Pirates Sign Pair of Lefties to Minor League Deals

The Pirates signed lefties Cory Luebke and Eric O’Flaherty to minor league contracts Thursday.

Both have been invited to spring training.

Both have surgically rebuilt elbows.

Both have been added to the growing list of reclamation projects.

Luebke, 30, had Tommy John surgery twice.  First in May 2012 and then again in February 2014.  Luebke pitched in the minors last year for just seven innings before having to have a surgical procedure to remove “loose bodies” around a nerve in his forearm.  Luebke was once an important part of the Padres organization and their starting rotation.

Luebke did tell Adam Berry of MLB.com that he feels healthy and ready to compete for a bullpen spot.  Luebke added that since 2012, “It’s been kind of a long haul the last 3 years.  Starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel.”

He’s just another of the many reclamation projects being added to the Pirates organization.  With spring training just around the corner, the Bucs are hoping to find that one diamond in the rough to help make their pitching more competitive.

The other reclamation project signed on Thursday was lefty Eric O’Flaherty.  Once masterful from 2009-13 as part of the Atlanta Braves’ bullpen,  he pitched 295 games posting a stellar 1.99 ERA, a paltry 1.15 WHIP and averaged 7.2 strikeouts per nine innings.  Then it came to an end in 2013 when he needed ligament replacement surgery.  O’Flaherty, unlike Luebke, does have some 2015 MLB stats to point to – albeit not very good ones. He pitched 21.1 innings last year for both the Oakland Athletics and the New York Mets.  His ERA was 8.10.