Pirates Land RHP To Wrap Up Matt Diaz Trade

The Pittsburgh Pirates

landed 6’2″ Eliecer Cardenas to complete the Matt Diaz trade.

Cardenas is 23-years-old and a right-handed pitcher that didn’t throw well in his first ever time in Double-A this season.  He made five appearances at AA Mississippi.  In three innings he allowed 15 hits and gave up nine earned runs on two bombs, six walks and just one strikeout.

Maybe he wasn’t a fan of Mississippi?  I hear it can be a tough place.

The Braves selected Cardenas in the minor league Rule 5 draft last year.  He was with the Twins for five seasons.

Cardenas was a high A ball stud this season with 75 strikeouts and only 31 hits in 56.2 innings pitched.  He had an 0.79 ERA despite allowing 29 walks.  He also had a stretch of dominance pitching 19.2 scoreless innings in 15 consecutive appearances.

He has spent six years in minor league ball and despite some nice numbers, 2.52 ERA in 138 games with 26 starts and 284 strikeouts in 297 innings, four of those were in the DSL so don’t too excited yet.

The one thing that I do like is that Cardenas  can miss bats.  That’s a positive.  He’s not much of a prospect from the outside, but who knows what can happen moving forward.  His slider has been called filthy so perhaps he can develop into a relief prospect.

Matt Diaz was a negative. Yet another failure in free agency for the Bucs.

Follow RumBunter on Twitter