Nick Burdi is Healthy and Ready to Emerge in 2020

In today’s player profile, we will take a look at an up-and-coming hard-throwing right-handed pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates Nick Burdi

The Minnesota Twins drafted pitcher Nick Burdi in 2014 in the 2nd round of the MLB Draft. Burdi then spent 2014 – 2017 in the Twins organization. With the Twins, Burdi climbed minor league rankings to become one of their top pitching prospects.

In 2018, the Philadelphia Phillies picked up Burdi in the Rule 5 Draft. However, they quickly traded him to the Pittsburgh Pirates for $500,000 in international spending money. When the Pirates added Burdi, they expected him to become a key cog in their bullpen.

Burdi is a 27-year-old flamethrower from Illinois who has had a somewhat of an enigmatic start to his career. He has all of the tools to become a dominant relief pitcher with a 60 rated fastball and a wicked wipe-out slider. What has held Burdi back most of his professional is staying healthy.

In 2016 the youngster only pitched 3 minor league innings and missed the rest of the season with a bone bruise. In 2017 he only managed 17 innings before needing Tommy John surgery. The most brutal injury of them all took place on April 22nd of 2019 in the 8th inning of a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Finally pitching at the MLB level, and in high leverage situations for the Pirates to boot, he suffered a severe nerve injury on a rather standard looking pitch.

The most disappointing thing about this scary looking injury was his dominant start to the season. During his first 10 games of the season Burdi faced 34 batters while striking out 17 and only walking two. It all seemed to be going really well with a K/9 at an incredible 17.65 and a minimal BB/9 of 3.12.

In those first 10 games Burdi would only surrender 3 runs, seven hits, and no home runs. When game 11 came around, his numbers ballooned real quick.

Before his terrifying injury that game, Burdi gave up four hits, 5 earned runs, and one home run. As a result of that one bad game, his ERA skyrocketed to 9.35, but thanks to advanced analytics, it showed he wasn’t as bad as his ERA said he was with an xFIP of an excellent 2.62 along with a positive WAR of 0.3. Also, a lot of his struggles against Arizona that night can likely be attributed to his injury.

Now, in 2020, Burdi has come to Spring Training with a fresh outlook and an evident swagger and confidence. In 1.2 innings, Burdi allowed only two hits, one walk, zero runs, and three strikeouts. During those 1.2 innings, Burdi showcased triple digits and was inducing some beautiful swings and misses.

Unless any unforeseen circumstances occur, you can expect Burdi to start the 2020 season in the Pirate bullpen. He has dominant stuff and still carries Rule 5 status which means he must be on the Pirate roster for more than a month to start the season or they will risk losing him back to the Twins. If he can stay healthy and maintain his control, Burdi may become the savior the Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen needs this season.