The Pirates announced that they have claimed right-hander Jack Little off waivers from the Dodgers and assigned him to Triple-A Indianapolis. The Dodgers designated him for assignment two days ago. The Pirates had a couple of vacancies on their 40-man roster, with this move bumping their count to 39.
Little, 27, was called up to the big leagues for the first time less than two months ago. The Dodgers selected him to their 40-man on June 19th. Since then, he’s largely been on optional assignment. His big league track record consists of just three innings over two appearances. In those, Little allowed two earned runs on four hits and one walk while striking out two. He averaged 94 miles per hour on his fastball while also throwing a splitter and a slider.
Presumably, the Bucs are more interested in his larger sample of work as a minor leaguer. He was first promoted to the Triple-A level in June of last year. Since then, he has logged 79 innings for Oklahoma City with a 4.67 earned run average. It’s perhaps important to note that the Comets play in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. While the 4.67 ERA may not be especially impressive, his 23.3% strikeout rate and 8.8% walk rates are pretty close to typical big league averages.
Little still has a full slate of options and just a handful of service days, meaning he could be a cheap depth piece for the foreseeable future, if he can hang onto his roster spot. The Bucs had some open spots on that roster, so they can get a free look at him for now and see how things go in Indianapolis. They traded David Bednar and Caleb Ferguson ahead of the deadline, putting a dent in their bullpen depth, so Little backfills a bit of that.
Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin, Oncea-Imagn Images
“Pirates acquire Little”
Aside from the capital L, it sounds like every offseason and trade deadline for them.
Pirates Claim Jack?
Sparrow?
It sounds like every waking second of Bob Nutting’s tenure as Pirates Owner. Pirates acquiring “little”, Pirates competing “little”, Pirates seeming to care “little”.
Here we go again with chicken little cherrington picking little scrub journeyman. This guy should deport himself to the baseball GM wasteland
It’s time for the annual Cherington dumpster diving event brought to you by the cheapest owner in baseball
Let’s not develop the position players into major league players who can hit, instead search the waiver wire for pitchers who won’t contribute anything to a team that is near the bottom in scoring runs
At least it’s better than Little Jack Horner
Sat in a corner,
Eating his Christmas pie;
He put in his thumb,
And pulled out a plum,
And said ‘What a good boy am I!’… just sayin. Ahahahahahahaha!
I totally expected them to pull a waiver trade for Trout. This is a disappointment to say the least.
He spent so Little time with the Dodgers. It’s a shame.
Cherington continues to stock Indy instead of the Pirates. No wonder Indy team is usually competitive and the Pirates are not. Makes me wonder if Cherington has partial ownership of Indy team.
Santana blew the save then lost the game in the 8th inning
The Bucs were their usual self striking out in double digits again
Gonzalez had 3 hits and Cutch had 2
Cruz pinch hit for Bart who struck out three times in his plate appearances and Cruz did what he does best
He struck out swinging
The problem is that like Hayes, I don’t think a lot of the pirates want to play for Kelly and cherrington. I see a cancer on this team. It’s affecting everyone. To kill a cancer, get to the cause. Cherrington and Kelly and the whole coaching staff. This includes the minor league managers and coaches. For some insane reason these coaches love to screw eith a batter and a pitchers mechanics. Thus messing them up. Proof in point is Sweeney. After hitting 26 homeruns 2 years ago,they tinkered with him. Now he looks to be non tendered. The whole organization needs turned over.
Except you missed the cancer doctor. It is not the GM or manager. It is and has been Nutting for almost 20 years. Otherwise … pretty close to right
I agree. Nutting needs to hire a competent team president and have them bring in a full staff.
Thank you for your service in plunking Tati
4.6 ERA in the minors this year good lord.
Wished they would have traded Santana instead of Bednar
Santana shouldn’t be the closer, Muretta should be
Little Jack Little and Basil Fomeen!
This is the MLB in 2025; the Pirates pick up the scraps of the Dodgers.