of the order util guy. Definitely a major leaguer
LF – Reynolds – perennial elite bat, slowing down in the field, hopefully can hold off on a move to 1B one season so can get a vet 1B this market
CF – Cruz, massive potential in the OPS department. Fielding should be pretty seamless transition with full winter to learn. Will have a cannon from the OF, and should be able to cover a lot of ground. Needs to stay healthy
RF – Davis/Suwinski – these are the make or break guys. If pirates can get anything out of either, they’ll be in good shape. Both have tremendous potential still
C – Bart revelation is a safety blanket. Davis likely starts off as backup catcher, and Endy gets a swift call-up
DH – Cutch looking likely to return. Solid bat. Needs to be his last season.
Rotation – arguably will be a top-3 Rotation in MLB.
One of the best 1-2-3’s + a healthy competition for final 2 spots. Signing a SP is unnecessary, which is great position to be in.
Pen – need to swap Chapman for a more consistent innings eater. Bednar needs to be useful. Biggest problem, but hopefully adding someone like David Robertson solves a lot.
Pens can be fixed for cheap
“perennial elite bat” hasn’t had a ops in 800’s since 2022 and it was a hair over. Now it’s time for his age 30’s years. He’s above average, good if you want to be generous.
“if healthy is major leaguer” how exciting! Key part of a really good core.
“lot of upside” Not likely for a 30 year old with a lifetime .664 ops. But even if you are right he is a free agent and they won’t keep him. Better extend him now before he breaks out at 30 years old.
“Needs to be his last season.” Why? I certainly hope not. He is the 4th best player is this “very good core”.
I feel bad for you being a unpaid pirates intern. Good luck selling this garbage product. You aren’t selling me on it. If they make the right moves and that’s a big if, they are a 500 team hoping the luck swings the other way. There’s no core outside of starting pitching. It’s just a pretty good Reynolds and no jelly Hayes. If Cruz Bart are part of the core they better extend them.
IKF was down right bad after coming to Pittsburgh and never had a great bat with a negative bat through out his career. His glove makes up for a lot of that but the team needs baserunners and runs.
Hayes is in the same boat. Great glove but no bat. Given his injuries it might have stunted his growth in his bat.
Bart is yet to be proven but definitely a great surprise. under 300pas is not enough to say he is going to be above average when the rest of his time is below average and unlike the above his glove didn’t make up for it before. Still a great move. should be Joey->Endy->Jason->Henry as the default going into spring.
of course you know, thats just my opinion man.
Davis is no longer a good prospect he’s a bad trade piece.
Not sure how you make that claim
With regards to the move in the article, they kicked a guy upstairs who has overseen a department that has largely been a failure in the development of position players
Now they have openings in the upper echelons of farm management. This is an organization that will search out the cheapest alternative. An example of this is the hiring of Hague as hitting coach when a guy like Seitzer was out there. It’s the Pirates way
But as for “the come up,” how?
Beyond their starting pitching staff, just where does the optimism come from? If they were to sign a couple bats this off season to augment Reynolds and a hopefully more mature Cruz, ok. But again, this is the Pirates
Pirates (and padres) got burned by bringing up skenes & merrill early
They’re down to 5 yrs left of those players
And neither tm got PPI pick
Skenes had to pitch like the best pitcher in baseball to win Roy. He was so dominating in minors they pretty much had to call him up. Padres I don’t know. They couldn’t find a excuse to hold him back a few weeks? I dunno. If Cubs did with Bryant anyone can.
Who do you think will end up having the best career of the top 3 nl roy? skenes merrill or chourio?
Skenes could be one of the best pitchers of his generation. If he stays healthy, I think it’s Skenes. Merrill was incredible last season, but it was his best season, including the minors. I think, because pitching health is so volatile, it’ll be Chourio who could be the next Juan Soto.
I don’t like to think about stuff like that but if it was draft of those 3 I am taking Skenes. 2 bats weren’t close to winning MVP. If Skenes pitched all year he wins cy young. What do teams always desire, pitching pitching pitching. Skenes could contend for Cy young every healthy year. 2 bats I I don’t feel the same about. I think all 3 are the real deal though.
These 2 bats vs say current top 10 prospects like Crews Mayer etc? I will take these 2 who already done it at mlb level.
Not to mention if Skenes was a free agent right now you’d pay $400M for him easily.
Skenes certainly looks the most talented, but health is always an issue especially today when SPs drop like flies. If healthy skenes could be degrom/kershaw or better. Chourio looks legit but merrill put up same #s maybe better as rookie. courio could turn into soto, but merill could be next bobby witt. same profile. Came up as SS. Power/speed combo.
We’ll see. I’m not betting on them being Witt Soto.
Skenes I don’t have to bet. He’s already there.
True, but a bad take. It’s not good for baseball to hold back guys like this. One broke camp as an everyday player. (A good one). The other is showing he’s “the next coming”. It’s good to see mid-market teams go for it. Fans pay for good product, not watered down garbage. Go for it!
@paso
Pete Alonso was brought up early & is now a FA
you think mets fans are happy he’s gone 1 yr early? A tm just has to wait 3 weeks and it equals 1 more full season
It’s a fine line. You want guys to work hard. There humans. When they are ready they are ready. Jared Jones was clearly ready. Made opening day roster. Pirates told him he wouldn’t be finishing the season at mlb. Way too many innings. He got hurt so it didn’t come to it. Pirates did the right thing and gave him his service time. Also if they wanted any chance at extending him they had to. Skenes needed some minor league time and even said it benefited him. Now they could have held him til June. No super 2. No chance of Roy. But they accomplished their development goal. Kept his innings down. He was ready in May so they called him up. Surprisingly the Pirates handled it pretty much perfect.
As for Jones getting hurt and the Pirates doing the right thing about giving him the service time, an injured player cannot be demoted to save service time. The MLBPA would have been all over that one. He stays on the active roster until he is healthy, and then do what you want.
He came back in August so they could have sent him down. If he didn’t get hurt they would have because he wasn’t getting 200 innings as a rookie.
@john IF Alonso signs elsewhere fans in 2025 might not like it. However he was a pleasant surprise in 2019 for fans. Either way the fans end up with equal # of years they get to see player on MLB team prior to free agency.
As for Skenes he brought excitement to an otherwise rather dull team. He gave Pirates fans a reason to watch or attend games and likely became favorite player of numerous young Pirates fans.
When a player is ready and can see regular playng time while improving MLB roster that’s where they should be. If MLB wants to be the premier showcase of baseball talent they need to do all they can to put that talent on the field.
These players still age by the day, well, month, year… Holding them back is ultimately just years lost for fans and the sport. They can stop service time but not the clock of father time.
I think if we get to the point where awards and extra draft picks dictate how a team wants to develop their players, that is wrong.
No matter how good he was in college, Skenes still had very little experience and they wanted him to get warmed up early so he can come up with confidence and not have to be shut down. Shame the league didn’t like their process. But I’ll just be happy with having an elite pitcher for a few years, forget the draft pick.
even with the pirates extreme minimal spending, I feel like (or maybe just hope) that they would spend theb on bucks on skenes. hopefully by then Cherington is gone
also happy thanksgiving
If he is willing to take an extension and doesn’t hate Pittsburgh they should be able to get something done. Turning down hundreds of millions guarantee is a awful gamble. Especially for a pitcher.
I wonder what a deal would look like if signed this offseason? Sure there is extreme risk, but frankly who cares? I’d rather get burned by extending the best pitcher in baseball than letting him walk or help out another team.
Guys like Strider and Greene got very friendly deals, but still carried risk because of their youth. Skenes has higher pedigree and a better season than Greene so really there is no comparison.
He’s already set for life getting 700k a year for a few years and unless someone tragic happens he will get millions then tens of millions in arbitration. And he got a 9m signing bonus from the draft. But in case something bad does happen he can get generational wealth for his future family guarantee. So pirates pay him whatever his arbitration is projected to be (that’s mlbtr hobby not mine but 40 50 some million whatever) and 2 additional free agent years at 30 million or so. He is really really set forever and can still get a mega deal for hundreds of millions to cover his age 30’s. So double what Greene got and 30 million more than Strider got.
How did the Padres get burned bringing up Merrill? They’re a constant playoff competitor, and he helped them get there. That’s exactly how he should have been deployed.
@gb42
No ppi pick for bringing up early
And if they wait 3 weeks they get xtra yr of control. I feel like i’m repeating myself here again & again with the same thought, also its just obvious . Not sure how anyone doesnt understand at this point
when they brought Skenes up they were in the hunt. Skenes did his part. the FO tried to do its part but after the call up almost everything they tried failed miserably. Given the track record of this FO and staff… i speculate it is just people bad at their jobs and not just bad luck.
I probably would’ve left Skenes down another few starts just for an adjustment period. Based on the MLB season he had it doesn’t look like he needed it.
If the Cardinals keep hiring away more of the Mariners pitching development staff, they would get better ROI than any free agent signing they could make.
Its been a privilege sinking with you tonight
I respect Ben Cherington. He admitted failure and took responsible. Unfortunately he needed to be fired. He could somehow figure out how to develop but the odds aren’t good. If he keeps failing it just sets the franchise back even more. It was time to give someone else a chance.
Let’s look beyond development. Which the Pirates are terrible. BC can’t even perform the basic function of signing FA’s. The money he gives out to veterans ends up flushed down the drain.
Maybe the analytics department needs to be revamped as well
He does free agents better than most. Anderson Quintana VV Santana Perez were fantastic. Hill Chapman Grandpal even MAT worked out fine. Rowdy meh. Good idea but his early slump was brutal. Should have went Santana the safer move. He trades better than most.
It’s development development development. If he could do that he’s a top 5 gm instead of 15 to 20. And refusing to fire Haines Shelton.
BC may have finally seen the light. He has replaced the hitting coach, hired an assistant pitching coach with very good credentials and now is replacing the farm director. Hopefully these moves will all help develop young players who can successfully make the jump to the majors.
Pirates are always too late. Haines should have been fired 2 years ago. Shelton a year ago. International scouting director 2 years ago. Same with Huntington Hurdle etc. Same with guy before that.
Next few years are already decided. Pirates can have winning record even playoffs with BC. I am thinking into the 2030s. This is year 6 for BC and development is maybe worst in baseball. It’s bottom 5. So bad I would see what someone else could do. It’s so critical you can’t keep BC around and hope he magically improves it enough.
Cardinals will trade Hence for pennies. It’s what they do.
The Cardinals hiring of Mariners coach Matt Pierpont to be the Cardinals Director of Pitching, and the hire of Guardians Director of Player Development Rob Cerfolio to oversee the Cardinals overhaul of the Cardinals minor league system has the potential to have a more significant positive impact on the Cardinals than any of the free agent contracts the Cardinals have handed out over the last decade.
Thats a rather low bar. Almost all the talent the Cardinals have had over the last decade has come from the draft or trades. This idea that the Cardinals can’t draft and develop simply isn’t true they just dont always let their young talent play.
Tink Hence, now that’s a baseball name ⚾
You linked the wrong John Baker to your article. I think you meant this one:
baseball-reference.com/players/b/bakerjo01.shtml
None of this even matters. Nutting has no interest in putting together a competitive team. He is completely content with the current roster no matter what he says in public. They will add zero talent and waist another year of Skenes. Actually it’s not a waste to him cause he will make as much money as he can for the next 2-3 years off Skenes then trade him for a few prospects that wont pan out. And with the way other teams are spending now, I am losing hope of ever seeing Pirates playoff baseball again. More likely to see another 20 straight losing seasons.
Careful, Bucco, Nutting has his defenders here in terms of his reaping great profits. That thinking would be hilarious if it wasn’t so disturbing
I’m in complete agreement with you. Cherington will bring in a few free agents who are mid-level caliber at best and who fit into the “But we’re a small market team with limited resources” mantra.
Anyone who defends Nutting needs to open their eyes. Pirates have a very small opportunity here with Skenes, Jones, Chandler, and Cruz. But they WILL let it slip away. They cannot score runs and have no one in the minors to improve that except KG. Skenes and Cruz will be gone before we see him. It’s very sad what has happened to this historic franchise. And don’t anyone be fooled about the small market crap. They can afford to double their team payroll. They just don’t care too.
Agree 100%. Maybe 110%
If they were a playoff team they would still blame nutting. They would say Nutting’s the reason they didn’t win the series. If they win the WS they would say despite Nutting they win.
Most of the blame is on the front office and in turn ownership for hiring them. Bob is not a baseball man even after all these years he hasn’t learned. That is his biggest failure.
With out fixing what they have, it may not be worth spending “big” for 2025
Cubs are knocking on that post season door. Agree, that they need one more rotation piece and IMO, a 3 or 4 arm nor a one or 2. Very attainable.
Ben Brown would be a top notch Setup man in the bullpen.